Italian Renaissance Medal - Andrea Carafa by Girolamo Santacroce

Iosephus

Andrea Carafa / Prudence

Attributed to Girolamo Santacroce, before 1523.

Bronze, 38.0 mm Ø, 31.1 g

Obverse: Bust of Andrea Carafa facing left, wearing decorative helmet with winged creature as crest. Around, ANDREAS · CARRAFA · S · SEVERINAE COMES · (Andrea Carafa, Count of Santa Severina).

Reverse: Prudence seated left with crossed legs, holding in her right hand a janiform male and female head on a handle, and a serpent in her left. In exergue, NIL ABEST (Nothing is needed).

Andrea Carafa, born in Naples, was a condottiere and feudal lord from the Carafa family. Offering large sums of money to King Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1496, Andrea was made count of Santa Severina, taking possession of it and the surrounding lands. He fought in 1502 under service to King Frederick I of Naples in the war against the French, and also needed to fight the inhabitants of the lands that he had claimed in 1496 in order to assert his rule. When the Viceroy of Naples, Charles de Lannoy, left the kingdom in 1523, Andrea became Lieutenant General of the Kingdom of Naples. Andrea Carafa died in 1526 in Naples.

The reverse design and inscription is an allusion to what is reputed to be one of Carafa's favorite quotations from Juvenal's Satires (X, 356): "Nullum numen habes, si sit prudentia" (You do not need any god if there is prudence). The artist attribution is based on the similarity of this medal to that of Jacopo Sannazaro by Santacroce, both stylistically and in terms of fabric (both medals possess concave fields).

References: Hill 1930, no. 349; Pollard 2007, no. 153

This piece joins the medal of Jacopo Sannazaro by Girolamo Santacroce already in my collection:

Zohar

Lots of character to these! Nice pickup!

Stork

You have a fascinating collection!