Poggini's Fine Medal of Domenico Fontana

Domenico Poggini (1520 - ca. 1590). Portrait Medal of Domenico Fontana (1543-1607), 1586.

38.2 x 38.6 mm. 27.2 grams. Bronze. Armand II, 263, 7; Löbbecke 104; Bargello 839. Portrait to right in ruff collar, DOMINIC FONTANA CIV RO COM PALAT ET EQ AVR. / Vatican obelisk, EX NER CIR TRANST - VLIT ET EREXIT. Medal turn. Holed at 12 o'clock. An extraordinary portrait piece, an attractive early cast. Medium brown with darker peripheries. High relief portrait shows exceptional detail, fields are glossy despite being a bit granular and unchased. Edge filed and smoothed. Some very trivial doubling is seen at the bases of some letters in the reverse inscription. Well preserved and attractive. An important medal, marking the removal of one of Rome's ancient Egyptian obelisks from the Vatican hill to the middle of St. Peter's Square. Caligula brought the obelisk to Rome from Heliopolis in 40 AD. Pope Sixtus V engaged Domenico Fontana, an architect, to move it to its present location on September 10, 1586, a moving process that took 800 men and 160 horses one day after 13 months of planning. St. Peter's Square was designed around the obelisk a century later. This medal marking its placement is rarely encountered today in any form.

From the Santini Collection of Renaissance Medals. Earlier from Munzen & Medaillen's Auction 90, June 2000, lot 419; the Jonathan H. Kagan Collection of Renaissance Medals.

Estimate: $3000.00 - $5000.00