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This medal -- the first to portray a woman - depicts Cecilia Gonzaga, the beautiful and learned daughter of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua. Cecilia was accomplished classical scholar and a pupil in the school founded by Vittorino da Feltre in Mantua.
- Leonello d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara
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Medal: Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga. Pisanello (Antonio Pisano)...
- Leonello d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara
Cecilia Gonzaga, born in 1425, daughter of Gianfrancesco I. Entered the convent in 1444. Died in 1451 at the age of 26. Artist: Antonio Pisano (known as Pisanello) — Painter and Sculptor, 1395-1455. He was born in Pisa, worked in Rimini, Venice, Naples, Ferrara and Mantova.
Francesco (1484 – 1519) and Isabella d'Este were the parents of three able sons: the above-mentioned Federigo II, Cardinal Ercole (see below), and Ferrante (d. 1557), who became viceroy of Naples and governor of Milan. Federigo II, who became the first Gonzaga duke in 1530, added Montferrat to the family domain.
The profile view commonly used for early Renaissance painted portraits conforms to the format of portrait medals, which Pisanello introduced in the 1430s. His Cecilia Gonzaga, representing the daughter of the duke of Mantua, is the first known Renaissance medal to portray a woman. Reflecting the humanist fascination with the classical past ...
Cecilia said nothing and waited in silence for years, refusing all the other men her father proposed to her. As soon as he died, in 1444, she took the veil in the town convent of Corpus Domini, founded by her mother, Paola Malatesta, who followed her and spent her widowhood years as a nun.
Antonio di Puccio Pisano, called Pisanello (ca. 1395–1455) Cecilia Gonzaga (1426–1451), dated 1447. Copper alloy, cast. Diam.: 3 3/8 in. (8.58 cm) Scher Collection. Cat. 9. Video. The Pursuit of Immortality: Masterpieces from the Scher Collection of Portrait Medals. Browse Exhibition.
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The reverse of a medal commemorating Cecilia Gonzaga, for example, who entered a nunnery instead of marrying the suitor chosen by her family, celebrates her chastity with an allegorical female figure accompanied by a subdued unicorn; according to medieval tradition, the fierce animal could be tamed only by a virgin.
