Ca 1490. Italy.
The Lithuanian National Museum of Art has a medal with the image of Empress Faustina and a scene of Roman victory. It has been attributed to the workshop of Moderno (Galeazzo Mondella, “Il Moderno”, 1467–1528), a famous Veronese Renaissance sculptor. Overlooked for a long time by researchers, this museum exhibit was hardly noticed or appreciated. But new data allow confirming that it is indeed an authentic late 15th-century work of small plastic art, and an exclusive relic in Lithuanian contexts: it was one of the first objects of value to be acquired for the newly forming art museum’s collections, and is one of the oldest medals (perhaps even the oldest) to be part of the collections of Lithuania’s museums.
The obverse, or face, of the medal features the bust of a young woman and the inscription Diva Faustina (goddess Faustina). She was one of the most admired characters from Antiquity in Renaissance art, symbolically embodying the ideal woman, mother and wife. The relief of the obverse is high, as was typical of 15th – mid-17th-century cast medals. The combination of a raised and sunken relief (of the figure and inscription) on one plane creates an effect not unlike Renaissance architectural decor, which was rarely seen in medals from those times. The reverse has a multifigural composition: two triumphant Roman cavalry surrounded by infantry holding raised legionary signs. The prototype for this image was a Roman bas relief depicting the victory of Marcus Aurelius against the Germanic tribes, in this case creatively adapted and depersonalised. Above this scene is the Roman abbreviation SENAT/S POPLS (SENATVS POPVLVSQVE – The Senate and the Populus). Notably, neither Rome or the emperor or his victory are mentioned. In this way, the victory scene is converted into a more neutral setting that contemporaries – Renaissance Europe’s leaders and the commissioners of this medal – could easily relate to. An oval shield with the letter M – Il Moderno’s initial – appears at the bottom.
It cannot be dismissed that this medal could have arrived in Lithuania when its author was still alive, especially when, after the wedding of Sigismund the Old and Bona Sforza (1518), imports of Italian culture intensified along with cultural exchange between the monarchs’ courts. The first Lithuanian medals created at this time would be sent to Italy as gifts, so naturally, reciprocal gestures would have been the norm.