Andrea Pellegrino (active in Milan between 1621 and 1625), Gold Medal of the Habsburg King Philip IV of Spain, and Duke of Milan (1621-1665)

The only work that remains of Andrea Pellegrino, master engraver and contractor for the Milan mint between 1625 and 1630, is this medal with the initials of his name AP. The medal was coined in the second half of the 1630s and celebrates the end of the plague of Milan. On the obverse of the medal is the portrait of Philip IV wearing armour, a ruffle and a necklace of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Milan enclosed by the city walls is depicted on the reverse, in the foreground lie sprawled human cadavers and above an angel holding a flaming sword. The reverse inscription, ET INDE SALVS VIVE MEDIOL leaves no doubt as to the episode to which the medal refers: the artist wished to depict the moment in which the pestilence began to be eradicated. The bodies of the sick in the foreground visually represent the threat to the city that has been left outside the walls.