Bernardo Soranzo

This large bronze medallion depicts a high official of the Republic of Venice, Bernardo Soranzo, as attested by the inscription on the obverse: BERNARDVS SVPERANTIO. It was cast by Andrea Spinelli, whose signature appears below Soranzo’s profile: ANDREAS SPINELI F. / M. The last letters are not clearly legible, but they are probably F.M.S., standing for fecit manu sua, namely “made with his hands.” This interpretation is corroborated by another version of the medallion in the Museo Correr, Venice, in which the “S” is visible.[1] A long inscription on the reverse provides more information about Soranzo: “1540. To Bernardo Soranzo, Prefect of the Island of Corfu, Duke of Crete for the third time, councilor of Venice for the sixth time, invested with the dignity of membership in the Council of Ten.” The same inscription appears on the Correr version, which, however, is much less polished than ours.[2]

Both may be said to be unique among Renaissance medals. Though medallic in form, ours is exceptional in size. So unusual is it that George Hill made specific reference to it in the introduction of his renowned book Medals of the Renaissance as “one of the things that a medal should not be.”[3] A much smaller example—an actual medal—is recorded by Piero Voltolina but differs not only in size, but also in Soranzo’s profile (his right side) and the date of the inscription (1542 instead of 1540).[4]

According to Emmanuele Cicogna, who probably knew the Correr version and who relied on the Diaries of historian Marino Sanuto for biographical information, Bernardo Soranzo was the son of Benedetto and married Chiara Sanuto in 1505.[5] He served as commissioner of Corfu (provveditore al sal) from 1516 to 1521, then duke of Candia from 1526 to 1528, and a member of the Venetian Council of Ten in 1529. He died in 1540. During his tenure as prefect of Corfu, he was accused of negligence in the military protection of the island. The provveditore Domenico Cappello eventually filed a report in defense of Soranzo’s actions. Perhaps this controversy prompted the family to commemorate Bernardo’s virtuous administration with an unusually large medallion.

Andrea Spinelli worked mainly in Venice, where he was chief engraver at the Mint from 1540 until he was replaced by his son, Marcantonio, in 1572. Spinelli is well known for having coined the medal of Doge Andrea Gritti depicting Jacopo Sansovino’s project for the church of San Francesco della Vigna on the reverse.[6] Spinelli’s oeuvre is characterized by a lively and vibrant treatment of surface. This specificity can be appreciated in both large and small format, in the humanized portrait of Soranzo, with his wrinkles and imperfections, and the Gritti profile, in which each tuft of beard is vividly delineated.[7] While critical of Spinelli’s “meagre, dry compositions,” Hill acknowledged that he nevertheless “distinguished himself . . . by the enormous cast medal of Bernardo Soranzo.”[8]
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Footnotes
(For key to shortened references see bibliography in Allen, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022.)


1. Medaglie 2009, pp. 56–59, no. 98.
2. MDXL / BERNARDO / SVPERANTIO / CORCIRAE INSVLAE PREF. / CRETAE DVCI TERT. VENETIAR. CONSILIARIO / SEX X VIRALI / DIGNITATE / FVNCTO. The “N” in Bernardo is upside-down on both medallions.
3. Hill 1920, p. 98. We do not know if Hill was referring to the present bronze or the Correr version, but it is more likely to have been the latter.
4. Voltolina 1998, vol. 1, no. 335.
5. In tax documents of 1514, he is cited as Bernando Soranzo quondam Benedetto.” Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Dieci savi alle decime in Rialto, Deputazioni unite, Commisurazione delle imposte, Condizioni di decima, Redecima 1514, busta 52.
6. Hill and Pollard 1967, p. 77, no. 413; Pollard 2007, vol. 1, p. 472, no. 470. There are two exemplars in The Met’s collection: 2010.417.2, .3. ‘
7. See a particularly well preserved version of the Gritti medal in Voltolina 1998, vol. 1, p. 337, no. 288; Toderi and Vannel 2000, vol. 2, p. 234, no. 627, pl. 149.
8. Hill 1920, p. 98.