NOTES ON ITALIAN MEDALS-X'
BY G. F. HILL
I-SOME MEDALS BY BENVENUTO
CELLINI
HE large medal which is
illustrated on PLATE I, A,
was recently acquired by Mr.
Rosenheim, who recognized
its importance, on account
not so much of any beauty
it may possess as of the place
which it takes in the work
of a well-known craftsman. The remarkswhich
follow, both on the medal itself and on the
attribution of other medals to the same artist,
are essentially due to Mr. Rosenheim, at whose
wish I lay them before the readers of this maga-
zine.
The medal is of lead, without reverse. It re-
presents the bust, turned to the right, of Ercole II
d'Este, fourth Duke of Ferrara, Modena and
Reggio. He wears a cuirass, on the breast of
which is a grotesque mask, somewhat resembling
a panther's. The piece measures 137 mm. in
diameter. The inscription is HER%
FER but theII" DVX"
-IIII*MVT*ET'REG, stops,
instead of being mere points, are of the triskeles
shape; and at the beginning of the inscription is
an ornament which appears to be a pine cone, or
something of the kind.
This medal has already been known for some
time in an incomplete form. Armand described,2
as the work of an anonymous artist a specimen
in his own collection, measuring only 133 mm., to
which an alien reverse had been added. A speci-
men of this hybrid was recently acquired by Mr.
Rosenheim. The inscription on the obverse is
blundered, IIII being converted into I M. This
is a mere mistake, and not to be regardedas an
abbreviation of ' Imolae.' The reverse,with two
mounted knights tilting at each other before a
castle, seems to be a pure invention, and is not
even medallic in style; it may possibly have been
suggested by an ivory-carving.
Much more important than this hybrid is the
admirable one-sided specimen without inscription
in the Goethe Museum at Weimar. Armand
describes it as a fine proof, on which the legend
has disappeared, probably as the result of the
chasing to which the piece has been subjected.
So far as I know, the piece was first identified in
print as the work of Cellini by Dr. Carl Ruland.s
1For the previousarticlessee BURLINGTON
MAGAZINE,Vol. ix,
p. 408 (September,19o6); Vol. x, p. 384 (March,1907) ; Vol. xii,
p. 141 (December, i9o7); Vol. xiii, p. 274 (August, 1908);
Vol. xiv, p. 21o (January, 19o9); Vol. xv, pp. 31, 94 (April and
May, 1909); Vol. xvi, p. 24 (October, i909); Vol. xvii, p, 143
(June, g19o).
211, 147, ; III, 218, a. In 1, 147, 2, he mentions the passage
in Cellini's 'Life,' with which we shall deal presently, but
remarksthat the medal there describedis unknown.
3 Das Goethe-Nationalmuseumzu Weimar,' Sonderabdruck
aus d. Jahrb.d. Kon, Akad. zu Erfurt,N.F., XXIV (1898), p. i8.
A fine reproduction was subsequently published
by Dr. Buchenau,' who pointed out that Armand
was wrong in supposing that the inscription had
been chased away. It had never been present.
Concentric circles to guide the artist in placing
his inscription had been incised on the model, and
these are to be faintly seen on the proof. Dr. von
Fabriczy5 gives a reduced illustrationof the piece,
remarking that the inscription was meant to be
engraved on the proof, the concentric lines being
intended to guide the engraver. Doubtless they
would serve that purpose, but their primaryobject
was to guide the artist in building up the lettering
on the model itself.6
The diameter of the Weimar proof is 140mm.7
Mr. Rosenheim's lead measures 137 mm., a very
small decreasefrom the diameterof the trial proof,
considering the great size of the piece. Mr.
Rosenheim, who has himself just examined the
original at Weimar, considers that the loss in
diameter may be due not to shrinkage, but to a
trimming of the edge of the stone on which the
model was worked, which reduced the diameter
by about 2 mm. In any case the lead is a good
and early cast, possibly made by the artist himself.
The Weimar medal, as we have seen, has been
recognized as the work of Benvenuto Cellini, and,
indeed, as the obverse of the piece which he tells
us he made in 1540, when he was at Ferrara,on
his way to France. Here is the relevant portion
of the passage in his autobiographys :-
'The duke sent for me, and bade me take his
portrait; this I did upon a circular piece of black
stone about the size of a little trencher. . . It
took me eight days to complete his likeness; then
he ordered me to design the reverse. On it I
modelled Peace, giving her the form of a woman
with a torch in her hand, setting fire to a trophy
of arms; I portrayed her in an attitude of glad-
ness, with very thin drapery,and below her feet
lay Fury in despair,downcast and sad, and loaded
with chains. . . . The duke . . . gave me inscrip-
tions for both sides of the medal. That on the
reverse ran as follows: Pretiosa in conspectu
Domini; it meant that his peace with the Pope
had been dearly bought.' Cellini adds that he
took the medal, completed, to the duke before he
went away.
Various views have been expressed about this
For referenceto this, and to the articleby Dr. Buchenau,to be
mentioned immediately,we are indebted to Herr Lockner,of
Wiurzburg. Dr. Rulandagain called attention to the existence
of the piece in the ' Frankfurter Zeitung' for November 3, 1900
(cited by Dr. Buchenau). He noted that the mask on the breast
of the cuirasswas not quite finishedin the proof.
4 'Blditter fiir Miinzfreunde,' 1900oo,p. 156, and Pl. 14o, No. 5,
5 'Italian Medals,'p. i45, P1. XXX, 4,
6See BURLINGTON April, 1909, p. 31.
MAGAZINE,
7Confirmed by Dr. von Oettingen. ' Thickness' in the
English translationof Fabriczyis an obviousslip for ' diameter.'
8P, 255 in Bacci's edition; I quote from Symonds's transla.
tion, with a slight modification,
'3
 Notes on Italian Medals
medal by writers to whom its existence in any
form was yet unknown: they may be read in
Plon's work on Cellini (p. 202). It is hardly
necessary to mention the theory that the piece
was not a medal in our sense of the word, but a
carving in black stone. Such works do not as a
rule have reverses. The black stone about the
size of a little trencher was of course a disc of
slate, or something similar, such as we know was
used by wax modellers for a modelling board.?
The ' little trencher' (taglierettoda tavola) aptly
describes the size of the piece which has come
down to us.
But what else is there to connect it with Cellini ?
The mere fact that it is one side of a medal of
Ercole II, corresponding more or less in size
with one which Cellini says he made, is hardly
enough. There is, however, something more; if
we compare the treatment of the relief in the head
of the Duke, and the head in Cellini's medal of
Clement VII [PLATE II, A], the similarityof hand-
ling is at once apparent. Most noticeable is the
rather harsh way in which the relief fails to be
modulated into the background; the perpendicu-
lar edge of the relief is especially perceptible in
the noses of both heads. The comparativecoarse-
ness of rendering in the lead medal is no more
than might be expected in a piece of this size by
an artist accustomed to work on a smaller scale.
In the Weimar specimen much of this coarseness
has been removed by chasing.
The description of the missing reverse repeats
closely the account given by Cellini 0oof the reverse
of the medal alreadymentioned,which he made for
Pope Clement VII in I534. There too he repre-
sented Peace as 'a slender woman, dressed in very
thin drapery, gathered at the waist, with a little
torch in her hand, setting fire to a heap of arms
bound together like a trophy. In the background
I had shown part of a temple, where was Discord
chained with a load of fetters. Round about it
ran a legend with these words: Clauduntur belli
portae.' This is a common medal; the specimen
illustratedin PLATE II, A, is in the British Museum."
The resemblance between this figure of Peace,
as shown on the medal of Clement, and the
figure of Prudence on a medal of Jean de Lorraine,
Cardinal of Sant' Onofrio, has suggested1 that
this latter medal is also from Cellini'shand [PLATE
See BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, ann. cit., p, 32.
Book I, Chapter LXX, in Symonds's translation.
10o
11Armand I, 148, 2. These medals, it should be remembered,
are struck from dies, not cast like the medal of Ercole d'Este.
