Model for a medal of Francesco Redi; a Ship at Sea

This rare wax model conveys the extraordinary refinement of Soldani’s art. It illuminates the precision and clarity of the carved model from which copies in metal would have been cast. Working in hard beeswax colored white with gypsum, the artist captured the intricacies of the sitter’s physiognomy and hair with great virtuosity. The wax model is the true original; the casts made from it, no matter how fine, never quite reach the same level of quality. Wax-on-slate models for medals are relatively rare, and there are few extant wax modelli by Massimiliano Soldani.
The obverse (1975.1.1320a) portrays Francesco Redi, who was court phyisician to the grand dukes of Tuscany, and was also a poet, philospher and naturalist, who played a signficant role in the scientific and cultural world of seventeenth-century Florence. A pioneer in the field of medical research, he is known as the founder of experimental biology and modern parasitology.
The image of a galley on a turbulent sea, shown on the reverse, symbolizes a strong soul resisting adversity, while the four stars represent the "Medici planets," four satellites of Jupiter discovered by Galileo and named after Cosimo II de’ Medici.