07/10/2026
ABYSSUS ALIS
“An abyss with wings”
Impresa medal.
925 sterling silver; total weight 35 g.
Cairo, 2026.
Commissioned by Yari Jordan Montemagno.
During the Renaissance, the impresa brought together an image and a motto to consecrate a personal quality, an intention, or a significant passage in life. Pisanello anticipated its visual language in medals made for the Este court in Ferrara and the Gonzaga court in Mantua during the 1440s: the portrait on the obverse, the symbolic invention on the reverse.
Within an impresa, opposites can find a shared form: coincidentia oppositorum.
Obverse: portrait of the commissioner in profile, facing right; around the rim, the motto ABYSSUS ALIS.
Reverse: a giant Atlantic octopus, its tentacles supported and carried aloft by swallows. Here, the octopus represents depth, darkness, and solitude; the swallows, communal life, the flock, the air, and proximity to the sun.
The coincidence of opposites runs through both languages of the impresa: in the motto, the abyss and the wings; in the symbol, the creature of the depths entrusted to the creatures of the sky.