12To
J. Friedlinder, ' Munzen u. Med. des B. Cellini,' Berlin,
1855, p. 7. Dr. Buchenau notes, as a point of connexion
between this medal and the well-known medal of Bembo, that
on both the word ' Cardinalis' is abbreviated as 'Car.,' not
*Card.' The point would be of more value if the medal of
Bembo were quite certainly by Cellini, and if the same abbre-
viation were not used by many other artists. See, for instance,
Armand II, io9, 2 (Candida's medal of Giuliano della Rovere) ;
I16, 45 (medal of Francesco Alidosi); 150, 15 (Jacopo Sadoleto) ;
152, 8 (Antonio Pucci). In fact, it seems to be the commoner
form of abbreviation.
'4
I, B]. The specimen illustrated, from Mr. Rosen-
heim's collection, is certainly altogether charac-
teristic of Cellini's work. The figure of Prudence,
holding a mirror in her left hand, a pair of
compasses in her right, with a dragon at her feet,
is a skilful and charming design, with just that
touch of prettiness that has made Cellini take a
place in popular estimation far above his merit as
a creative artist. The craftsmanship displayed in
the modelling and chasing of both portrait and
reverse design is brilliant. The doubts which
have been expressed by critics such as Plon about
the attribution of this work to Cellini seem un-
necessary, so far as they are inspired by any
supposed inferiorityof the piece to his accredited
work. It may be noted that the specimen illus-
trated by Plon is very poor, which may account
for the unfavourable opinion which he expresses.
Jean de Lorraine, born in 1498, became a Cardinal
in i518. Cellini may well have known him in
Rome; but the medal shows him at a mature age,
so that it may have been made in France in
1537 or between 1540 and 1545-
One thing, however, is clear, apart from the
attribution to Cellini ; and that is that, whoever
made this medal of the Cardinal,made also two
other medals, neither of which, I believe, has
hitherto been associated with it. The figure of
Prudence on the reverse of the medal of Scara-
muccia Trivulzio (here illustrated, by Mr. Whit-
combe Greene's permission, from his specimen),
[PLATEI, is line for line the same as on the
medal of thec],'•Cardinal de Lorraine. And it was
evidently designed to accompany the obverse, not
merely attached to it by a subsequent hand. It will
be noticed that the stops on this reverse are of the
same shape as on the medal of Ercole d'Este.
Fabriczyattributedthis medal,as well as another,'
apparentlya reduction from the first, if not by the
same hand, to Caradosso. Dr. Bode's hesitation
in accepting the attribution1" seems wholly justified.,
The ' modelling and extraordinarilyfine chasing,
which Fabriczyregardsas favouringhis attribution'
indicate Cellini just as much as Caradosso. The
resemblance to Caradosso lies chiefly on the
surface, especially in the flat modelling of the
portrait-bust. The date of the medal-between
1517 and 1522-iS, it must be admitted, early for
Cellini. But we know from his autobiography
that he was experimenting in work of this kind in
his early days at Rome, when he was about twenty-
three years old; he made,'6 for instance, a large
13The specimen illustrated by Fabriczy (PI. XXXIV, 4) is
curious. On the obverse the inscription (which, by the way,
also has the abbreviation CAR.) reads wrongly COMIH for
COMEN. The reverse, on the other hand, is evidently from
an unfinished model, since, like the Weimar Ercole d'Este, it
has concentric lines, but no inscription.
14 A specimen is illustrated in the Simon Catalogue, No. 2o6.
1 ' Zeitschr. fiir bild. Kunst,' XV, p.
42.
16 p. 49 in Bacci's edition; Bk. I, Chap, XXV, in Symonds's
translation,
 iB

- -- "p~giL~IF

6F~I I I I s~
i~i"BI?Z

NOTES ON ITALIAN MEDALS.-X, PLATE I

 A

B h•?B

C C

f E

lie

NOTES ON ITALIAN MEDALS.-X. PLATE 11


golden medal for Gabbriello Ceserino to wear in
his hat, with a design of Leda and the Swan.
(English readersmust not be misled, by Symonds's
careless use of the word 'engraved,' to suppose
that this medal was a flat engraved badge;
the Italian word is 'isculpito.') Soon after men-
tioning this badge, Cellini speaks of the medallic
work7 of Caradosso and other artists, saying that
he proceeded to perfect himself in this art. The
way in which he mentions Caradosso indicates an
artistic debt to the Milanese medallist, which is, as
we have seen, evident to a certain extent in the
portraitof ScaramucciaTiivulzio.
The medals of the Cardinalde Lorraine and of
ScaramucciaTrivulzio carrywith them yet another,
representing Pietro Piantanida [PLATE II,. B].18
The figure of Faith on this piece, holding a
chalice and pointing upwards, is, it will surely be
admitted, own sister to the figures of Prudence on
the medals of the Cardinal and Trivulzio. That
being so, it is hardly necessaryto drawattention to
the triskelesstops in the legend DVM SPIRITVS
HOS REGET ARTVS, or to the little leaf-like
flourish in the exergue, which is found also at the
end of the legend on the medal of the Cardinal.
It would be interesting to know whether the
other reverse"9which occurs in association with
the portraitof Piantanida is also by the same hand.
But no specimen is known to me, and Armand's
statement that one is in the Vienna Hofmuseum
seems to be incorrect."
Nothing appears to be known of Piantanida,
but it is presumedthat he belonged to the Milanese
family of that name.
Thus we have a group of medals, representing
three persons, all indissolubly connected with each
other by the general style of their reverses, as well
as by the forms of their stops and ornaments.
One of these has alreadybeen attributedto Cellini.
two of them have the same stops as are found on
The large portraitof Ercole II, also independently
attributedto Cellini, and corresponding, so far as
we can judge, with the medal of which he himself
gives us the description. In this deceitful world,
no attribution is certain, even when a work is
signed; but the case for the attribution to Cellini
of all this group of medals seems to be very
respectable.
Some stresshas been laid on the three-legged or
triskeles stop which is found on no less than three
of these pieces. It is an unusual form, very rare
in the fifteenth century, not common in the
sixteenth until after the middle of the century,
when it is used, for instance, by Gianfederigo
Bonzagna and Giannantonio Rossi. In fact, the
only other examples before 1550 which I can
a'7 Medaglie cesellate fatte di piastra' and 'medaglie in-
tagliate in acciaio.'
is From the BritishMuseumspecimen.
"iArmand III, 223, E.
S0Communicationfrom Ritter A von, Loehr.
Notes on Italian Medals
quote are the medals by the 'Medallist of the
Captive Love' of Jacopa Corregiaand Maddalena
Rossi and Spinelli's medal of Andrea Gritti with
the church of San Francesco della Vigna, dated
1534. Doubtless a few other instances would be
revealed by search.
This peculiar stop and a leaf-like ornament not
unlike that which we have noticed on the medals
of the Cardinal de Lorraine and of Piantanida
occur, curiouslyenough, in conjunction on the fine
medal of the otherwiseunknownVenetian,Antonio
Bossi.12 The British Museum specimen is illus-
trated on PLATE II, C, not in order to support
an unwarrantableattributionto Cellini, but rather
to show how a stronger hand treats subjects akin
to his. The noble figure of Fame on the reverse
of this medal is more largely conceived, more
finely composed and modelled, than anything
from Cellini's hand; its forms generally are cast
in the mould of great sculpture. The handling of
the draperyon the medals of the Cardinalde Lor-
raine, Trivulzio and Piantanida is seen to be
niggling and petty when compared with this.
We shall not be far wrong, I think, in seeing in
this piece the influence of the great Florentine who
worked at Venice, and whose works have some-
times been claimed for Cellini-I mean Jacopo
Sansovino.
