# Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PASTI, Matteo de']() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Cast bronze, diameter 8 cm ## Commentary Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta \(1417-1468\), lord of Rimini, Fano, and Cesena, one of the most noted condottieri of the age, clearly understood both the commemorative and diplomatic potential of medallic portraiture. Inspired by the medals cast in Milan, he commissioned two medals from Pisanello about 1445, which depict him in field armour and are decorated with heraldic devices. Shortly thereafter, he employed Matteo de' Pasti, who produced at least sixteen different medals bearing either his likeness or that of his mistress and later wife, Isotta degli Atti. On the obverse portraits by Matteo, Sigismondo appears in profile facing to the left, wearing elegant court dress, as on the present medal, less often Sigismondo is depicted in armour. In contrast to Pisanello, whose design for the reverse of the medal suggests a narrative, Matteo made a specialty of focusing on a single imposing element. He did that here with the majestic forms of the newly built castle of Rimini, the first medal to feature an architectural subject. ## Related artworks - [Bust of Leon Battista Alberti]() - [Fortitude, seated on two elephants \(reverse\)]() - [Guarino Guarini da Verona]() - [Isotta degli Atti]() - [Medal of Leon Battista Alberti]() - [Medal of Leon Battista Alberti]() - [Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta \(obverse\)]() - [Tempio Malatestiana]() - [Tomb of Isotta degli Atti]() - [View of the Cappella di Isotta]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()