Medal with Portrait - Styles and Influences
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Medal with Portrait of Isotta degli Atti da Rimini
Italy; ca. 1456
Matteo de' Pasti (active 1441 - 1467/68)
Matteo de' Pasti, was an artist and builder from Verona and follower of Pisanello. The portrait medal that he made for Sigismond Malatesta, the ruler of the city-state of Rimini, was a new form of art in the time it was made. It shows Isotta degli Atti, the daughter of a rich merchant, whom Sigismondo fell in love with when she was 13. Elevating her to the position of formal mistress, he finally married her after the death of his wife Pelissena Sforza in 1449, choosing love above a new dynastic marriage.