Giambattista Cambi, called Bombarda (d. c.1582), Violante Brasavola Pigna, uniface lead medal, VIOLANTIS PIGNAE ANN, bust right set on a scrolled plinth, wearing loose drapery, her left breast exposed, wearing a double row of pearls and earring, her braided hair with volutes and a veil; signed below, BOM, 68.5mm (Attwood 671 (70mm); Armand I, 215, 4 and III, 98, b; Toderi & Vannel 1227; Kress 459 = Pollard 528), a very fine contemporary cast Provenance: John R. Gaines collection.Here, Bombarda, in the extravagant style of the Emilian school, has depicted the sitter Violante Pigna, the wife of Giovanni Battista Pigna (a physician, historian, poet, and secretary to Alfonso II d’Este) in a manner not unlike that in which he portrayed his own wife. The exposed breast, twisted pearl necklace, fantastically draped gossamer costume was not, “a painterly convention for personal portraits, but it was common for personifications, allegorical figures and heroines from the antique world ... and must have been, therefore, a symbol of irreproachable character.” (Pollard, 2007).

Estimate: GBP 2000 - 2500