Lot 193: [ ITALIAN MEDALS ]

PIETRO PAOLO GALEOTTI (c. 1520-1584) Giampaolo Meli Lupi (1549-1571), son of Diefebo II, Marquis of Soragno, bronze medal (1554), IO LVP II MAR SO FIL AETATIS ANNORVM V, bust left wearing elaborate armour, aged 5; signed in the field, P P R, rev., TE SE-QVAR (Let me follow you), the young Meli Lupi in armour looking up at his father and adopting his father's pose; on the ground, pieces of armour, 51mm (Armand I, 233, 28; Pollard 408 = Kress 357; Toderi/Vannell 1593), slight trace of removal of mount at top but an extremely fine contemporary cast of high quality, with fine brown patina

Provenance: Morton & Eden, 27 June 2006, lot 398. This rare medal depicts the five year old Giampaolo in full armour. He became captain of the cavalry under Alessandro Farnese and died at the age of twenty-one.