En ukendt renaissancemedaille af camelio

Abstract

Summary Among old imitations of ancient Greek and Roman coins in the Royal coin‐cabinet in Statens Historiska Museum at Stockholm there were recently discovered two coin‐like Renaissance medals—casts of struck originals—with a common reverse type: a side‐view of a famous Roman marble statue, the so‐called Ares Ludovisi, now in the Museo Nazionale at Rome. The first (fig. 1)—well‐known from other specimens catalogued in G. F. Hill's great Corpus of 1930 among the works of Vittore Gambello (Camelio) under no. 448—shows on its obverse a youthful portrait without inscription; it was formerly described as being a self‐portrait of the artist, but is according to Hill now supposed to be the Roman emperor Augustus. The other medal (fig. 2), however, only known from an illustration of a bad variant without inscription, has a fine female portrait with DIVA IVSTINA on its obverse. This obverse formally reminds of the coin‐portraits of the Roman empress Faustina minor, but the inscription possibly points to an unknown personality of Camelio's own time. The author thus renews the old supposition that both heads may conceal portraits from the end of the 15th century—possibly of Camelio himself and of his sweet‐heart.