Adoration of the Magi

The obverse depicts the Adoration of the Magi, and the reverse shows the Adoration of the Shepherds. The medal, loosely based on Reinhart’s reverse composition of his Trinity medal, seems to have been made about 1580 – 1600, based on the ornamental pattern under the Adoration scenes. Its composition may also be compared with a medal by the Monogrammist HR who was active in the second half of the sixteenth century and, according to Habich, was situated in the Rhineland. The medal is set in a contemporary (Augsburg?) mount to be used as a pendant. X-ray fluorescence analysis revealed only a minor amount of copper, which excludes the possibility that the piece is an electrotype.

Catalogue entry from: Frits Scholten. The Robert Lehman Collection. European Sculpture and Metalwork, Vol. XII. Frits Scholten, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2011, p. 158.

Notes:
1. Habich, Georg. Die deutschen Schaumünzen des XVI. Jahrhunderts. 3 vols. in 5. Munich, 1929 – 34, vol. 2, pt. 1, nos. 1967, 1971.
2. See Habich, Georg. Die deutschen Medailleure des XVI. Jahrhunderts. Halle, 1916, p. 168 and pl. IX, 13.
3. X-ray fluorescence analysis was conducted by Richard E. Stone, conservator emeritus, Objects Conservation department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in March 2009.