Bertoldo di Giovanni (c. 1440–1491)

Italian sculptor and medallist. He worked for the Medici family in Florence, one of his most original medals illustrating the assassination of Giuliano de' Medici in Florence Cathedral during the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478. He also sculpted several statuettes of Hercules that are among the finest of the period. His works show the influence of the elderly Donatello.

Of obscure origin, perhaps born in Florence as an illegitimate son of Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici, Bertoldo worked mainly in the circle of the Medici, especially of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and became curator of the Medici sculpture collection, where his visitors included the young Michelangelo.

His earliest dated piece is a medal of 1469 showing Emperor Frederick III. Among his best-known pieces is the bronze panel Cavalry Battle (Bargello, Florence), based on a fragmentary Roman sarcophagus in Pisa. Another well-known piece, cast by Adriano Fiorentino, is the bronze group Bellerophon and Pegasus (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), indebted to the Horse-tamers of the Quirinal Hill, Rome.