Portrait of Leonello D'Este, Marquess of Ferrara (obverse and reverse) (c. 1440–44): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Leonello D'Este, Marquess of Ferrara (obverse and reverse) (c. 1440–44) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pisanello (Italian, Ferrara, c. 1395–1455).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Renaissance medals usually show a person on the front and a symbolic element on the back, creating an overall statement about the individual. Lionello d'Este was one of the most sophisticated patrons in Renaissance Italy, and he was one of the first figures to sponsor the tradition of medals in the 1400s.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Leonello D'Este, Marquess of Ferrara (obverse and reverse)
• Date: c. 1440–44
• Creator attribution: Pisanello (Italian, Ferrara, c. 1395–1455)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 7 cm (2 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1971.4

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.