Cleveland Museum of Art

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

Date

c. 1468

Medium

bronze

Culture

Italy, 15th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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. Rediscovered with fervor in fifteenth-century Italy, profiles on ancient coins provided dignified models for portrait medals of Renaissance elites.

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