which he took much pleasure, and the desire for greater things becoming awakened within him, he made extraordinary progress therein, as may still be seen in his native city of Bologna, from the many works he there executed in silver, more particularly from certain specimens of niello, which are most excellent.[1] In this branch of art Francesco often grouped twenty well-proportioned and beautiful figures together, within a space only two inches high, and but little more in length; he also produced many works in silver enamelled, but these were destroyed at the time of the ruin and exile of the Bentivoglio; and to say all in a word, he executed every thing that is most beautiful, and which can be performed in that art, more perfectly than any other master had ever done.
But that in which Francesco delighted above all else, and in which he was indeed excellent, was cutting dies for medals; in this he was highly distinguished, and his works are most admirable, as may be judged from some, on which is the head of Pope Julius II., so life-like, that these medals will bear comparison with those of Caradosso;[2] if he also struck medals of Signor Giovanni Bentivoglio, which seem to be alive; and of a vast number of princes, who, passing through Bologna, made a certain delay, when he took their portraits in wax, and afterwards, having finished the matrices for the dies, he despatched these to their destination, whereby he obtained, not only the immortality of fame, but also very handsome presents.[3]
During the better part of his life, Francesco was Director of the Mint at Bologna; all the dies for the coins, used at the time when the Bentivogli governed there, were prepared by him, as were those struck for Pope Julius II., after their
- ↑ Two of these are preserved in the rooms of the Secretary to the Bolognese Academy of the Fine Arts; they have been engraved by Vallardi of Milan, in the Manuale di Calcografia. — See also Zani, Materiali per servire alia Storia dell’ Intaglio, &c.
- ↑ Ambrogio Foppa, called Caradosso, a native of Pavia, though frequently enumerated among the artists of Milan. He was not only distinguished for the beauty of his dies, but for his excellence in the plastic arts generally, and for goldsmiths’ work in particular. — See Cicognara, Storia della Scultura, Pagave, Sienese edition of Vasari; and Leoni, De Nobilitate Rerum.
- ↑ For examples of these medals, see Litta, Famiglie celebri Italiane.
