The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 19, 2025
Portrait of Pope Paul II Barbo (obverse) and (reverse)
c. 1468
(Italian, active 1456–76)
Overall: 4.2 x 3.7 cm (1 5/8 x 1 7/16 in.)
Did You Know?
Rediscovered with fervor in fifteenth-century Italy, profiles on ancient coins provided dignified models for portrait medals of Renaissance elites.Description
This medal is part of a series of four oval medals that celebrated Pope Paul II as the “Founder of Italian Peace.” Though his renewal of the Italian League in 1468, Paul aspired to maintain peace among the independent Italian states and evade foreign incursion. In previous years, infighting between Florence, Venice, Ferrara, Milan, Naples, and Bologna had left the peninsula vulnerable to Turkish invasion.- By 1984Blumka Gallery, New York, NY1984 -The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Winter, Patrick M. de. “Recent Accessions of Italian Renaissance Decorative Arts, Part I: Incorporating Notes on the Sculptor Severo Da Ravenna.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 3 (March 1986): 74–138. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 80-84, figs. 16-17; p. 129, n14 www.jstor.orgBergman, Robert P., Diane DeGrazia, and Stephen N. Fliegel. Vatican Treasures: Early Christian, Renaissance, and Baroque Art from the Papal Collections: An Exhibition in Honor of the Sesquicentenary of the Diocese of Cleveland. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. 111 (cat. no. 34)
- Collecting Drawings in England. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 3, 1987-January 17, 1988).Year in Review for 1984. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 3-May 5, 1985).
- {{cite web|title=Portrait of Pope Paul II Barbo (obverse) and (reverse)|url=false|author=Cristoforo di Geremia|year=c. 1468|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1984.16