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Titian’s Christ with the Coin: Recovering the Spiritual Currency of Numismatics in Renaissance Ferrara

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Christopher J. Nygren
Christopher J. Nygren*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Abstract

Titian painted Christ with the Coin for Alfonso d’Este around 1516. The painting served as the cover piece for a collection of ancient coins and has been read as a commentary on politics and taxation. Instead, this article reveals how the painting reconfigured Alfonso’s interaction with ancient coins, transforming the everyday activity of the collector into an occasion of spiritual reformation. Reading numismatic antiquarianism against the exegetical tradition that accrued around the Gospel pericope (Matthew 22:21) reveals the painting as the nexus of two regimes of virtue — one Christian, one classical — both of which turn upon coins as manifold objects.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , Summer 2016 , pp. 449 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 Renaissance Society of America

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