General notes

Why would someone go to the trouble of designing a non-commercial web site devoted to art medals ? The smart answer can be given quickly : because he wants to have some pleasure.

To design a web site and at the same time get to know the displayed objects better, can be really enjoyable. What would the visitor get out of this web site ? We hope, enjoyment too and perhaps even a little more. The creator of this site has designed it in a way that would have been of great use to him when he started his collection. If he had had this information available to him at that time, he would have saved himself some costly errors, as it would have prevented him from making some bad purchases. How can we explain that ? It is only by comparing various works of art or craft that we are able to save ourselves from being attracted to the merely new, an attraction that soon fades with time. And so, we need to develop an ability to judge. Fashions do exist in art too- what was progressive yesterday, can today be seen as artificial or even old hat when viewed from a distance in time. On the other hand, in my opinion, there are also works of art that carry a certain timelessness and that, even after a period of time, can still ‘speak’ to us.

Precisely because there is never enough time when we come to buy a art medal, for instance at a medal fair, it is very difficult to resist the beguiling call of the surprise, to judge and grade an object correctly, an object that is to keep on providing pleasure for some time after it has been acquired. It would certainly be possible to be able to make subjective judgements and decisions using the literature provided by the DGMK or the Monnaie de Paris (see the links). In this present web site we have tried to provide a general view of the subject and to show the possibilities on offer with the use of hyperlinks. The viewer can freely move to and fro between the indexes ‘Medallists’ and ‘Themes’. The choice of theme, under which each photograph is indexed, is of course subjective and a photograph might be shown under more than one theme, but this does not create any problem for the web site. The colour photographs of art medals shown here may be seen as an additional small advantage over the usual black and white photographs found in books. The choice of the pictures being shown is quite deliberate but is of course limited to the material on hand in the collection. A conscious effort was made to avoid showing a collection of pictures of, not to put too fine a point on it, the busts of old men. The reverse of many medals appeared to be more interesting with regard to presentation and content than their obverse, showing the bust of an individual and his name. Art historians may regret this decision. However, this measure will be justified if it leads to a desire for more information. One consideration is which examples of a particular medallist’s works will be most representative of that artist but also be sympathetic with the overall impression of the site.

By clicking on the thumbnails we get an enlargement of the art medal and from there we can get back to the index of medallists on show or to a choice of art medals belonging to the same theme. This provides an easy answer to the question of how a particular theme is treated by various artists and can also be useful in deciding which theme to embark upon for a collection. Hopefully the viewer will enjoy most of the art medals shown. These are, of course, of varying degrees of artistry – whatever that term might mean. Their lowest common denominator is that they did not displease the author of this web site.

Assuming the viewer gets pleasure from seeing the many small pictures and from moving around the web site, it could nevertheless give rise to any number of questions and thoughts, similar to the author’s own experience: How are the content and shape of a particular art medal inter-connected ? Does the artistic form of a medal become overburdened by the message being conveyed by that medal? Is ‘shape’ everything and does ‘content’ count for nothing ? Where is the border between the ‘commercial’ and the ‘kitsch’ in medallic art? The old question: What is art ? Is art anything which is considered to be art ? Is it something we are all capable of, or not ? Is the concept of art still relevant – has it not long since been stripped of any meaning by historical development ? Has the idea of art been reduced to that which can be sold as such ? Does a stylistic and inherent timelessness really exist ? How large is the influence of fashion ? Is historical perspective ( and distance ) necessary for sound judgement ? To what extend is technical ability an aid or a hindrance to the creative genius, if such exists, in the development of an individuals psychogram ? What are the connections between painting, sculpture and medallic art ? How far does medallic art conform to mainstream ideas and which specific medallic trends can be observed ? In what way can current developments be judged and tendencies be detected ? What further trends might lie ahead that might perhaps allow a wider audience access to medallic art too ? … … … and so on, and so on. These questions can surely be asked about all ‘works of art’ and not just by the art historian either, who has his or her own prejudices. They do not appear only in relation to the collection shown here. Of course, one can simply enjoy seeing the pictures presented here.

As the number of photographs is quite limited, and as the choice is non-representative, it is advisable to consult the publications already mentioned above, which are also mentioned in the literature index ( and in the links given ) . These give information particularly about the contemporary medals and they help to formulate thoughts about the questions mentioned earlier. Enough of the wise words. Welcome to this site, please feel free to wander through it. I hope you will like at least some of the medals and that they may introduce you to something new. As the web site is so laden with pictures, and as the transfer speed of the internet is, in part, still quite slow, it was necessary to reduce the picture data, resulting in a little deterioration in picture clarity which we hope you will excuse. Finally, I would be glad to receive messages from you telling me what has pleased or displeased you, perhaps including proposals for any improvements to be made.

Many thanks from the webmaster to Arnold and Lyn Dekker for the English translation