II-ANTONELLO DELLA MONETA
Documents published by Count Nicol6 Papa-
dopoli 22 have thrown a certain amount of light on
the obscure history of the Venetian mint in the
fifteenth century. In these, among other refer-
ences of interest,are to be found records of the
activity of a certain Antonello, engraver to the
mint, which I enumerate in a footnote." From
these documents it appears that Antonello di
Pietro, variously described as ' orefice' or, from
2'Armand II, 225, 6; Fabriczy, P1, XVII, 4. The medal
to the thirdquarterof the sixteenthcentury.
belongs
2
' Alcunenotiziesugli intagliatori della Zecca di Venezia' in
' Riv. ital. di numism.,' I (1888), pp. 351-358. Cp. his ' Monete
di Venezia,'in which information,analysedin the next note, is
given: I, pp. 277, 282 ; II, pp. 5, 44, 45.
"31454,26th July. Luca Sesto andAntonellodella Monetaare
mentioned as in receipt of a salary as engravers of dies.
(Probably the second-namedartist had come into officeon the
death of GerolamoSesto in 1447; but this is mere conjecture.)
1461, 13th March. The engraver Antonello receives an
order for dies.
1462, I4th May. The Signoria approves the die for the
grosso, fato per man de MaistroAxtonelloa.
1472, 24th July. Antonello di Pietro, called also Antonello
della Moneta,and his two sons are in the employ of the mint,
the salaryof the two sons being deductedfrom thatof Luca
Sesto, who is no longer capableof work.
1483, i6th October. Luca Sesto, being old and unable to
come to his work, asks for his son Bernardoto be made master
of the dies. This is granted.
1484,24thFebruary[given as 1483,27thFebruary,in ' Riv.
ital.,' I, p. 353; the difference in the years is presumablydue
to the calendar]. Alexander de Leopardis, goldsmith, is
admittedas third master, without salary, with Luca Sesto and
Antonelloorefice. Silvestroand Pasquale sons of Antonello a
stampis, complain that they have served long in the hope of
succeedingtheir father, and offer to submitproofsof their
skill.
'9
Notes on Italian Medals
his post, as 'della Moneta,' was active at the
Venetian Mint from 1454 (perhaps from 1447) to
1484. From the last entry it appears that his
family name was Grifo (or, as it is written in the
note of Silvestro's death in 1503, Griffo).
Now there are two interesting medals repre-
senting doges who were ruling during this period,
one signed AN, the other ANT. The initials AN,
writes Fabriczy,"2'are insufficient to dispel the
obscurityof' the origin of the former;and 'whether
the medal of the Doge Cristoforo Moro, signed
ANT, belongs to the same artist is doubtful on
account of the difference in style.' However, let
us describe them :
(I) Francesco Foscari, Doge 1423-1457.
Obv. FRANCISCVS FOSCARI DVX. Bust
to right in ducal robe and cap. Rev. VENETIA
MAGNA, and in exergue AN. Venetia, wearing
cuirass over tunic, seated to front on a throne
formed by two lions; she holds in her right a
sword erect, and in her left a kite-shaped shield
charged with a lion rampant; at her feet are two
half-figures.
Bibliothtque Nationale. Bronze, 46 mm. P1. II, D. Cp.
Armand I, p. 25. Heiss, 'Venise,' P1. I, Nos. i (48 mm.)
and 2 (41Imm.). The second medal is described by Heiss as
consisting only of a reverse, which is found attached to the
portraitof CristoforoMoroby the artist ' Ant.' He and Armand
both agree in supposingthat this combinationis a hybrid.
We may note that the type is adapted from, or
goes back to a common original with, an inte-
resting relief on the fagade of the Palazzo Ducale
towards the Piazzetta25 representing' Venecia' with
the same attributes,with the sea flowing beneath
her feet, and the proud legend on a scroll: FORTIS
IVSTA TRONO FVRIAS MARE SVB PEDE
PONO. The two half-figuresthen, on the medals
as on the relief, represent the 'furies' of discord
and sedition, not, as they have hitherto been
described, captives.
(2) Cristoforo Moro, Doge 1462-1471.
Obv. CRISTOFORVS ?MAVRO *
DVX" (leaf
on stalk). Bust n to left, in ducal robe and cap; on
the truncation, ANT *
Rev. Within an oak wreath,'
ET' IVSTICIAE . CVLTOR inRELIGIONIS" four lines, and
two leaves on a stalk.
