GALERIE RATTON-LADRIÈRE

Comparative bibliography:
Riccardo Gennaioli, « Antonio Francesco Selvi » in Plasmato dal fuoco : la scultura in bronzo nella Firenze degli ultimi Medici, Florence, Sillabe, 2019, pp. 601-602.

Franceso Selvi ewas born in Florence, and from 1698 studies under Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi. In 1729 he is one of the collaborators of the sculptor Montevarchi whom he helps for the funerary monument of Antonio Manuel da Vilhena, Gran Master of the Malte order for the la Valette cathedral. It is his only monumental work, for he is rather known as a medallist, in collaboration with Soldani until 1736, then with Bartolomeo Vaggelli untli his death. In fourty years, he created some two hundred models. His most famous series is that of the Medici medals. A first series (one side only) dates from 1723, and was cast in very few copies ,representing famous members of the Medici family , the, from 1737, with Vaggelli, Selvi creates a series of 76 medals (two faces) of which testify the 1740 Novelle Letterarie. This series represents men and women of the Medici family, as well as famous personalities. Our medal is precisely from this 1740 series, and reprsents Cosimo de’Medici. Selvi probably took inspiration from a print by Jacques II de Gheyn, in itself inspired by a Renaissance medal. On the reverse of the medal are three intertwined rings with the motto SEMPER which are symbols of the Medici family : the ring with the unaltered diamond, and the intertwined rings represent the dynasty.

Our medal is taken on a model that was commissioneed to Benedetto Ramelli by Francis the Ist during his stay in Lyon in 1537. Ramelli, a native from Ferrara settled in France and worked for the Court, as well as for the Navarrean kings in Pau (Cf. marble vase inalid with silver, Pau, ca. 1550, Paris, Louvre).

Our medal could be a cast following the 1537 one in gold, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Another version , of the sixteenth century, and with just one side, as ours, is in the collections of the Petit-Palais museum in Paris (inv. ODUT 1382). A third cast, a bit larger (12.6 cm diameter ), with polychromy, was auctionned in Lyon 22/11/ 2014 (étude de Baecque).

Bibliography : Cerboni-Baiardi, Anna (a cura di), Giovani Battista Nini, Da Urbino alle rive della Loira. Paesaggi e volti europei, Federico Motta editore, Milano, 2001.

Initially a pupil of his father in Urbino, Nini very quickly went to improve his skills in Bologna, and in 1735 won a sculpture prize at the Academia Clementina. The landscape engravings that we know of (the most ambitious dating from 1740) date from his Bolognese years. Nini then stayed (but we do not know how long) in Verona, and the only known work of this stay is an engraving dated 1740. It is also attested that he was in Madrid in 1747, working for the Real Fàbrica de Cristales. He left Spain in 1757, after two years in prison for a crime of heresy, from which he was finally absolved. He then decided to settle in France, and he was documented as early as 1758 in Paris, rue Saint-Honoré. He began his production of small portraits, of which he met the models in certain Parisian salons. He also worked for a few years at the manufacture of La-Charité-sur-Loire, founded in 1756 by Michel Alcock , and which became royal manufacture in 1766 (manufacture of ceramics and metal objects), where he continued to engrave on crystal.
It was in 1771 that Nini portrayed the man who determined the rest of his career: Jacques-Donatien Leray de Chaumont. Donatien Leray, was from 1753 to 1763 Grand Master of Water and Forests of France for the department of Blois, Berry, Haut and Bas Vendômois, adviser to Louis XV, intendant of the Invalides from 1769 to 1776, and above all a skilled entrepreneur: he had opened a leather factory in Amboise, painted canvas in Paris, and a crystal, ceramic, and tile factory in Chaumont sur Loire, where in 1750 he had acquired the castle and adjoining land. The meeting with Nini, which certainly took place before 1771, was decisive for the development of this last enterprise, and the artist settled down from (and definitively) from 1772.
Nini's medallions, modeled after rulers, aristocrats, courtiers, men of the times (Franklin), or simple bourgeois and elegant, were - when hung on the wall - to have the same value as a painted portrait. Often, not being able to approach his model, Nini has recourse to the engraved portrait (in particular those of Cochin), or to the medal (for the portraits of sovereigns). Besides the images of kings and queens, or prominent personalities (Caylus, Franklin, Voltaire), the models of Nini belong to very different worlds, revolving around the Court, or met later in Chaumont. Unfortunately, many of the designs of these medallions remain anonymous due to a lack of identifying markings.
The model of the medallion presented here can be identified because there are several versions in terracotta titled "L’AMIRANDE MAR-QUISE DE VAUDREUIL" . It is therefore Marie-Claire-Françoise Guyot de la Mirande, who married in Saint-Domingue on June 12, 1732 the sixth son of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Joseph-Hyacinthe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, and who died in Paris on April 20 1776 (note here that none of the commentators on the work gives his date of birth). Our medallion is generally dated to the mid-1770s, shortly before the model's death.
It should be noted here that the bronzes of J-B Nini are rare, and recent scientific research suggests that during his stay at the Royal Manufacture of La-Charité-sur-Loire, its workers were very skilled in melting metal, he could have given models to have fonts made. Our medallion would thus be a rare witness to this very special collaboration.

