GIUSEPPE BERTOSI (ITALIAN, 1672-C.1722), AFTER A MODEL FOR A PAPAL MEDAL BY CLAUDE DUBUT: A ROMAN BRONZE UNIFACE MEDALLION DEPICTING THE ALTAR OF SAN CRESCENTINO IN PESARO (1707-8), CIRCA 1722 inscribed in relief lettering, IN.HONOREM. S.CRESCENTINI. MARTYRIS, incised in capitals round the outer edge of the disc behind: IOSEPH BERTOSI AERIS FVSOR ET SCULPTOR REV FABRICAE SĀCTI PETRI ANO 1722 + (Joseph Bertosi, founder and sculptor of bronze to the Reverend Office of Works of Saint Peter’s 1722), with traces of gilding, 13cm diameter PROVENANCE: CHARLES AVERY COLLECTION Charles Avery is a specialist in European sculpture, particularly Italian, French, English, Flemish and Dutch. A graduate in Classics at Cambridge University, he obtained a Diploma in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute and a doctorate for published work from Cambridge. Having been Deputy Keeper of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum for twelve years (1966-79), and a Director of Christies for ten years, since 1990 he has been a highly respected, independent historian, consultant, writer and lecturer. His books include ‘Florentine Renaissance Sculpture’, 1970, ‘Giambologna the Complete Sculpture’, Phaidon, 1987, ‘Donatello: An Introduction’, John Murray, 1994; ‘Bernini, Genius of the Baroque’, Thames and Hudson, 1997 (paperback, 2006),  and ‘The Triumph of Motion: Francesco Bertos’, 2008. Purchased by Dr Avery from Christie’s London, 10 June 2004, lot 124 Literature: Walter Miselli, 'Il Papato dal 1700 al 1730', Rome, n.d., nos. 64 [with obverse of Pope Clement XI by Claude Dubut] and 64A [uniface of reverse, as here] The medallion is a uniface cast from the reverse of a medal of Pope Clement XI of 1707 signed on the obverse by Claude Dubut.  It shows in perspective a splendid Baroque altar set at a slight angle to the viewer, with a Crucifix in the centre, flanked by statuettes of Saints Peter and Paul (recognisable by their standard attributes of keys and sword) and three pricket-candlesticks to either side. The altar has concave ends with the table strongly overhanging the step below, its front notionally supported by pairs of cherubim and centred with an oval narrative relief, presumably depicting the martyrdom of San Crescentino. The curvaceous edge of a papal (?) coat-of-arms may be descried at the left end. Three rectangular steps project round the altar, while another three - with an elliptical plan - project into the sanctuary of the church. This altar was made in Rome to the design of Alessandro Specchi and the bronzes were modelled by Camillo Rusconi. According to the implication of the inscription engraved on the reverse, either these figures and mounts were cast by Giuseppe Bertosi, or the superb set of silver Crucifix and candlesticks (perhaps also the pair of statues of Peter and Paul), weighing 316 Roman pounds and worth 19,000 scudi, which crowned the altar.  The complex was sent by sea from Civitavecchia to Pesaro and consecrated in 1708.  Alas, they were taken as booty by the French invaders under Napoleon in 1797 (Urbino, Museo Albani, introductory notes by Franco Negroni and catalogue entry by Giuseppe Cucco, Bologna, 1984, p.3). St Crescentino (Crescenziano), according to the passio, was a Roman soldier who, taking deserting in the Agro Tifernate, killed a dragon that was pestering the locality. When recaptured, he was executed on 1 June under the Emperor Diocletian and buried in a place called Gaddi, or Saddi, where a temple was erected in which St Floridus, Bishop of the City, and St Amantius, a priest dwelt and were buried. In the 11th century the relics of St Crescentino were given to Mainardo, Bishop of Urbino, or he stole them. The corpse of the saint is supposed to have been discovered on 18 December 1360 (see Biblioteca Sanctorum, IV, p. 288). The emergence of this relief signed by Bertosi with the Christian name Giuseppe (Joseph in Latin), and in a typically Roman Baroque style lays to rest once and for all a deceptive hypothesis that Bertosi was identical with Francesco Bertos, the Venetian sculptor (see C. Avery, 'The Triumph of Motion: Francesco Bertos (1678-1741) and the Art of Sculpture', Allemandi, Turin, 2008). According to Pietro Chattard, 'Nuova Descrizione del Vaticano' (Rome, 1762, I, p. 89), it was Bertosi who cast in 1720 the seated statue in the act of blessing designed by Angelo de Rossi for the tomb of Pope Alexander VIII in St Peter’s. Otherwise he is recorded as a silversmith living between 1699 and 1701 in the parish of St Stephen’s in Rome (Saur, 'Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon', vol. 10, Munich/Leipzig, 1955, pp. 131-32) and was paid in 1708 by the Apostolic Treasury for a silver-gilt crown for the King of Tongo (Bulgari, I,1, 1958, p. 158). The inscription carefully engraved on the otherwise blank reverse may be unique, for its content seems to be unrecorded, and throws new light on the commission: it is perhaps intended to record the fact that he cast either Rusconi’s bronzes or the lavish set of silver for the altar, and/or Dubut’s medallions for Pope Clement XI.