In terms of culture and art, the Court of the Gonzaga was one of the most important of the Italian Renaissance, with a cultural prestige that far outweighed its political ascendency, especially if compared with the other great families of the period such as the Sforza or Medici, or other cities such as Genoa or Venice. The same affluence is also reflected in the coins minted for almost four centuries, from 1328 with Aloysius, to 1707 with Ferdinand Charles, whereby the coins minted by the Gonzaga family are amongst the most characteristic and interesting in terms of artistic value and originality in the vast context of Italian coinage of the period, with imagery ranging from the sacred to the mythological and also recalling contemporary events or the history of the Gonzaga family. However, before entering into the merit of the iconography of the coins, it must be stressed that many artists participated in designing coins for the Gonzaga family including, amongst others, Pisanello, Bartolo Talpa, Leone Leoni, Gaspare Molo and Gian Cristoforo Romano, all eminent exponents of Italian art.

Referring to the coins in the strictest meaning, it can be noted that the first coins minted still recalled and contained many references to Virgil, the poet born close to the Lombard city. The first coins with personal images did not appear until the mid-15th century, more specifically at the time of Ludovico II, when an iconographic element, the Pyx, with a deeply religious significance that was to become a constant and characteristic motif, is found for the first time. Tradition has it that Cassius Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced Christ’s side with his spear, collected the Saviour’s blood in an ampoule, i.e. the Pyx and, after converting to Christianity and retuning to Italy, was martyred at Mantua. The Pyx is not the only religious motif and numerous other types were to appear in subsequent years, demonstrating the profound religious inspiration of the coins of the Gonzaga: Saints such as St. Andrew and Saint Catherine of Alexandria; the half-bust figure of Christ as Ecce Homo; numerous images of the Virgin, the bundle of rods of gold in a crucible surrounded by flames.

While Virgil characterised the coins of the first Gonzaga, other images tied to classical antiquity started to appear in the 16th century: Mount Olympus, the figure of Hercules as a child or David and Goliath, accompanied in some cases also by legends in ancient Greek. However, no other coins can be considered on a par with those of the Gonzaga with regard to representations of nature: the beaming sun, the work of the already-mentioned Gaspare Molo; a galley on stormy seas; the armillary sphere surrounded by signs and symbols of the zodiac, without forgetting the animal kingdom: the salamander, the deer, the greyhound, the Great Dane which appear several times in the 16th and 17th century. Another by no means marginal but particularly important aspect is the portrait on the coins which demonstrates how Gonzaga coins specifically reflect the Renaissance climate. As mentioned, the first portrait to appear on the coins is that of Ludovico II on a gold ducat that can be dated to around 1460 and which reflects the noteworthy influence of Pisanello who worked in Mantua between 1439 and 1448. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, a large variety of busts are found: bare headed, with laurel wreath or with beret. In the 17th century, the image of the Duke evolved, was enriched and became more complex, a process reflected, for example, in the image of Ferdinando Gonzaga in cardinal dress or of Charles I with Spanish style cuirass and collar.

However, the Gonzaga did not mint coins only in Mantua. While the main line of the dynasty also governed Casale, the marriage of Federico II with Margaret Paleologa allowed the collateral lines to extend the family’s influence also to Novellara, Sabbioneta, Guastalla, Pomponesco, Bozzolo, Castiglione delle Stiviere. Although they do not feature the same variety and great iconographic richness of the mint of Mantua, subsequent coins comprised some interesting and emblematic types for the cities themselves. Considering the above, it can certainly be asserted that the coins minted by the Gonzaga dynasty can be rightly considered part of the Italian and European currencies of the period, reflecting their excellence in terms of prolific variety of types and artistic refinement and representing the apogee of first of all Renaissance and then modern expressiveness, an example of art combined with the coin that was to be equalled only in very few cases in subsequent centuries.

By Gabriele Tonello