Three Ladies, Three Medals

by M. Centanni

Book cover: Three Ladies, Three Medals

Extent: 111 pages

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Subjects: Art & Art History, Early Modern & Renaissance Studies, Numismatics

Series: Studies in Iconology

Series volume number: 21

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(August 2023)

ISBN: 9789042948082

Price: $87.00

In stock

PDF (Published)

(August 2023)

ISBN: 9789042948099

Price: $109.00

Cecilia Gonzaga as Diana; Isabella d’Este as Nemesis; Elisabetta Gonzaga as Danae. The “all’antica” medal inspired by Roman imperial coins is a Renaissance invention, a new genre that originates from Pisanello’s exquisite art, which focuses on the personal qualities and virtues of the individual represented, thereby enhancing them – on the obverse in form of portrait, on the reverse in allegorical guise. On Renaissance medals not only do we find faces and war ventures of Princes, Dukes, and leaders of the time. We also see – unexpectedly – portraits of brilliant, beautiful young women, educated in Classics, destined to become the protagonists of Italian courts in the fifteenth century.

  • By (author) M. Centanni