Medal: Presciano de Ferrara

Sperandio di Bartolommeo Savelli was an Italian medallist, architect, sculptor, painter, bronze and cannon caster. He was the son of a Roman goldsmith, Bartolommeo di Sperandio Savelli. Sperandio is first mentioned as a goldsmith at Ferrara in 1445 and again in 1447. He appears to have returned to Mantua at some point and to have been employed by Borso d'Este, Marquess of Ferrara, by the early 1460s. On the obverse is a portrait of Pellegrino Prisciani (ca. 1435 – 1518), and on the reverse Prisciani is shown
as alter Prometheus standing on a dead eagle and holding a flame and an arrow. Prisciani was counselor to the dukes Borso and Ercole d’Este; he designed the iconographical program of the decoration of Palazzo Schifanoia. The piece is a late aftercast, possibly from the nineteenth century, after a lead original.