Ercole I d'Este, 1431-1505, Duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio 1471 [obverse] 1472

This bronze portrait medal of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio, was made in 1471 by Lodovico Coradino. The casting process would have begun with a wax model, carefully carved to capture Ercole’s profile and the details of his clothing. This model was then encased in clay and heated, allowing the wax to melt away and leaving a mold ready for molten bronze. The act of pouring the hot metal into the mold, waiting for it to cool, and then carefully breaking away the clay to reveal the finished portrait was as much alchemy as craft. The bronze gives a sense of solidity and permanence, reflecting Ercole’s status, but also the labor required to extract and transform it from raw ore into this commemorative object. The medal offered a means of image circulation beyond paintings or sculptures, and like printed images, allowed for the distribution of power through likeness. The very material speaks to its cultural significance: bronze, linking Ercole to rulers of antiquity, and to the rise of a capitalist economy in Renaissance Italy.