Italy, Cast AE Medal, Portrait of an unknown lady

Italy. Renaissance. Cast uniface AE Medal n.d. (71 mm, 29.11 g), attributed to Bombarda.
Obv. [QVOD HVIC DEEST ME T]ORQVET, Half-length portrait of a young lady left with elaborate hairdo and veil which sweeps down around the truncation; below truncation, traces of Greek inscription ΕΣ ...ΛΛΗ ...ΒΩΣΙΟΣ and in Latin ANN [XX] (example in Turin recorded by Armand).
Arm. II, 234/28; cf. Attwood 680 var.

Pierced, cast taken from a pierced example, brown patina.

The medal is discussed by Pollard in the National Gallery of Art, Washington catalogue, p. 530. Medal no. 529 depicts the same sitter in a different dress and without an inscription, but which is signed by Bombarda. Pollard took the Greek inscription to indicate that the medallist is an otherwise unknown Bosius. The inscription "Quod huic deest me torquet" found around the portrait appears on the impresa of Federico II Gonzaga apparently referring obliquely to his passion for his mistress Isabella Boschetti.

From an old Swiss private collection formed before 1942.