Medal: Federigo da Montefeltro
Savelli Sperandio Italian
Not on view
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. A prolific medallist, he produced medals of several Italian rulers. The obverse bears a portrait of Federigo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino (142 2– 1482), and the reverse shows
Federigo on horseback. Goethe, who owned a medal of this type, praised Sperandio over Pisanello, on the basis of comparison with Pisanello’s medals of Sigismondo Malatesta. The piece, which is a late aftercast, possibly from the eighteenth or nineteenth century, may be after a lead original of about 1482.
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