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Auction: 390 - Renaissance Plaquettes and Commemorative Medals featuring the Neil A. Goodman Collection - e-Auction
Lot: 31

ATTRIBUTED TO NICCOLÒ SPINELLI, called NICCOLÒ FIORENTINO (1430-1514)
Portrait of a Young Man. Medal, Florence, third quarter of the 15th Century. Uniface. Bronze, 83mm. Bust of a young man in profile left, wearing armor adorned with a winged mask on the breast, N - A across. Hill 1030; Armand II, 49, 5; Bargello I, 257; Johnson-Martini 203; Kress 291. This medal is larger than any specimen noted by Hill.
Bode suggests that the sitter could be Giuliano de'Medici, who was assassinated in the 1478 Pazzi Conspiracy. This theory seems plausible when one observes the bust of Giuliano by Andrea del Verrocchio in Washington's National Gallery and the similarities of the facial features, hairstyle and the breastplate. Conversely, it has been suggested that the medal portrays the long-dead Niccolò or Nerio Acciaiuoli, pointing to the N-A across and the winged mask which can be taken as the Gorgon mask, the symbol of the Duchy of Athens, which the Acciaiuoli family held largely from 1388 until its conquest by the Turks. An Extremely Fine cast in high relief. Aguttes, by private treaty (France), April 29, 2015.
From the Neil A. Goodman Collection

Sold for
$1,800

Starting price
$550