Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/715

Rh ITALY.] NUMISMATICS 657 faith in the wild valleys of the Alps, and the clays when the cantons fought for freedom and smote their powerful oppressors on every side. The medals of Switzerland are mostly of modern times, and lack beauty and historical value. odern Italy, with Sicily, has peculiar features. Here the barbaric coinages aly and were mixed with the Byzantine issues which marked the recovery cily. of the Eastern empire, and left a lasting influence in the north at Venice, and in the south at Beneventum. Later the Arab conquest left its mark in the curious Oriental coinages of the Normans of Sicily and the emperor Frederick II., mixed after his fashion with Latin coinage. The earliest money is that of the barbarians, Ostro goths and Lombards, and local Byzantine issues in Sicily. This is followed by the deniers of Charlemagne and his successors, sup planted by the gold currencies of the Normans and Frederick II. The age of the free cities is marked by the great coinages of Florence, Venice, and Genoa, while the Angevin and Aragonese princes coined in the south, and the popes began to issue a regular currency of their own at Rome. The Italian princes of the next period coined in Savoy, and at Florence, Modena, Mantua, and other cities, while Rome and the foreign rulers of the south continued their mintages, Venice and Genoa of the republics alone surviving. The Italian monetary systems have already been touched on in the introductory notice. For art the series is invaluable. First in Italy the revival influenced the coins, and in them every step of advance found its record. The Italian medals are without rivals in the works of modern times. Following the geographical order which is best suited to the Italian coinage, we first notice the money of Savoy, which is in ferior in art to that of the rest of the country. It begins in early times, and merges in the class of the Sardinian kingdom, which becomes the kingdom of Italy. Genoa is the first of the great re publics. She struck gold money from the time of the general origin of civic coinage in that metal ; these are ducats and their divisions, and after a time their multiples also. In the 17th cen tury there are very large silver pieces. In the money of Mantua there first occur really fine coins of Gianfrancesco III. (1484-1519) and Vincenzo II. (1626-1627), these last splendid examples of the late Renaissance, in large pieces of gold and silver ; the portrait is fine, and the hound on the reverse a powerful design. The vicissi tudes of the story of Milan find their record in no less than nine groups of money Carlovingian deniers, money of the republic, then imperial again, next of the Visconti family, succeeded by that of the Sforza line, next of Louis XII. of France, of the re stored Sforza, of Charles V. by Spanish right and his successors of Spain, and lastly of Austria. There are extremely fine coins of the 15th century, showing great beauty in their portraits. The money of Florence is disappointing in its art. The Athens of the Middle Ages had the same reason as her prototype to preserve as faithfully as might be the types and aspect of her most famous coin, the gold florin, and thus those who expect to see in this series the story of Italian art will be much disappointed. The silver florin was first struck in 1181. It is heavier than the denier, weighing about 27 grains, and bears the lily of Florence and the bust of St John the Baptist. These are thenceforward the leading types, the flower never changing, but the representation of the saint being varied. On the gold florin the Baptist is represented standing, while in the contemporary silver florins he is seated. In the 14th century the arms of a moneyer appear in the field, two such officers having had the right of striking yearly, each for six months. The coins of the duchy from 1532, in spite of their new types, are not a fine series ; the best are those of Alessandro, designed by Cellini. Venice as a mint even surpasses Florence in conservatism, and, the early style being distinctly Byzantine, this is the more striking in a great artistic city. We find Venice as an imperial mint issuing Carlovingian deniers, but the doges begin to coin, placing their own names on their currency, in the 12th century. The most famous silver coin, the matapane, was first struck in the brilliant time of Enrico Dandolo (1192 -1205). This coin is a grossus weighing about 33 grains, with on the obverse St Mark giving the standard or gonfalon to the doge, both figures standing, and on the reverse the seated figure of the Saviour. The famous Venetian zecchino or sequin, the rival of the florin of Florence, appears to have been first issued under Giovanni Dandolo (1280-1289). On the obverse St Mark gives the gonfalon to the kneeling doge, and on the reverse is a standing figure of the Saviour within an oval nimbus. The matapane slightly changes after the second third of the 14th century, and at its close becomes a new coin, the grossetto. Niccolo Trono (1471-1473) introduces his portrait on most of his coins, but this custom is not continued. By the latest part of the loth century large silver coins appear. The archaic style changes in the begin ning of the 16th century, but there is no later movement. The large silver pieces increase in size, and large gold is also struck ; the last doge, Ludovico Manin (1788-1797), issued the 100-sequin piece in gold, a monstrous coin, worth over 40. The doges of Venice issued a peculiar silver token or medallet, the osella, five of which they annually presented to every member of the Great Council. Antonio Grimani instituted this custom in 1521, and it lasted to the end of the republic. Two dogaressas struck similar medallets. Their types are usually allegorical ; some are comme morative. As a class they resemble the Dutch copper jettons, but are less historical and hence less interesting. The series of the coins of Rome is rather of historical than of artistic merit. The popes begin to strike money with Adrian I. (772-794 A.D.), whose deniers are in a Byzantino-Lombard style that charac terizes the coinage of Beneventum. Before the papal coinage closes the senate asserts the right to a mint. We then see on the silver the style of the senate and Roman people, and ROMA C APUT MUNDI. Some coins have the figures of St Paul and St Peter, others Rome seated and a lion. Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, strikes as a senator. The gold ducat of about 1300 imitates the types of the Venetian sequin. St Peter here gives the gonfalon to a kneeling senator. The arms of the moneying senator next appear in the field. There are small copper pieces of the famous tribune Rienzi. The papal coinage is resumed at Avignon ; and Urban V., on his return to Rome, takes the sole right of the mint. The subsequent coins, though they have an interest from their bearing on the history of art, are disappointing in style. There is indeed a silver coin of Julius II. struck at Bologna and attributed to Francia, with a very fine portrait. We havt beautiful gold coins of Giovanni Beuti- voglio, lord of Bologna, who employed Francia at his mint, and we know that the artist remained at his post after Julius II. had taken the city. There are also pieces of Clement VII. by Cellini, vigorous in design but careless in execution. The papal portraits are highly characteristic and interesting. It is, however, in the fine series of papal medals that we find a worthier artistic record. The coinage of Sicily, afterwards that of the Two Sicilies, or Naples and Sicily, begins with the Normans. Theirs is a curiously mixed series. The gold money is almost wholly Arabic, though Roger II. struck the Latin ducat, the earliest of its class ; the silver is Arabic, except the great Latin scyphati of Roger II. with Roger III. ; the copper is both Latin and Arabic. The gold series of the emperor Frederick II. shows the first sentiment of reviving classi cal art, its work being far in advance of the age. These are Latin coins ; he also struck small Arabic pieces in gold. Under Conrad, Conradin, and Manfred there is an insignificant coinage, copper only, but with Charles of Anjou (1266-1285) the gold money in purely mediaeval style is very beautiful, quite equal to that of his brother St Louis of France. After this time there is a great issue of gigliati, silver coins with for reerse a cross fleurdelisee cantoned with fleurs-de-lis. These coins acquired a great reputation in the Levant, and were even struck by the emirs of Asia Minor. With Alphonso, the founder of the Aragonese line, we note the old style of the coins, which are in singular contrast to his fine medals. Good portraiture begins on the money of Ferdinand I., his successor. The later coinage is interesting only for its illustration of the vary ing fortunes of the Two Sicilies. There is a curious early gold coinage of the Lombard dukes of Beneventum, which follows the Byzantine type. Italian medals are next in merit to the works of the Greek die- Italian engravers. Their true beginning and highest excellence are under medals. Vittore Pisano, the Veronese painter, who worked from 1439 to 1449. They are of two classes, the finer and more original, struck in the 15th century, and the more classical of the 16th, after which the style declines rapidly. In spite of classical influence, the earlier medals are independent works, marked by simple vigorous truth fulness. The designs are skilful and the portraits strongly charac teristic, but deficient in beauty. As the art became popular the execution of medals passed into the hands of inferior artists, and by degrees striking became iisual for the smaller pieces ; at the same time, a slavish imitation of the classical style weakened or destroyed originality and stamped the works with the feebleness of copies. Yet the delicacy of design and technical skill of these later medals often give them an undeniable charm. The great medallists of the first age are Pisano, Matteo de Pasti, Enzola, Boldu, Sperandio, Gentile Bellini, Bertoldi, Gambello, Filippino Lippi, and Francesco Francia, who in style belongs to the next age, in which must be mentioned Pomedello, ISenvenuto Cellini, Leone Leoni, Giovanni Cavino &quot;the Paduan,&quot; Pastorino of Siena, Giacomo da Trezzo, and Pietro Paolo Galeotto, called Romano. Among the most important works are all the medals of Pisano, particularly those of Alphouso the Magnanimous, with the reverses of the boar-hunt and the eagle and lesser birds of prey, those of Sigismondo di Malatesta, his brother surnamed Novello, Lionclle d Este, John VIII. (Palffologus), Nicolo Piccinino, Inigo d Avalos (marquis of Pescara), Gianfrancesco di Gonzaga (marquis of Mantua), Ludovico III. of the same family, the great humanist Vittorino da Fcltre, and of the artist himself, a portrait eminently witnessing his fidelity to nature. He is great in portraiture, great in composition and design, and marvellously skilful in depicting animals. Pisano alone represents the moral qualities of his subject in their highest expression and even capa bility. That he has high ideal power is seen at once if we compare with his portrait Pasti s inferior though powerful head of Sigis mondo di Malatesta. Pasti s medal of Isotta, wife of Sigismondo, is also noteworthy ; likewise Gentile Bellini s head of Mehemet XVII. 83