Border of dots on both sides. Stops: invertedtriangles.
British Museum. Bronze, 42 mm. P1. II, F., Keary,
'Guide.' No. 74. Cp. Armand I, 46, I. Heiss, Venise, PI. I,
No. 6, p. 105.
1484,4th March. A trial is ordered.
1484,3oth March, The two sons of Antonello are retained
to work with their father, one of them to succeed him on his
death.
1484, 28th September. Vettor di Antonio da San Zacharia
(i.e , Vettor Gambelloor Camelio) is made master of the dies.
1484, 29th September. The work on the dies of the ducat
divided between Luca Sesto (uno de i pidiantiqui maistri de le
stampe de la zecha nostra)and Alessandrodei Leopardifor the
obverse, and Pasquale and Silvestro di Antonello for the reverse.
1490, 9th December. Silvestro Grifo, master of the dies,
invents a new alloy.
21' Italian Medals,' p. 73.
a2Venturi,'Storia dell' Arte ital.,' VI, pp. 27, 28.
20
A glance at the two medals,as illustratedin PLATE
II, D and F, will show the great difference in
style between them, which seems amply to justify
the refusal of Armand and Heiss to admitthat they
can be from the same hand." It is, however,
extremely natural to suppose that medals of the
doges should, in some cases at least, be made by
engravers at the Venetian mint at this period as
they were later, for instance, by Camelio. And
when we have an engraverAntonello employed at
the mint precisely at the period at which these
medals signed AN and ANT were produced, the
supposition in question becomes more naturalthan
ever, even although it be recognized that names
beginning in Ant. . . are very common. We are
however not much advanced so long as we do not
know which of the two medals to attributeto our
engraver. The later piece, on the whole, seems on
stylistic grounds to have much the stronger claim.
It lacks the largeness of style, the boldness of
modelling, which characterize the medal of Fos-
cari; the minute decoration of the cap and robe and
the flat and uninspired reverse suggest that it may
well have been the work of a man accustomed to
use the graver. The medal of Foscari, on the other
hand, has considerable sculptural quality. It is
worth notice-though I do not advance it as a
reason for attribution-that Vettor Gambello, who
was appointed engraver in 1484,was the son of one
Antonio, marmorariuscognomentode San Zacharia,
at that time no longer living. The artistwho made
the Foscari medal, adapting for his reverse type
the design of a piece of sculpture on the fagade of
the ducal palace, may well have been this sculptor.
III-THE MONUMENT OF GIAN GIACOMO
TRIVULZIO
The little medal illustratedin PLATEII, E, is, I
believe, extremely rare.
Obve. IO IA MAR' VIGLE' MARE-
SCAL FRAN ? 'TRI
Equestrian statue of Gian Gia-
?
como Trivulzio to right, holding batton in right;
in the exergue, device of a cross in flaming circle
(the ruota del Sole) between the letters S V.
Rev. INGENIVM : SVPERAT : VIRES
.-
and in exergue S V. Female figure seated to
right on a stool, nude to waist, holding in right a
wand behind her head, in left a cord which is
attached to a lion standing on a garlanded basis.
Borderof dots on both sides.
Rosenheim Collection. Bronze, 31.5 mm. P1. II, E.
This is clearly Milanese work of the early part
of the sixteenth century. It reminds us in some
degree of a small group of medals of Ludovico il
Moro, which have been attributed to Caradosso,27
" Of course, the fact that a copy of the reverse of the Foscari
medal is found attached to the Moro portraitdoes not prove
any
7
original connexion between them.
Friedl•nder,' Ital. Schaumiinzen,'p. 188.

without very great probability.8 They celebrate
the defeats of the French and their expulsion
from Italy.
The medal has not found its way into Armand's
collection, although it had alreadybeen illustrated
(by a very indifferent engraving, it is true) in
Rosmini's Life of the Marshal." Rosmini describes
the medal accurately except that he takes the
woman for a man. He makes the interesting
suggestion that the reverse may refer to the rout
of the Venetians by the French (with whom
Trivulzio was present) at Agnadello on I4th
May, 1509, the lion representing Venice. So, we
may note, the horse represents Naples on one of
the medals of Ludovico il Moro mentioned above.
