Antonio di Puccio Pisano known as Pisanello

(c. 1394 – 1455)

Leonello d’Este, on the reverse Blindfolded lynx, 1441-44

Bronze

Museo Schifanoia, inv. NU51183

Created by Pisanello between 1441 and 1444, the medal features on the obverse the bust of Marquis Leonello d’Este with thick hair and cotta with richly decorated surcoat and on the reverse a blindfolded lynx seated on a cushion with bows at the corners. The effigy documents Pisanello’s great portraiture skill and finds significant comparison with the panel with a portrait of the Este lord preserved at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, also by Pisanello’s hand. On the reverse, the blindfolded lynx, legendarily able to see through walls, is taken as a symbol of the ability of the ruling man who is able to know everything without apparently noticing it. The same subject also appears on the reverse side of two other medals, one signed by Amadio da Milano, the other by one Nicholaus, whose identification remains uncertain; in the latter specimen, the lynx is accompanied by the motto “QUAE VIDES NE VIDE,” which would confirm the interpretation in a political key of the image.