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Auction: 8004 - An Important Collection of Renaissance Medals & Plaquettes
Lot: 3

Florentine School, 15th century A Centaur, oval bronze plaquette, 49.6mm. x 41.4mm., pierced twice at the top, an attractive early cast with brown patina, number in ink on reverse Centaur walking right, wearing a lion´s skin over right shoulder, holding a thyrsus in his left hand and balancing a basket on his shoulder with his right, on a raised base line Cast from an antique onyx cameo, inscribed with the name of Lorenzo II il Magnifico, now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples. The Medici inventory of 1492 describes it as ´Un chammeo legato in oro, dentrovi uno centauro di sardonio nel champo biancho, chon uno vaso di frutte in sulla spalla, vestito in pelle di lione, uno truffio in mano, punzonato da rovesco, uno diamante.´ (Naples Museum, Mostra Medicea sala XII no.33 F.). (cf. Müntz, Revue archéologique 38, 1879, p.245-6; cf. Müntz, Les collections des Médicis au XV siécle, Paris 1888, p.67; Pesce, Riv. Dell´Ist. Di Arch. E St. dell´Arte, V, 1935, p.76 ff.). The design was reproduced, after 1485, in one of the eight marble roundels in the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici in Florence. These were from the workshop of Donatello, and Vasari attributes them to the master himself ´In casa Medici, nel primo cortile, sono otto tondi di marmot, dove sono ritratti cammei antichi e rovesci di madaglie, ed alcune storie fatte da lui Donatello multo belle.´ The same design can also be seen in a corner of a window on the north wall of the Duomo at Como (not in the Porta della Rana (the Frog Doorway), as is often, mistakenly, cited). It was also reproduced in an engraving by Albrecht Altdorfer (Bartsch, Le peintre-graveur 37). References Bange 1922, 110;.Cannata 8; Cott p. 142 (as Florentine 15th century); Kress 255; Florence, Museo Nazionale, 16; Leithe-Jasper 225; London, British Museum, T.W.Greene, 167; Molinier 20; Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 8; Paris, Cabinet des Médailles, Armand-Valton, 2507; Planiscig 1919, 267; Ricci, ii, p. 34, no. 34 (as Florentine, 15th century); Sambon 68, pl. III; Schuchardt 21; Venice, Museo Correr 70 (from the Ravajoli collection); Vienna, Oesterreichisches Museum, Raccolta Liechtenstein; For cameo: Kris no.23 Estimate £ 600-800

Sold for
£750