Matteo de’ Pasti (fl. 1441-68), Isotta degli Atti, mistress and then wife of Sigismondo Malatesta, bronze medal, dated 1446, D ISOTTAE ARIMINENSI, bust right with hair elaborately bound and falling in two pointed masses behind, rev., the Malatesta elephant standing right in flowery meadow; dated below M.CCCC.XLVI, 83mm (Hill 187 (82-84mm); Armand I, 21, 19; Pollard = Kress 63; Scaglia 25; Bargello 85-86), pierced, some marks and faint traces of gilding on the obverse, a very fine contemporary cast, brown patina Provenance: John R. Gaines collection; Alain Moatti, Paris.Pope-Hennessy in 1985 called Matteo de' Pasti in some respects the most accomplished fifteenth century medallist. Here Isotta degli Atti, with whom Sigismondo had become besotted when she was thirteen years old, is presented as an assured lady of the court. They married around 1456 and she became his heir, briefly ruling Rimini after his death. The elephant on the reverse has been called one of the most impressive representations of an animal on a Renaissance medal (Pasini, 1987).

Estimate: GBP 8000 - 12000