Antonio di Puccio called Pisanello (c. 1394-1455), Niccolò Piccinino, condottiere (1386-1444), bronze medal, armoured bust left wearing tall hat crumpled forward and with brim turned up; with faint traces of the armourer’s initials AA on the shoulder piece (without the inscription around), rev., BRACCIVS PISANI P OPVS N PICININVS, the she-griffin of Perugia standing left suckling two infants, 88.3mm (cf. Hill 22 (88-90mm); Armand I, 7, 21; Pollard 4 = Kress 4; Bargello 12-13; Cordellier 123; Syson/Gordon 68, fig. 3.37; Scaglia 4; Scher 3; Bonazzi 11), pierced, some minor marks, a very fine contemporary cast with brown patina Provenance: John R. Gaines collection.The finished medal (which has been dated to the period 1439-42) has an inscription around the obverse, here missing and there is a similar example (89mm) in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, item 57.185, the gift of Mark Salton in 1957 (see https://collections.mfa.org/objects/267270). They are presumably casts derived from a trial model made before the legend was added. Piccinino joined forces with Braccio da Montone in 1416 and on the latter’s death in 1424 had control of Perugia. On the medal the two condottieri are shown as infants feeding from the Perugia she-griffin in the manner of Romulus and Remus being suckled from the she-wolf of Rome.

Estimate: GBP 7000 - 10000