This medal is a remarkable and beautiful testimony, cast in Bronze, to the desire of a great Renaissance ruler to achieve immortality and to be remembered not only as an exceptional military leader, but also as a humanist prince of great sophistication and love for Western art.
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Costanzo da Ferrara (1450-1524), painter & medallist
Mehmed II (1444-1481), sultan of the Ottoman Empire
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The medal was created in 1481 by the Italian painter and medallist Costanzo da Ferrara to commemorate and remember the death of one of the most significant rulers of the Renaissance: Mehmed II, seventh sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
It is one of 8 different types of medals that were specifically made for the sultan by various renowned Italian medallists, who had been personally invited by the sultan to the Topkapi Palace in Constantinople for this purpose.
Among these variants, this type displays the portrait that is considered one of the best artistic achievements of the Quattrocento.
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Medal by Costanzo da Ferrara, 1481. Bronze 120 mm, 493 g.
The obverse features the bust of Mehmed II, dressed in a turban and cloak, looking to the left. The reverse shows the sultan on horseback, dressed in a turban and precious robe, in the midst of a rocky landscape with two leafless trees and a castle in the distance. The artist’s signature engraved beneath on the ground.
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As already mentioned, this medal was produced in 1481 to commemorate the death of Mehmed II, one of the most important sultans of the Ottoman Empire. He died at the age of 49.
In the summer of 1444, Mehmed II was appointed sultan at the age of just 12. He received an extremely strict education and studied and learnt several foreign languages. His favourite idol was Alexander the Great. At the age of 21, Mehmed succeeded in conquering Constantinople, thanks to a clever and risky idea, and with the help of an army of 100,000 men and cannons, including a huge 8 metres long cannon, despite fierce byzantine resistance. Constantinople was considered the most important and well-fortified city of the time and since its foundation by Constantine the Great in AD 330, no fewer than 23 siege attacks had been failed.
Mehmed’s extraordinary military and political achievements have since been recognised as a milestone in both Western European and Eastern European history.
However, Mehmed II wanted to be remembered not only as an exceptional military leader, but also as a humanist prince of great sophistication and love for Western art. This medal is therefore a remarkable and beautiful testimony, cast in Bronze, to the desire of a great Renaissance ruler to achieve immortality. In medals, Mehmed II recognised the perfect, imperishable medium to create an eternal and immortal statement in metal that, like the ancient coins of Alexander the Great, would stand the test of time.
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This medal is possibly one of the very few original contemporary specimens, thought to have survived the passing of time, of which there are 5 in museums.
One is in the collections of the coin cabinet of Berlin, one in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, one in the British Museum in London, one in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford, and one in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
To the best of our knowledge, the remaining examples, including this one, that can be found on the market, can probably be counted on just one hand, what makes this medal an absolute rarity.
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This medal, along other masterpieces of Medallic art, is part of a beautiful collection of French, Italian and German Renaissance Medals that will be offered for sale in our coming Lugdunum Auction 24, taking place in Solothurn on Thursday, 12 December 2024.