keenness of psychological finesse. This bust denotes 

 common traits which identify it as a Lavy creation, 

 but it seems that a tired hand could no longer inspire 

 with life the conventional lines of an official portrait. 

 One can speculate that this lack of insight may be 

 attributed to a weariness from the excessive amoimt 

 of work which he had been forced to master during 

 those years — when, overcrowded with commissions, he 

 could have lost spontaneity and adopted instead the 

 more convenient forms of routine — or perhaps to a 



deeper cause of personal discontent with his em- 

 ployers, but this is only surmise. With Amedeo Lavy's 

 departure, the Turin mint was deprived of the crea- 

 tions of a master, and the products of the mint plunged 

 for decades into a discouraging mediocrity. 



Lavy's successor at the Turin mint was Giuseppe 

 Ferraris, but we will discuss his work later, since his ac- 

 tivity developed chiefly after 1861, during the reign 

 of Victor Emmanuel II. 



MILAN, VENICE, AND GENOA 



The first half of the 19th century was a stormy 

 period for lioth Milan and Venice, already imited by 

 a common destiny. Governed by an Austrian arch- 

 duke, each city was part of the Austrian Empire. 

 Later, chiring Napoleon's regime, they exchanged 

 -Austrian domination for rule by the French. Then 

 in 1815 the Congress of \ienna restored to .Xustria 

 the Lombardo-Wnctian Kingdom from the debris of 

 Napoleon's Itali:in possessions. Almost fifty years 

 would j)ass before Lombardy and then Venice would 

 join the other Italian provinces in forming the King- 

 dom of Italy. During the long Austrian and the 

 French regimes, however, the mints of Milan and 

 Wnice continued to function. Artists like Luigi 

 Manfredini, Guiseppe Salvirch, and Gerolamo 

 \'assallo worked in these tormented years, celebrating 

 the glory of the Austrians as well as of the French. 

 Despite foreign domination, the coinage these artists 

 created often reflects the eternal aspirations for 

 freedom which they shared with other nationalistic 

 Italians. 'I'he group of coins produced during the 

 days of the ephemeral national repul^lics of the period 

 1797-1805 in Turin, Milan. Genoa, or Venice form 

 their most outstanding creations. 



Luigi Manfredini " (1771-1840) was hired in his 

 early youth by the Milan mint, where he worked for 

 over thirty years, 1798-1830. He became a well- 

 known sculptor and cast-iron worker and was en- 

 trusted with the casting of the Victory quadriga which 

 ornaments the Arco della Pace in Milan. His activity 

 as an engraver of medals embraced a large group of 

 commemorative medals celebrating important events 



during the reigns of Napoleon and Francis. ''' Many 

 portrait medals of famous Italians, past and contem- 

 porary, complete his long series of works. 



Fig. 6. — Kingdom of Italy, .\.\poLto.N I, medal 



("Encelado"), 1809 '^ 



(Photo from Comandini) 



One medal, engraved jointly by Manfredini and 

 Vassallo, which celebrated the victory of Napoleon at 

 Ralisljon in 1809, was the subject of much contro- 

 versy. The reverse, Manfredini's work, representing 

 a giant crushed under an enormous rock (fig. 6). 

 was misinterpreted by his contemporaries as a political 



"3 BD.\t, vol. 13, pp. .S52-555; Tiiifmi and Beckkr, vol. 24, 

 p. 10; BoLZF.NTHAL, p. 304; Comandini, L'ltaliii mi cenio atmt, 

 vol. 1 , p. 344. 



I* Foi' some of his .Napoleon medals, see: Edwards, Napnleon 

 Medals, pis. 7, 9, 14, 17, 18, 24, 26, 31, 32, 39; Bramsen, Medml- 

 lier .Napoleon; Patrignani, NumR (1948), vol. 14, pp. 116-118. 



" Comandini, L' Italia nei cento anni, vol. 1, p. 344. 



BULLETIN 229: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM Ol HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



