Bronze medallion with portrait of Pope Pius V (born Michele Ghislieri, 1504-1572) attributed to Girolamo Lucenti (1627-1698). Unified and incused bronze. Inscription: BEA * PIVS * V * P * O * M* CREATVS DIE 7 IANVAR 1565. Bibliography: Spink in association with Christie's, An Important Collection of Renaissance and Baroque Medals and Plaquettes, May 21, 1996, lot 207 ("...the style seems much closer to Girolamo Lucenti, with its dotted field and roughly indicated letters".). The pairing of this retrospective tondo of a sixteenth-century pope with the seventeenth-century tondo of Innocent XI is perhaps due to their reputation as very pious and holy men and their position as "warrior popes" against the Turkish hordes; Pius presided at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and Innocent at the Battle of Kahlenberg in 1683, which saved Vienna and drove the Turks permanently from continental Europe. Pius excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I. Since Pius is only called "Beatus," this strong rendering must date from the period between the centenary of his death in 1672, when Pius was beatified by Pope Clement X, and before his canonization in 1712.
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SILVER Seller in Verona, Italy
