Plaquette
A plaquette (; "small plaque") is a small low relief sculpture in bronze or other materials. These were popular in the Italian Renaissance and later. They may be commemorative, but especially in the Renaissance and Mannerist periods were often made for purely decorative purposes, with often crowded scenes from religious, historical or mythological sources. Only one side is decorated, giving the main point of distinction with the artistic medal, where both sides are normally decorated. They can usually be held within a hand. At the smaller end they overlap with medals, and at the larger they begin to be called Commemorative plaque, plaques. They have always been closely related to the medal, and many awards today are in the form of plaquettes, but plaquettes were less restricted in their subject-matter than the medal, and allowed the artist more freedom. History The form began in the 1440s in Italy, but spread across Europe in the next century, especially to France, Germany an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Moderno
Galeazzo Mondella, known as Moderno (Verona, 1467 – Verona, 1528),Rognini, Luciano (1975). "Galeazzo e Girolamo Mondella, artisti del Rinascimento veronese". ''Atti e Memorie della Accademia di Agricoltura, Scienze e Lettere di Verona''. Series 6, 25: 95–119. was an Italian goldsmith and medallist who became one of the most important designers of bronze Plaquette, plaquettes during the Italian Renaissance.Lewis, Douglas (1994). "Galeazzo Mondella, called Moderno". In Stephen K. Scher, ed. ''The Currency of Fame: Portrait Medals of the Renaissance''. New York. pp. 80–83, 85–87.Lewis, Douglas (1996). "Moderno". In Jane Turner, ed. ''The Dictionary of Art''. 34 vols. London. 21: 783–784. Life and career Early career Mondella began his career as a medallist at the court of Mantua, where in 1487 he adopted the professional name "Moderno" (meaning "the Modern"). This name was chosen in contrast to his contemporary, the Mantuan bronzist Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, who was i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Leone Leoni
: Lioni Leoni ( – 22 July 1590) was an Italian sculptor of international outlook who travelled in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Leoni is regarded as the finest of the Cinquecento Medalist, medallists. He made his reputation in commissions he received from the House of Habsburg, Habsburg monarchs Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Philip II of Spain. His usual medium was bronze sculpture, bronze, although he also worked in marble and alabaster, Engraved gem, carved gemstones and probably left some finished work in wax (in which many of his sculptures were modelled), as well as designing coins. He mainly produced portraits, and was repeatedly used by the Spanish, and also the Austrian, Habsburgs. Biography His family origins were at Arezzo, though he was probably born at Menaggio near Lake Como, and his early training, to judge from the finish of his medals, was with a medallist or goldsmith, as Giorgio Vasari, Vasari says. His earliest documentation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Low Relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. When a relief is carved into a flat surface of stone (relief sculpture) or wood (relief carving), the field is actually lowered, leaving the unsculpted areas seeming higher. The approach requires chiselling away of the background, which can be time-intensive. On the other hand, a relief saves forming the rear of a subject, and is less fragile and more securely fixed than a sculpture in the round, especially one of a standing figure where the ankles are a potential weak point, particularly in stone. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be simply added to or raised up from the background. Monumental bronze reliefs are m ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Medal
A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be intended to be worn, suspended from clothing or jewellery in some way, although this has not always been the case. They may be struck like a coin by dies or die-cast in a mould. A medal may be awarded to a person or organisation as a form of recognition for sporting, military, scientific, cultural, academic, or various other achievements. Military awards and decorations are more precise terms for certain types of state decoration. Medals may also be created for sale to commemorate particular individuals or events, or as works of artistic expression in their own right. In the past, medals commissioned for an individual, typically with their portrait, were often used as a form of diplomatic or personal gift, with no sense of being an award ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Commemorative Plaque
A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, bearing text or an image in relief, or both, to commemorate one or more persons, an event, a former use of the place, or some other thing. Most such plaques are attached to a wall, stone, or other vertical surface. Many modern plaques and markers are used to associate the location where the plaque or marker is installed with the person, event, or item commemorated as a place worthy of visit. A monumental plaque or tablet commemorating a deceased person or persons, can be a simple form of church monument. Most modern plaques affixed in this way are commemorative of something, but not all. There are also purely religious plaques, and some signify ownership or affiliation of some sort. A plaquette is a small plaque, but in English, unlike many European languages, the term is not t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Valerio Belli
