Lorenzo de' Medici, il Magnifico, 1449-1492 (The Pazzi Conspiracy Medal) [obverse]

Bertoldo di Giovanni

National Gallery of Art

This round, bronze medal shows a man’s head floating over an architectural structure surrounded with a bustling crowd, all in low relief. The man at the top center faces our right in profile. He has a sloping, prominent nose, and the eye we see is heavily outlined. His chin-length hair curls up along the nape of his neck. Below eleven silhouetted people sit, stand, or kneel inside a fence-like, enclosed structure. About a dozen more people on our side of the fence, worn smooth over time, appear to fight with swords or daggers or run from the danger. Text under the man’s head and inside the structure reads, “SALVS PVBLICA.” Text around the upper perimeter of the medal reads “LAVRENTIVS MEDICES.”