Medal of Francis I, King of France

In 1537, due to disagreements with Pope Paul III, Benvenuto Cellini abruptly departed from Rome. After a brief sojourn in Padua, where he crafted an exquisite medal for Pietro Bembo, he relocated to France. During his time in Paris, Cellini encountered Rosso Fiorentino, a fellow Florentine, and secured an audience with King Francis I. Despite being preoccupied with plans for a new invasion of Italy and preparing for his departure to Lyon, the king instructed his treasurer, Giuliano Buonaccorsi, to continue discussions with Cellini during the journey. Shortly thereafter, Cellini became ill and requested to return urgently to Rome.
During a significant yet brief visit to France, the sculptor likely conceptualized this medal (Pope-Hennessy 1985, 81). Additionally, an inventory of Cellini’s possessions dated October 23, 1538, lists a “head of the King of France in lead,” which can be identified definitively as an early design for this medal (Bertolotti 1881, I, 263–268).
The medal features the bust of the sovereign facing left, adorned in armor and a cloak, with a laurel wreath and a scepter topped by a lily positioned in front of his profile. The face of Francis I, characterized by a long nose and flowing beard, bears a resemblance to that of an ancient depiction of Jupiter. This portrayal is so vivid and detailed that it served as a reference for the portraits painted by Titian for the same sovereign. One of these paintings was gifted to the king in 1539 by Pietro Aretino (Mariacher 1963, 210–221; Hill, Pollard 1978, 177, note 217).
The reverse is evidently influenced by ancient coinage: the depiction of a knight on a rearing horse striking a figure lying on the ground with a mace is derived from Roman coins bearing the inscription “VIRTVS AVG.” However, Cellini transforms the model, imbuing it with new interpretations and significance: the figure lying on the ground draws inspiration from Michelangelo’s Night on the tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici (a composition revisited by the artist later for the renowned Saliera); the knight's twisted posture may owe its origins to Leonardo’s studies; furthermore, the sculptor incorporates a globe and a rudder behind the horse which, in conjunction with the inscription, enable us to identify the reclining woman as the allegory of Fortune vanquished by the virtue of the sovereign (a well-established humanistic motif, previously present in Petrarch).
Given the artist’s signature at the bottom, the authorship has never been in question. However, there have been alternative proposals regarding the chronology. Karl Domanig and Natalis Rondot, for instance, posited dating the medal to 1543/1544, correlating it with Cellini’s second, extended stay in France (Domanig 1896, 4, n. 28; Rondot 1904, 186).
The conception of the portrait, the meticulous attention to physiognomic details, and the dynamic depiction of the horse on the reverse suggest similarities with the medal dedicated to Pietro Bembo, thus supporting the date of 1537. The example housed in Palazzo Venezia, which has been largely overlooked by critics and has an unknown provenance, is in a modest state of preservation. Given the unfinished modeling and the slightly larger dimensions compared to other known specimens, it is plausible that this represents a later casting of Cellini’s model (Attwood 2003, I, 321–322, cat. 768).

Marco Scansani

Entry published on 12 June 2025

Poor.

Obverse: (within the rim) “FRANCISCVS. I. FR ANCORVM. REX”;
Reverse: (within the rim) “FORTVNAM VIRTVTE DEVICIT”; (in the exergue): “.BENVENV. F.”.

Bertolotti Antonino, Artisti lombardi a Roma nei secoli XV, XVI e XVII, 2 voll., Milano 1881;
Domanig Karl, Porträtmedaillen des Erzhauses Österreich von Kaiser Friedrich III. bis Kaiser Franz II: aus der Medaillensammlung des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, Wien 1896;
Rondot Natalis, Les médailleurs et les graveurs de monnaies, jetons et médailles en France, Paris 1904;
Mariacher Giovanni, Il ritratto di Francesco I di Tiziano per la Corte di Urbino, in «Pantheon», XXI, 1963, pp. 210-221;
Hill George Francis, Pollard Graham, Medals of the Renaissance, London 1978;
Pope-Hennessy John W., Cellini, London 1985;
Attwood Philip, Italian Medals c. 1530-1600 in British Public Collections, 2 voll., London 2003.