Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl

The circular plaque, enclosed within a frame adorned with a rope motif, portrays Emperor Augustus seated in the foreground, observing the miraculous vision of the Virgin and Child indicated by the Tiburtine Sibyl. The scene is set in an opulent courtyard featuring a wall embellished with grotesque panels, festoons, and a central emblem depicting three standing figures. To the right, the broken column likely symbolizes the decline of paganism in the ancient world with the emergence of Christianity. 
Molinier (1886) attributed this work to Galeazzo Mondella, known as “Il Moderno” (1467–1528), and identified the subject, which is narrated in medieval mythographies such as the Mirabilia Urbis Romae (twelfth century) and the Legenda Aurea by Jacopo da Varazze. Lewis (1989) classified this medal among the artist’s final works, considering it representative of his late style. Features characteristic of this period include sophisticated architectural backgrounds (“a sophisticated architectural background,” Lewis, 1989) and meticulous grotesque decorations, also visible in the precious Sacra Conversazione in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. KK 1107; Lewis, 1987). Another rare circular plaque, depicting Marcus Curtius, exhibits a similar architectural background adorned with garlands hanging from the wall (Toderi, Vannel Toderi, 1996, 98 n. 178). Pope-Hennessy (1965) states that the oval figure between the grotesques is inspired by a print by Giovanni Antonio da Brescia. Although the comparison is broad, the construction of the grotesque with an orderly mix of various elements aligns with the work of both this artist and Nicoletto da Modena. Il Moderno introduces a change in the arrangement of the figures, positioning them along a vertical axis. This differs from the plaque with a similar subject from the Caradosso circle (e.g., the Oxford example; Warren 2014, 923–924, n. 384), which places them in a frieze format (Pope-Hennessy 1989). These compositional changes may result from the Veronese goldsmith’s interaction with the dynamic Roman environment. In the past, it was suggested that the figures of Augustus and the Sibyl reflected Raphaelesque influence (Pope-Hennessy 1964; Cannata 1982), though this is unlikely around 1507. The elegance of the female figure and the decorative detail of her windblown dress are more likely influenced by the Umbrian-Florentine protoclassicism popular in Rome during the early days of Julius II’s papacy. The stylistic elements, along with the illusionistic depiction of the Madonna and Child emerging from the central field and overlapping the frame (Cannata 1982), clearly illustrate the artist’s development during his final years. Mondella’s commitment to the innovations of modern Mannerism is evident when compared to earlier representations of the same scene, such as the engraving in the volume Discordantiae Sanctorum Doctorum Hieronymi et Augustini, et Alia Opuscola (Rome 1481; copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) by Filippo Barberio and the circa 1500 painting on wood by Giovanni Maria Falconetto (Vinco 2018), a Veronese painter from the same city as Il Moderno. The example in the Museo di Palazzo Venezia was acquired in 1958 from the collection of lawyer Domenico Ravajoli (Santangelo 1958; Cannata 1982). There are multiple copies of the medal: at Palazzo Madama in Turin (in gilded bronze, inv. 1170/B), at the Bargello Museum in Florence (Toderi, Vannel Toderi 1996), at the Correr Museum in Venice (Jacobsen 1893), in Turin (A.S.F. 1982), at the British Museum (gilded bronze, inv. 1915,1216.41; Pollard 1989), at the Victoria & Albert Museum (Maclagan 1924), at the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inv. 1957.14.305; De Ricci 1931; Cott 1951; Pope-Hennessy 1965; Wilson 1983), in the Louvre in Paris (Molinier 1886; Migeon 1904), and in Berlin (Bange 1922).

Giulio Pietrobelli

Entry published on 12 June 2025

Good.

Collection of Domenico Ravajoli, no. 9;
Rome, Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Venezia, purchased by the Italian State in 1958.

Molinier Émile, Les bronzes italiens de la Renaissance. Les plaquettes. Catalogue raisonné, Paris 1886, I, 139, n. 185;

Jacobsen Emil, Plaketten im Museo Correr zu Venedig, in “Repertorium für Kustwissenschaft,” 16, 1893, 54–75, n. 60;

Migeon Gaston (ed.), Musée National du Louvre. Catalogue des bronzes & cuivres du Moyen Âge, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes, Paris 1904, 248, n. 306;

Bange Ernst Friedrich (ed.), Die Italienischen Brozen der Renaissance und des Barock: Riliefs und Plaketten, Berlin 1922, 69, n. 500, plate 49;

Maclagan Eric, Victoria & Albert Museum. Catalogue of Italian Plaquettes, London 1924, 31, n. 270/1864;

De Ricci Seymour, The Gustave Dreyfus Collection. Reliefs and Plaquettes, Oxford 1931, II, 140, n. 181;

Cott Perry, Renaissance Bronzes: Statuettes, Reliefs and Plaquettes, Medals and Coins from The Kress Collection, Washington 1951, 151;
Santangelo Antonino, Medaglie e placchette della coll. Ravajoli, in “Bollettino d’arte,” XLIII, October–December 1958, 376–377;
Pope-Hennessy John, The Italian Plaquette. Lecture on Aspects of Art, Henriette Hertz Trust of the British Academy, in “Proceedings of the British Academy,” 50, 1964, 63–85;
Pope-Hennessy John, Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel Kress H. Collection. Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars, London 1965, 49, n. 157, fig. 188;
A.S.F., in Dagli ori antichi agli anni Venti. Le collezioni di Riccardo Gualino, exhibition catalog (Turin, Palazzo Madama, Galleria Sabauda, December 1982–March 1983), Milan 1982, 125, no. 61;
Cannata Pietro (ed.), Rilievi e placchette dal XV al XVIII secolo, exhibition catalog (Rome, Museo di Palazzo Venezia, February–April 1982), Rome 1982, 52-53, no. 30;
Wilson Carolyn, Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, Washington 1983, 108, no. 19;
Lewis Douglas, The medallic oeuvre of “Moderno”: His Development at Mantua in the Circle of “Antico”, 1987, 77–97, no. 14;
Lewis Douglas, The Plaquettes of Moderno and His Followers, in Studies in the History of Art, 22, 1989, 105–141, fig. 35;
Pope-Hennessy John, The Study of Italian Plaquettes, in Studies in the History of Art, 22, 1989, 19–32, fig. 20;
Pollard Graham, The Plaquette Collections in the British Museum, in “Studies in the History of Art,” 22, 1989, 227–245, no. 194; 
Toderi Giuseppe, Vannel Toderi Fiorenza, Placchette. Secoli XV-XVIII nel Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence 1996, 98–99, no. 179;
Warren Jeremy (ed.), Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture. A Catalogue of the Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Volume 3. Plaquettes, Oxford 2014;
Vinco Mattia, Cassoni. Secular painting of the Renaissance in Verona, Milan 2018, 299–300, n. 96.