Phoenix on a Pyre Looking at the Sun [reverse]

This medal from Mantua depicts a phoenix standing atop its pyre and facing the sun. The bird's wings are partly open, and beneath it burns a small mound of stylized flames, representing the moment of its self-immolation and renewal. This composition follows a widespread Renaissance interpretation of the ancient myth, in which the phoenix burns itself on a nest made of aromatic twigs and rises again from the ashes.

In earlier Christian art, the phoenix had become a symbol of the resurrection of Christ, with Coptic language retellings placing the site of its fiery death at the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. By the Middle Ages, artists across Europe began to depict the phoenix in the form of an eagle perched on a burning pyre, its gaze turned upward toward the sun, the source of divine light. This Italian medal reflects that iconography, presenting the mythic bird not as a creature of natural wonder but as a visual allegory of faith and spiritual renewal.

The Renaissance fascination with the phoenix drew on both classical and Christian traditions. Medieval bestiaries described the phoenix as a solitary bird that lived in Arabia or India, feeding on incense and spices before building a nest of cinnamon and myrrh in which it met its end and rebirth. Italian artists and poets revived these stories, seeing in them a metaphor for eternal life. An etching after Raphael's painting of the phoenix was even paired with a poem describing how the bird prepares its fragrant pyre before being reborn in light.

In this medal, the phoenix facing the sun conveys an image of transformation and transcendence, a union of classical mythology and Christian belief that resonated deeply with Renaissance ideals of renewal and immortality.