Faustina Bordoni (1698-1781) was a renowned and acclaimed venetian singer (mezzosoprano) who performed in the most important European theatres and courts, including in London, where she performed for Georg Friedrich Händel. She played a crucial role in London's theatrical circles: her notorious rivalry with Francesca Cuzzoni created two factions in the London opera-going society.
Bordoni’s debut in 1716 in the theatre of San Giovanni Crisostomo in Venice marked the beginning of a brilliant career. In July 1723, Faustina performed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence in the Flavio Anicio Olibrio by the composer Francesco Gasperini with a libretto by Apostolo Zeno and Pietro Pariati (Van der Linden 2017, p. 24). Faustina was so successful and admired that two medals were made in her honour, cast by Giuseppe Broccetti, with the same portrait on the obverse and two distinct on the reverses. The reverse of the V&A cast shows a female figure, identified by some as the personification of Music (Avery 2000, p. 4) and by others as an allegory of Fame (Johnson 1975, p. 123; Johnson 1990, p. 399; Börner 1997, p. 314: Collezione Chigi Saracini 2005, p. 607; Vannel, Toderi 2006, p. 39; Flaten 2012, p. 69; Zucchini 2021, p. 73), sitting on top of a pile of musical instruments. She holds a trombone in her left hand and an orb on which rests a bird recognisable as a phoenix. The presence of the latter pair of symbols and the name of the effigy suggest a clear allusion to a figurative solution found on some ancient coins of Annia Galeria Faustina, known as Faustina the Elder, wife of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius. Among these medals, one shows, on the reverse, a figure of Eternity depicted as a seated woman holding a globe surmounted by the phoenix and the inscription ‘AETERNITAS’. With the erudite reference to antiquity and the presence of musical instruments, the reverse is presented as a celebration of the immortal fame that Faustina was able to gain with her extraordinary talent for singing, which made her unique, as expressed in the motto ‘Una avis in terris’ (‘the only bird on earth’) taken from and reworked by Juvenal (Satira 6, 165). The regal iconography adopted for the reverse of the medal also contributed to the heated controversy that the medal attracted. Especially outside the Tuscan borders, it was felt that a metal tribute of this kind for a ‘mere’ singer was decidedly inappropriate.

The commission of these medals can be assigned to Marchess Giugni, probably identifiable with Ottavio Giugni (Van der Linden 2017, p. 26). It was previously thought that the production of the medal had been promoted by Violante Beatrice of Bavaria, wife of the Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici. Although the Grand Princess Medici did not commission the medal herself, the taste at the Medici court for this type of object and for the musical and theatrical arts must have created a favourable climate to produce such medals, celebrating singers and actors.

The portrait medal of Faustina Bordoni, which exists in two versions with different reverses, is the only known medal signed by the Florentine sculptor and architect Giuseppe Broccetti (1684-1733), an artist with a multifaceted training, who trained with the goldsmith Cosimo Merlini, and the painter Alessandro Gherardini and before joining the workshop of the leading sculptor of the Grand Duchy, Giovan Battista Foggini.