The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

Portrait of Pope Paul II Barbo (obverse) and (reverse)

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 1984
    Blumka Gallery, New York, NY
    1984 -
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 73 (1986): 80-84, 129.
    Bergman, 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=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1984.16