One of the top-price items at the Bolaffi's latest numismatic auction, held last June, was the Double Ducat of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, which was minted in Antegnate between the late 15th and the early 16th century. This charming coin is in excellent conditions and shows one of the most sought-after and carefully-depicted portraits of the Renaissance minting. The attention for details plays a very important role, so much so that even Vasari mentioned it. This aspect offers an interesting opportunity to explore a fascinating chapter of Italian numismatics.

The Italian Renaissance is usually associated with the research for beauty in all areas of the artistic and cultural life, which characterised the period between the second half of the 15th century to the late 16th century. As this item shows, although coins are not specifically mentioned in Art History books, they are consistent with this tradition. This is even more so with gold coins, whose artistic value is particularly evident.

Compared to coins from Venice, Florence and Genoa, which should be considered as the true legal tender currency of that time and carry the symbols of their cities, coins minted in this period show the portrait of a Noble, a King or a Prince. The image was intended to be as similar to reality as possible, unlike what happened with portraits on former coins. This attempt directly refers to the Roman classical model, but the variety of styles and artistic techniques used is wider. This results in a variety of faces and an iconography aiming at showing the psychological features of individuals and not only their physical appearance, and sometimes reaching the artistic excellence.
Portraits on coins have always been very important, but, from the second half of the 15th century on, images are much more realistic and focused on a new idea of individual. This new coin development phase, together with a greater general economic well-being, resulted in larger coin diameters and in a larger use of these objects to display the authority.

The gold Ducat of Francesco Sforza for Milan has always been thought to be the first gold coin with a Renaissance portrait. It was minted from 1462 on. Actually, the first coin belonged to the most important Italian kingdom of that time, the Kingdom of Naples. The Ducats of Ferdinando d›Aragona, who was inspired by an important classical numismatic collection, were created between 1458 and 1459. In addition, Francesco Sforza might have been inspired by these coins to mint his own.
After these two important progenitors, the vast majority of Italian seignories and kingdoms minted their own coins. Important artists of that time often gave their contributions, as it happened with Mantegna and Cellini, even though the true artists were the professional goldsmiths, who were experts in many forms of art, from sculpture to figurative art.

By Gabriele Tonello