Scipio Africanus

Inscriptions

none

Label

Portrait medals preserved the memory and identity of the sitter. While they had no worth in an economic sense, they held significant social value. Often combining a portrait, an inscription, and a personal emblem, portrait medals functioned as a kind of propaganda, concentrating key information about the depicted person’s wealth, position, and likeness. The circulation of portrait medals materialized the relationship between the giver and the recipient, and individuals exchanged such gifts in order to forge relationships, seal political alliances, join families in marriage, or show favor. In amassing the portraits of contemporaries, relatives, rivals, and nobility, Europeans articulated their social networks in concrete form. Brought together in the home, often in large quantities, medals functioned in conversation with one another and with their viewers.

From the 2024 exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art, and Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Course History

Art History 20.04, Faith and Empire, Beth Mattison, Spring 2023

History 42.01, Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies 22.01, Gender & European Society, Patrick Meehan, Spring 2024

History 96.39, Saints and Relics, Cecilia Gaposchkin, Spring 2024

Italian 1.01, Introductory Italian I, Noemi Perego, Spring 2024

Italian 11.01, Intensive Italian, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024

Italian 2.01, Introductory Italian II, Floriana Ciniglia, Spring 2024

Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Tania Convertini, Spring 2024

Italian 3.02, Introductory Italian III, Giorgio Alberti, Spring 2024

Exhibition History

Antiquity in Rome from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment: Selections from Dartmouth's Collections, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 7-September 9, 2001.

Critical Faculties: Teaching with the Hood's Collections, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 15-March 13, 2005.

Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, Citrin Family Gallery and Engles Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23, 2024–March 22, 2025.

Publication History

T. Barton Thurber and Adrian W.B. Randolph, Antiquity in Rome from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment: Selections from Dartmouth's Collections, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2001, listed p.71.

Roger Arvid Anderson, The Roger Arvid Anderson Collection, Medals, Medallions, Plaquettes and Small Reliefs, Paintings, Sculpture, Works on Paper and Textiles, San Francisco: Roger Arvid Anderson (published privately), design by David L. Wilson, 2015, p. 154.

Provenance

Sotheby's London, July 6, 1989, lot 116, Works of Art Sale; sold to Roger Arvid Anderson, San Francisco, California, 1989; lent to present collection, 1993; given to present collection, 2016.

Catalogue Raisonne

Kress, Fig. 54, No. 262

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