Portrait and Medals of Alvise Mocenigo I
Author: Palazzi, Giovanni, b. 1640?
Image Title: Portrait and Medals of Alvise Mocenigo I
Description: A portrait of Venetian Doge Alvise Mocenigo I (1507-1577), who reigned from 1570 to 1577. The Mocenigo coat of arms contains two five-petaled roses counterchanged across a horizontal field division. This page displays a number of coins minted under Doge Mocenigo: The top medal, the 1570 osella, depicts Mocenigo humbly accepting the Venetian Republic’s banner from a seated Saint Mark. The second medal, the 1571 osella, resembles the first but replaces the previous inscription with a legend to commemorate the Holy League’s 1571 naval victory at Lepanto against the Turks: “M.D.LXXI anno magnae navalis victoriae Dei gra. contra Tvrcas.” After a few osellas with designs patterned after the 1570 style, the 1576 osella (the rightmost pair of faces on the next-to-last row) combines and alters past designs. On the obverse, a lion appears behind the Doge (right), who humbly accepts the Venetian Republic’s banner from the kneeling Jesus. The reverse depicts a temple adorned with statues and columns, with a winged lion standing on the apse. The legend “Redemptori votvm MDLXXVI” refers to the Senate’s 1576 resolution to construct Il Redentore, a church designed by Andrea Palladio. The coin on the left half of the bottom row, a forty-cent piece, resembles the 1571 osella. On the reverse, Saint Justina of Padua stands with a sword in her breast, a lily in her hair, a book in her left hand, and a palm in the right. The legend reads “Memor ero tvi, Jvstina virgo.” Saint Justina’s appearance here alludes to Venice’s decision to formally adopt her as a patron of the Republic. The coin on the right half of the bottom row, a special bronze medal, contains a bust of Doge Mocenigo, and depicts Venice, personified as a crowned female figure who looks over a galley-filled sea, with a laurel branch in her left hand, and a sword in her right. She sits atop a resting lion, among various flags, a tunic. Behind the woman, a flying cupid extends a laurel wreath toward the legend “Sic sola gloriatvr” .
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