Ecoris Hic Omnipotens. A New Work of the Medallist Vettore Gambello (1450/60-1537)

The present paper discusses a forgotten work of the Renaissance medallist Vettore Gambello, called Camelio (Venice, c. 1450/60-1537), which bears the portrait of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa on the obverse and Neptune in a boat drawn by (sea-)horses on the reverse. This attribution is not only supported by the style of the medal but also by a seal on a recently discovered letter from Gambello to Pier Matteo Giordani. The letter dates the medal to the summer of 1510 and this important piece of evidence makes the medal one of the few precisely dated medals all'antica. In early modern numismatic literature the type (and the related medal depicting the Pantheon) was sometimes treated as a work from antiquity. The legend, ECORIS HIC OMNIPOTENS, is of special interest as is the iconography on the reverse, Neptune holding a whip, since it is not inspired by a model from antiquity but by a work of Leonardo da Vinci.