Valerio Belli (c. 1468–1546), also known as Valerio Vicentino, was a celebrated medallist, gem engraver, goldsmith, who with Giovanni Bernardi, who was twenty years younger, was the leading specialist in intaglios engraved in rock crystal, a difficult luxury form which Belli pioneered. These were highly sought after by wealthy Italian collectors. Though described as being "engraved", the intaglios are cut by drills, sometimes quite deeply, and developed their style from classical coins and engraved gems, to give "smoothly and eloquently orchestrated figural compositions". Castings of many of the crystal carvings were taken in wax and them used to make metal plaquettes, which Belli also designed and made ''de novo''. He was described as a goldsmith, though no surviving works are known, and had some role at the Papal mint, though no coins are clearly attributable to him. Born in Vicenza, he was also active in Rome, his most important period, and Venice before returning to hi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Giovanni Bernardi
Giovanni Bernardi (1494 – 22 May 1553), also known as Giovanni da Castel Bolognese and as Giovanni da Castelbolognese, was an Italian gem engraver and medallist who was born in Castel Bolognese, Italy. He was the son of a goldsmith and by 1530 had moved to Rome, where he had a position in the Papal mint, which also allowed him time to work for other patrons. These included Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici (1511–35), Pope Clement VII (1523–34), Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III, as well as his grandson, also called Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. He was "a skillful composer of elegant nudes in elaborate scenes". Bernardi was best known for his intaglios engraved in rock crystal, which had been pioneered by Valerio Belli. This was a difficult luxury artform that was fashionable among wealthy Italian collectors. Though described as being "engraved", the intaglios are cut by drills, sometimes quite deeply. Castings of many of the crystal carvings were ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloids (such as arsenic or silicon). These additions produce a range of alloys some of which are harder than copper alone or have other useful properties, such as strength, ductility, or machinability. The archaeological period during which bronze was the hardest metal in widespread use is known as the Bronze Age. The beginning of the Bronze Age in western Eurasia is conventionally dated to the mid-4th millennium BCE (~3500 BCE), and to the early 2nd millennium BCE in China; elsewhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age, which started about 1300 BCE and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BCE, although bronze continued to be much more widely used than it is in modern times. Because historica ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Leon Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, Catholic priest, priest, linguistics, linguist, philosopher, and cryptography, cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. He is considered the founder of European cryptography, a claim he shares with Johannes Trithemius. He is often considered primarily an architect. However, according to James Beck, "to single out one of Leon Battista's 'fields' over others as somehow functionally independent and self-sufficient is of no help at all to any effort to characterize Alberti's extensive explorations in the fine arts". Although Alberti is known mostly as an artist, he was also a mathematician and made significant contributions to that field. Among the most famous buildings he designed are the churches of San Sebastiano (1460) and Sant'Andrea (1472), both in Mantua. Alberti's life was told in Giorgio Vasari's ''Lives of t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Verona
Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, northeastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona covers an area of and has a population of 714,310 inhabitants. It is one of the main tourist destinations in Northern Italy because of its artistic heritage and several annual fairs and shows as well as the Opera, opera season in the Verona Arena, Arena, an ancient Ancient Rome, Roman Amphitheatre, amphitheater. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, the city was ruled by the Scaliger, della Scala family. Under the rule of the family, in particular of Cangrande I della Scala, the city experienced great prosperity, becoming rich and powerful and being surrounded by new walls. The della Scala era is preserved in numerous monuments around Verona. Two of William Shakespeare's plays are set in Ve ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Andrea Riccio
Andrea Riccio (1532) was an Italian sculptor and occasional architect, whose real name was Andrea Briosco, but is usually known by his sobriquet meaning "curly"; he is also known as Il Riccio and Andrea Crispus ("curly" in Latin). He is mainly known for small bronzes, often practical objects such as inkwells, door knockers or fire-dogs, exquisitely sculpted and decorated in a classicizing Renaissance style. He was born at Padua, and first trained as a goldsmith by his father, Ambrogio di Cristoforo Briosco. He later began to study bronze casting under Bartolomeo Bellano, a pupil of Donatello. As an architect, he is known for the church of Santa Giustina in his native city. His masterpieces are the bronze Paschal candelabrum in the choir in Basilica of Sant'Antonio at Padua (1515), and the two bronze reliefs (1507) of ''David dancing before the Ark'' and ''Judith and Holofernes'' in the same church. His bronze and marble tomb of the physician ''Girolamo della Torre'' in t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |