ATTRIBUTED TO GIROLAMO LUCENTI (ITALIAN, 1627-1698): A PORTRAIT MEDALLION OF POPE PIUS V (MICHELE GHISLIERI, 1504-1572)Bronze, uniface, incuse-cast, 17.3cm diam.Inscribed: BEA * PIVS * V * P * O * M* CREATVS DIE 7 IANVAR 1565With thanks to Dr Charles Avery for his assistance with cataloguing this lot.Literature: Spink in association with Christie’s, An Important Collection of Renaissance and Baroque Medals and Plaquettes, 21 May 1996, lot 207 (‘…the style seems much closer to Girolamo Lucenti, with its stippled field and coarsely indicated lettering.’)The pairing of this retrospective portrait roundel of a 16th century pope with the 17th century one of Innocent XI is perhaps owed to their reputations as very pious and holy men and to their standing as ‘warrior popes’ against the Turkish hordes: Pius presided over the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and Innocent over that at Kahlenberg in 1683, which saved Vienna and finally drove the Turks away from mainland Europe. Pius excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I.As Pius is called only ‘Beatus’, this forceful rendering must date from between the centenary of his death, in 1672, when Pius was beatified by Pope Clement X, and before his canonisation in 1712.