The Assasination of Allesandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence
Modeled on Brutus’ Eid Mar Denarius

364, Lot: 355. Estimate $500. Sold for $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY. Lorenzino de’ Medici (1514-1548). Æ Medal (37mm, 26.55 g, 6h). By an uncertain artist, but often attributed to Giovanni da Cavino, circa 1537 or shortly after. LAVRENTIVS MEDICES, draped bust of Lorenzino right / Cap of Liberty between two daggers; VIII • ID • IAN (“the 8th of the Ides of January”) below. Attwood 891; Pollard (NGA) 570. Good VF, grayish-brown surfaces. Cast.

From the RBW Collection.

On the 5th of January 1537, Lorenzino de’ Medici lured the Florentine Duke Allessandro into a trap by promising him an amorous encounter with a beautiful relative. Lorenzino and his accomplices were waiting, and promptly killed the duke. Lorenzino, however, did not get the public support he had anticipated and was forced to flee Florence until his death in 1548 at Venice. He fiercely defended his actions, motivated, he claimed, by a love of liberty, and compared himself to Marcus Junius Brutus, a leading conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar.