price: U.S. $6,000

GIOACCHINO HAMERANI

1761 — Rome — 1797

Design for a Medal: Allegories of the Rivers Velinus and Nar

graphite underdrawing, pen & brown ink. squared (for transfer?) with graphite.77/8" x 81/4" (211 x 211mm). lettering at upper inncer circumference: VELLINO.IN.NAR.TER.EMISSO and dated along the bottom MDCCXCIV.

provenance:
RPB (not in Lugt), collector unknown.

The family of the Hamerani included at least a dozen goldsmiths and medallists, several of whom worked at or directly for the Papal Mint. The author of the present design, Gioacchino Hamerani, was also employed at the Mint. Presumably this design was intended for the verso of a medal of Pope Pius VI.

I am grateful to Shepherd Gallery for all the above information.

The engraver Alberto Hamerani (1620-1677) was the first of his family to be born in Rome. The family were for generations employed as metalsmiths, creating medals and coins through the end of the 18th century during which time a Hamerani was always director of the papal mints.1
1

See John Spike, Baroque Portraiture in Italy, Sarasota, FL, 1984, pp.100-105 for more information and illustrations of Hamerani plaquettes.