Leone Leoni (c.1509-90). Portrait Medal of Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539), wife of Charles V.75.4 x 75.0 mm. 124.3 grams. Silver. Armand I, 168, 25; Attwood 28; Middeldorf & Stiebral LVI (this medal). Isabella faces three-quarters left, wearing embroidered dress and braided hair, DIVA ISABELLA AVGVSTA CAROLI V VX / Three Graces at center, amoretti at either side below, HAS HABET ET SVPERAT. Coin turn. A masterpiece in silver, a very fine production by Leone Leoni of Milan. Spectacularly chased and finished, with smooth fields and fine details in Isabellas bodice and hair, the faces of the Graces, and other fine details. Beautifully toned with highlights of pastel blue and violet on both sides. Some scattered marks, including on the elegantly rounded edges, none distracting. A magnificent work of art depicting the beloved wife of Charles V.<p><p><p>Commissioned in gold by Charles V in 1549, a decade after his young wifes passing, this medal is rare in any form and apparently unique in silver, a match to the silver medal of Charles V in a Madrid collection cited by Attwood. The British Museum holds this medal only in the form of low quality aftercasts; both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Kress Collection at the National Gallery of Art hold none at all. The gold medal is since lost, leaving this as the only noble form of Leonis masterpiece extant.<p><p><p>After Isabella died in childbirth, Charles V mourned for the rest of his life. This medals obverse, whose legend celebrates her as "the divine Isabella," features a portrait that Leonis letters state was based on a painting by Titian: "If I have made it from Titian it is because His Majesty commanded it thus," he wrote of his medal during its production process in 1548. The reverse depicts the Three Graces, based on a source from antiquity that was also seen by Niccolo Fiorentino and Cattaneo. The inscription on that side makes plain how Charles V felt about her lamented late bride: "She has these and surpasses them."<p><p><p>In 2020, the website CoinsWeekly featured this medal on a listicle of the ten most expensive Renaissance medals ever sold, ranking it fourth. Since that time, at least two more Renaissance medals have brought greater sums at auction, including the 1455 silver medal of Charles VIII of France sold by Lugdunum in 2021 and the oval medal of Louis XIII and Marie de Medici in gold sold by MDC in 2022. The fifth medal from the 2020 list, the 1545 silver medal of Henry VIII that sold in the same sale as this medal in 2019, has since resold for more than twice what it brought then, achieving €228,000 at Kunkers sale of September 2022. This work of art, personally commissioned by an emperor out of a sense of love and loss, deserves similar regard as an object of significant importance.<p><p>From the Santini Collection of Renaissance Medals. Earlier from Sothebys sale of June 12, 1974, lot 201; Lawrence R. Stack Collection; Morton & Edens Auction 41, December 2009, lot 131; Nomos Auction 5, October 2011, lot 23; Numismatica Genevensis Auction 12, November 2019, lot 197.
*拍品信息由各家拍卖公司提供，首席数据中心刊载出于传递更多信息之目的，并不意味着赞同其观点或证实其描述。