Rosmini says the piece reminds him in style and
colour of metal of another, which he describes
and illustrates. This medal also has escaped
Armand'snet. I have been unable to meet with
a specimen, but describe it after Rosmini.
Obv. 10 IA TRI MAR VIGIE LE MA FRANT
IE (trefoil) and, in exergue, MCCCCCVIII.
The marshal on a prancing horse to right; he
wears a cuirass, and holds baton erect in his
right; behind him, a young man on horseback
riding on his left.
No reverse, Bronze. Diameter, 44 mm. (to judge from
illustration). Rosmini, II, Pl. III, 43.
The date 15o8 on this medal confirms Rosmini's
" H. de la Tour, 'Rev. Num.,' 1896, pp. 92 ff.
%C. de Rosmini, 'Dell' Istoria ... di Gian-JacopoTrivulzio'
(Milan, 1815), II, P1. III, No. 44 and p. 378.
THE WEAKNESS AND STRENGTH OF TURNER
BY A. GLUTTON BROCK
NGLISH painting has always
been enfeebled by a desire to
representwhat is not. Its evil
genius is that Satan, the god of
unreality,whomBlake addressed
and defined in a wonderful
verse--
Though thou art worshipped by the names divine
Of Jesus and Jehovah, thou art still
The Son of Morn in weary night's decline,
The lost traveller'sdream under the hill.
English painters are always painting 'the lost
traveller'sdream under the hill,' a dream of some
'shady city of palm trees,' or of some past age of
the world in which they would rather live than in
their own; and in trying to see that dream they
get a distaste for the visible world about them.
Painting is not the art of imitating reality, but
rather the art of expressing a passion for reality,
and without this passion no man can be a great
painter. Correggio and Titian had it no less than
Rembrandt. They painted what their eyes had
Notes on Italian Medals
conjectural date for the one before us. The
young man is, perhaps, the marshal's son, Gian
Nicol6.
Rosmini is unable to explain the letters S V;
his suggestion that they are the signature of an
artist is not likely. It is tempting to see in them
some allusion to Vigevano, but what the S may
mean I do not know. The place can hardly have
boasted a 'Senate.' Although there was never a
mint at Vigevano, there prevailed,as earlyas 1596,
a tradition that the marshal had coins (nummi) of
bronze and silver struck there.s0 Possibly these
medals are the nummi in question.
The most interesting point about the medal,
however, is none of these; but the fact that we
have on it an equestrianportraitof Trivulzio. In
spite of its small scale, the figure is clearly seen to
be a portrait. The general composition is doubt-
less more or less conventional, but it is impossible
to ignore it in connexion with the designs which
Leonardo da Vinci made for the equestrian
monument of the marshal. It may be left to
students of Leonardo to say whether it is
actually inspired by Leonardo'sdesigns-in which
case it might help us to sort out the drawings for
the Trivulzio monument from the others which
resemble them-or, as I am inclined to think more
probable, is merely the medallist's notion, sug-
gested by his knowledge that the monument had
been designed.
S"Rosmini, II, p. 346.
dwelt upon from childhood and what was endeared
to them by a thousand associations. English
painters, when they try to be Italian or French, do
not paint what their eyes have dwelt upon from
childhood, and in their pictures there is none of
that richness and intensity that only come from
association. They have made a false distinction
between idealism and realism,from not understand-
ing that the distinction exists only for the critic,
not for the artist. The artist must be both realist
and idealist, always painting an idea that he gets
from reality and its emotional associations, and
not from the pictures of other artists. In fact, his
raw material must be life, not art. From art he
can only learn method, and it is often dangerous
for him to learn method that is associated with
a raw material different from his own.
The besetting weaknesses of English art are
illustratedmore signally, perhaps, in the career of
Turner than of any other English painter, just
because he was the greatest of our painters and at
last overcame them. And it is well to draw atten-
tion to these weaknesses because we cannot
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