In the context of this artwork, analyze the Constantine and Heraclius medals of the Influences on the creation of Pisanello's medal.
Two important prototypes for Pisanello's portrait medal were copies of the medals of the emperors Constantine and Heraclius. It is believed that Jean, duke of Berry commissioned the medals to be copied from originals, now lost, during the period 1402–1413. The original Constantine medal was purchased by the duke from a Florentine merchant in 1402, which closely associates the medals with the visit of John's father, Manuel II Palaeologus, to Paris from 1400 to 1402. The Heraclius medal was likely to have been acquired at the same time. Jean's acquisition of the medals could have been intended as gifts for the Byzantine emperor in response to a group of relics Jean received from Manuel. The political context in which Jean de Berry's medals were purchased was therefore similar to that in which Pisanello cast his medal of John: Manuel II, like his son after him, also visited the west in an attempt to secure protection for Constantinople from the Ottomans. The context of their purchase and the lack of any numismatic precedent for the medals suggests the originals may well have had Byzantine enkolpia as their model: these were sacred objects "worn about the neck and endowed with spiritual efficacy’.
The Constantine and Heraclius medals were widely circulated in Italy and the Heraclius medal was recorded in an inventory of Niccolò d’Este's treasures in 1432. Pisanello's familiarity with both medals seems unquestionable because of their similarity in size and design to the medal of John VIII. Pisanello appears to have merged various elements from both medals to produce a single piece. The obverse of the Constantine medal, for example, is an equestrian portrait, and that of the Heraclius medal is a profile portrait. Like Pisanello's medal, the obverse of the Heraclius medal shows the emperor with a servant and contains text in both Greek and Latin. Both emperors were associated with the True Cross, which is portrayed on their obverses. The ownership of the True Cross relic was something of which the Palaeologus dynasty was very proud, making these highly appropriate models for Pisanello to use. It is not known whether Pisanello believed the medals to have come from antiquity or if he was aware of their more recent French background. It is certainly plausible that he observed their similarity of style with that of French illuminated manuscripts and therefore hoped to harness, through his medal, their associations with the culture of chivalry rather than antiquity. The bold yet refined technique and style of Pisanello's medal is nevertheless clearly different from that of the more overtly intricate Constantine and Heraclius medals.
Constantine obverse Manuel II Palaeologus True Cross Paris chivalry Jean, duke of Berry Pisanello enkolpia Heraclius medal