Comparative bibliography :
Hill, George Francis, and Graham Pollard. Renaissance Medals from the Samuel H. Kress Collection at the National Gallery of Art. London, 1967, no. 527. Pollard, John Graham. Renaissance Medals. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. 2 vols. Washington, 2007, t. 2, no. 601.

If the invention of medals is Italian, due to the painter italien Pisanello circa 1439with the cast of the bronze medal with the profile of Jean VIII Paléologue, the first French medal is from Lyon and represents Louis XIIth and Ann of Britanny. This medal was modelled by Nicolas Leclerc and Jean de Saint-Priest from a drawing by Jean Perréal. It was cast by Jean Lepère during the year 1499. It was cast in gold as a commission from the city of Lyon as a present to King Louis XIIth and Queen Ann of Britanny for their solemn entry on the 15 march 1500. It was later cast in bronze (and gilt bronze), and we find some of these casts in various collections in France and abroad. The lyon museum has one in bronze (fig.1), and the National Gallery in Washingto has a bronze cast and a gilt bronze cast ( respectively un inv. 1957.14.1122 a and inv. 1949.9.158 a).

Comparative bibliography :
Ingrid Weber, Deutsche, Niederländische und Französische Renaissanceplaketten : 1500 – 1650, Munich, Bruckmann, 1975, pp. 410-412, cat. 1041.2.

This gilt bronze plaquette is from a series of twelve saints : Sebastian, Magdelen, Anthony of Padua, Dominic…. There is usually a ring in the upper part to hang it, it must have been cancelled at some time. Ingrid Weber, following the German scholar Edmund Wilhem Braun, suggests this series was made in Sapin in the early XVIIth century. They both consider the iconography of the saints typically Spanish. Notre plaquette connaît plusieurs exemplaires : Louvre (OA 9197) ou encore New-York, Metropolitan museum (coll. Robert Lehmann, inv. 1975.1.1359).

Comparative bibliography :
Malgouyres, Philippe, De Filarete à Riccio. Bronzes italiens de la Renaissance (1430-1550). La collection du Musée du Louvre, Paris, Louvre Editions ; Mare & Martin, 2020, p. 299, n° 89

This bronze plaquette of the Crucifixion must be attributed to Galeazzo Mondella. Veronese by birth, he is famous for his production of bronze plaquettes. He is called « Moderno » in opposition to his Mantuan contemporary Jacopo Bonacolsi, called « Antico ». Other casts of this scene are known, but with variations : the Louvre one (OA 2418) is gilt, the Bargello one (inv 417 c) has a black patina. Of this model exist two versions : with, or without, a frame, our version being from the « A » version, with the frame .

Comparative bibliography :
Ingrid Weber, Deutsche, Niederländische und Französische Renaissanceplaketten : 1500 – 1650, Munich, Bruckmann, 1975, pp. 412, cat. 1042.

By comparison with a series of plaquettes of saints, Ingrid Weber attributes this plaquette to a spanish workshop too, though not the same as the series, for this one has an inscription the series hasn’t. Saint John the Baptist is here represented with all his attributes : camel skin, crossand flag, and the agnus dei. Other casts of this plaquette exist in public collections (one in New-York Metropolitan Museum, inv. 32.64.50.).