Lot 207: [ ITALIAN MEDALS ]

GIANPAOLO POGGINI (1518-c. 1582) Philip II (1527-1598), King of Spain from 1556, bronze medal for the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, 1559, PHILIPPVS II HISPAN ET NOVI ORBIS OCCIDVI REX, cuirassed bust left with ruff and mantle; signed below truncation I PAVL POG F, rev., PACE TERRA MARIQ COMPOSITA - MDLIX, Pax standing before the temple of Janus with closed doors, setting fire to a pile of arms with lighted torch, 39.6mm (Attwood 1082 var.; Armand I, 238, 5 var.; Bargello 404 var.; Toderi/Vannel 1426 var.; Betts 2, 3 var.), a very fine contemporary cast

Provenance: E. Bourgey, Paris, 11 June, 1969; John J. Ford Jnr. collection, part 13, Stack's, 16 January 2006, lot 662. The reverse is influenced by Roman sestertii of Nero showing the temple of Janus with closed doors to indicate a period of peace. The figure of Pax is stylistically close to that found on the reverse of Cellini's famous medal of Pope Clement VII (Attwood p. 317, fig. 48). The present medal bears a possibly unpublished variant of the obverse inscription which normally reads PHILIPPVS HISPANIAR ET NOVI ORBIS OCCIDVI REX.