Anonymous

Francesco d’Este (obverse); Two columned temples with dome (reverse)., mid-16th century

Bronze

Marfisa building, inv. NU51113

The medal depicts, on the obverse, the bust of Francesco d’Este, represented turned to the right and bareheaded, with a beard and short hair, and dressed in an armor decorated with the head of Medusa. The legend FRANCISCVS ESTENSIS undoubtedly identifies him, though without designating him as marquis of Massa Lombarda. This detail allows the medal to be dated to a period before 1544, the year Pope Paul III conferred the title on him. On the reverse appear two small circular temples, with colonnade and dome, accompanied by the legend PARI ANIMO. The iconography, which may derive from the model of the temples of Virtue and Honor erected by the Roman consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus near Porta Capena in Rome, is used by Francis as a personal feat. Its meaning, however, is not entirely clear: the two buildings could in fact allude to Francis and his consort Maria di Cardona, or to Francis and his father Alfonso I, with implicit reference to the son’s desire to follow in his father’s footsteps with “equal courage.” The same depiction is also attested in the frescoes of the Room of the Enterprises, a circumstance that would allow us to hypothesize a broader allegorical value: in fact, it could allude to Francis’ willingness to pursue the obligations arising from both virtue and honor with identical and constant commitment.