Leonello d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara

ca. 1441
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Obverse: Leonello was aware that different portraitists might record and arrange his features differently. Pisanello, his favored artist, turned his sitter’s curly mop of hair into a leonine mane – a play on Leonello’s name (‘Little Lion’) and a physiognomical reference to the rulership of the king of the beasts.
Reverse: Pisanello’s 1444 medal of Leonello commemorates his highly strategic second marriage to Maria of Aragon, an illegitimate daughter of the king of Naples. A song or poem made tangible and permanent, it represents Leonello as a lion learning the music of love from Cupid himself.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Leonello d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara
  • Maker: Pisanello (Antonio Pisano) (Italian, Pisa or Verona by 1395–1455)
  • Date: ca. 1441
  • Culture: Italian
  • Medium: Copper alloy, cast
  • Dimensions: Diameter: 69 mm
  • Classification: Medals and Plaquettes
  • Credit Line: Collection of Dr. Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts