Standing Figure of Faith [reverse]

Art Historical Context

This small bronze medal, created around 1497 in the style of the Florentine sculptor Niccolò Fiorentino, captures the allegorical figure of Faith on its reverse. Measuring just over two inches in diameter, the piece exemplifies the Renaissance revival of ancient Roman coinage traditions, where portable medals served as both personal mementos and vehicles for moral or political messages. Fiorentino’s workshop specialized in crisp, low-relief designs that balanced classical elegance with Christian symbolism, making such objects popular among the educated elite of late fifteenth-century Italy. Faith, one of the three theological virtues, is shown as a standing female figure, likely holding traditional attributes such as a cross or chalice. The reverse format allowed artists to pair a portrait on the obverse with an emblematic scene that conveyed the sitter’s values or aspirations. Cast in durable bronze, these medals were affordable yet prestigious, enabling ideas of virtue and piety to circulate widely beyond palace walls. Today, this work from the Samuel H. Kress Collection at the National Gallery of Art offers visitors a tangible connection to Renaissance humanism, where faith and classical form existed side by side. Its modest scale invites close looking, revealing the subtle modeling and symbolic richness that made Fiorentino’s circle central to the era’s medal-making tradition.

About the Artist

Style of Niccolò Fiorentino

"Style of Niccolò Fiorentino" refers to the distinctive manner of bronze portrait medals produced by the workshop, circle, or close followers of the Florentine medallist Niccolò di Forzore Spinelli (1430–1514), known as Niccolò Fiorentino. Born into a prominent family of Florentine goldsmiths, Spinelli—great-nephew of the painter Spinello Aretino—emerged as one of the leading figures in the burgeo...