Lot 157: [ ITALIAN MEDALS ]

GIOVANNI DA CAVINO (1500-1570) Marcantonio Passeri (1491-1564), bronze medal, bust right, rev., a figure formed of male and female bodies fused together, walking on hands and feet, 37mm (Attwood 289; Armand I, 184, 29; Bargello 768), an extremely fine contemporary cast (taken from a struck original)

Provenance: Morton & Eden, 18 April 2002, lot 647. Passeri was professor of medicine and philosophy at the university of Padua. The extraordinary reverse is, as Attwood relates, 'the original perfect human being, with both male and female characteristics, four hands and legs, two faces on one head, and the genitals on the outer sides of the body, as described by Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium'.