10000 Lire 1976, Italy
| in Krause book | Number: 106а |
| Years of issue: | 30.10.1976 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Il Governatore: Paolo Baffi (in office from 19.08.1975 till 03.1979), Il Cassiere: Vittorio Stevani |
| Serie: | 1976 - 1979 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 1976 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 133 х 70 |
| Printer: | Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Rome (from 1978) |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
"Portrait of man" and electrotype "BI" monogram of Banco Italia.
Avers:
On banknote is "The Portrait of a Man", by Italian painter Andrea del Castagno, size 54,2x40,4 cm., oil on wood. Dated by first half of XV century, (approx. between 1450 and 1457).
The work, generally attributed to the last stage of Andrea del Castagno, was probably part of the collections of the Del Nero family in Florence, which in the eighteenth century merged with the Torrigiani family. Reminded at Palazzo Torrigiani-Del Nero in the nineteenth century, it was sold to the Englishman Charles Fairfax Murray, who put it in the Parisian antique market. In 1907 he was acquired by J. Pierpont Morgan and transported to New York. Surrendered to Andrew W. Mellon in 1955, came after his death through his foundation at the Washington National Museum in 1937 through donation.
The nobleman, who does not know the identity, is portrayed by three quarters, a very rare pose for the Italian portraiture of the time, which is the oldest known example. If in Flanders this representation was typical since the thirties of the fifteenth century, in the Italian courts and cities the profile portraits were preferred, recalling the emperors' Roman empires on medals and classic coins.
The character is depicted with a remarkable physiognomic discovery, retraining it in full maturity, richly dressed, with an upright posture and a proud look that looks directly at the spectator. The background is a sky that clears toward the horizon. The light defines the forms of the subject with incisiveness and focuses on describing the various faces encountered, from the soft fabric to the glossy gloss, to the dark mass of hair. The plastic rigidity is attenuated by the attention to the well-marked design and contour, which is mainly perceived in the features of the face, revealing the typical Florentine matrix of the work.
Andrea del Castagno (or Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla; c. 1421 – 19 August 1457) was an Italian painter from Florence, influenced chiefly by Tommaso Masaccio and Giotto di Bondone. His works include frescoes in Sant'Apollonia in Florence and the painted equestrian monument of Niccolò da Tolentino (1456) in the Cathedral in Florence. He in turn influenced the Ferrarese school of Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de' Roberti.
Lower is the unofficial emblem of Bank of Italy.
Winged lion of St. Mark, symbol of Venice above three shields of Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi.
The Lion of Saint Mark, representing the evangelist St Mark, pictured in the form of a winged lion, is the symbol of the city of Venice and formerly of the Republic of Venice. It appears also in both merchant and military naval flags of the Italian Republic. The Lion of Saint Mark is also the symbol of the award of the Venice Film Festival, the "Golden Lion", and of the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali.
Denomination in numeral is in top left corner. Top, centered, in words.
Revers:
On banknote, centered, are architectural elements: diamond point bugnato facade and part of the entrance (marble portal) of the New Church of Jesus, in Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, in Napoli. It is the original facade of Palazzo Sanseverino.
Gesù Nuovo (Italian New Jesus) is the name of a church and a square in Naples, Italy. They are located just outside the western boundary of the historic center of the city. To the southeast of the spire, one can see a block away the Fountain of Monteoliveto and the piazza of the church of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi. The square is a result of the expansion of the city to the west beginning in the early XVI century under the rule of Spanish viceroy Pedro Alvarez de Toledo.
The facade of the Gesù Nuovo church is decorated with faceted stone slabs with traces of stonecutters, which resemble a faceted diamonds, remotely. According to the legend, magic signs are coded here, because of the numerous disasters that struck the place. In the center is a marble epigraph reminding of the fact that the architect of the original Sanseverino castle is the architect Novello da San Lucano and the year of construction of the castle is 1470.
The Church of Gesù Nuovo was originally a palace built in 1470 for Roberto Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno. The Jesuits had already built a church with this name in Naples, now called Gesú Vecchio. Political intrigues by the Sanseverino family caused the property to be confiscated, and eventually sold in the 1580s to the Jesuits for 45,000 ducats to construct a church (1584-1601) under architect Giuseppe Valeriano. The construction was also helped by local support including that of Roberta Carafa, Countess of Maddaloni. The adjacent gardens of Isabella Feltria, Principessa di Bisignano were also included in the construction. Construction of the church began in 1584. The new church retained the unusual facade, originally built for the palace, faced with rustic ashlar diamond projections.
When the Jesuits were expelled from Naples in 1767, the church passed to the Franciscan order. The Jesuits returned in 1821, only to be expelled again in 1848.
The vault frescos, representing biblical and saintly narratives that exalt the name of Jesus, were carried out by Belisario Corenzio and Paolo de Matteis. At the back of the facade is The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (1725), a baroque masterpiece by Francesco Solimena. On the four pillars which support the dome are frescos of the four Evangelists, carried out by Giovanni Lanfranco. The inside of the dome had also been decorated by Lanfranco, but this was destroyed in the earthquake of 1688. Paolo de Matteis then repainted a new dome. The frescos of the life of the Virgin, placed on the second part of the vault up to the apse, are by Massimo Stanzione.
Surrounding the altar are three bronze bas-reliefs on a black marble base: on the left, The Supper at Emmaus (by Salvatore Irdi), on the right, The Promise of the Eucharist at Capernaum, and in the middle a reproduction of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. These last two bas-reliefs are by Gennaro Calì.
Above the altar, with didactic and historical symbols concerning the mystery of the Eucharist, are eight busts of saints who glorified the Eucharist. From left to right are medallions of Saints Juliana of Liège, Stanislaus Kostka, Thomas Aquinas, Francis Borgia, Gaetano Thiene, and the blessed Lanfranc of Canterbury. Gennaro Calì completed four medallions; the third and the fourth busts are by Costantino Labarbera. 
On right side is the lower part of Spire or Guglia of the Immaculate Virgin (Obelisco dell'Immacolata), on Gesù Nuovo square, in Napoli.
The Guglia dell'Immacolata is a monument that stands in the square in front of the church of Gesù Nuovo. It is the tallest and most ornamental of three such "plague columns" in Naples. Putatively, it was built to invoke the Virgin Mary's protection from the plague. Begun in the XVII century, it was completed only in 1750 after decades of pauses in construction. Sculptors Francesco Pagani and Matteo Bottiglieri worked on the rich Baroque decoration, prototypic of Neapolitan Baroque. It contains bas-relief depictions of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, the Birth of the Virgin Mary and the Annunciation.
Denomination in numeral is in top right corner.
Comments:
Drawing: Giovanni Pino (obverse & reverse).
Etching: Trento Cionini (obverse); Alberto Canfarini (reverse).
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