Giovanni Aloisius Toscani
15th century
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
Diameter: 73 mm
Classification
Medals and Plaquettes
Culture
Italian
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Ogden Mills, 1925
Accession Number
25.142.39
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite bronze medal, titled *Giovanni Aloisius Toscani*, crafted by Lysippus the Younger in15th-century Italy. Measuring just 73 mm in diameter it exemplifies the Renaissance revival of classical medallic art, where small-scale portraits mimicked ancient Roman coins and Greek sculptures. Lysippus the Younger,oking the famed ancient sculptor Lysippos, specialized in such intimate plaquettes, blending historical homage with portraiture to honor notable figures like the eponymous Tuscan subject, depicted in a dignified profile view. Renaissance medals like this one held profound cultural...