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THE HISTORY OF MEDALLIC ART
In the
domain of medallic art,
it is no secret that the art medal has a long history. For centuries,
art
medals have been subjects to represent a gesture of honour or
recognition for
humanity. The
art medal was born in the period of the Renaissance, primarily with
artist
Antonio Pisano or Pisanello (c.1390–1455).
This moment is decisive for the art medal, because the making of a
medal was from now on
consciously considered as a form of artistic expression. Aristocrats
and wealthy patrons saw to it that the medal became a symbol of
achievement.
Tradition established that a specially designed medal was given as a
sign or record of recognition to honour or reward one person or a group
of
individuals. Even
before the Renaissance, medals were always part of our societies as
long as
societies can remember. In fact, coins of ancient times were the
ancestors of
medals. Often these coins had portraits of rulers or heroes on them.
This
eventually led to the medallions of Ancient Rome. These medallions were
made
larger than coins and they were often given as gifts, and sometimes
they were
worn as
jewellery. When struck
medal coins
were produced in large numbers in the early eighteen hundreds, the art
medal
received even more attention for its intimacy between the artist and
the
viewer. In more recent years, for example in France, artists such as
Braque, Giacometti, Matisse,
Moore and Picasso explored the realms of
medallic arts to extend their individual forms of expression. Dora de
Pédery-Hunt, Canada’s most prominent medallic
artist,
created one of
the earliest Canadian art medals in 1961 for the Canada Council. Today,
in many
parts of our world, including Canada, we witness a renewed interest in
this
very ancient art form, the making of a humble hand-held sculpture- “a
monumental miniature.” Though many countries in
Europe have
had
their well established art medal societies for a while, Canada was left
without
one since 1965, until recently.
The
time had come to create the Medallic Art Society of Canada or MASC. Del
Newbigging, sculpture student and longtime friend of Dora de
Pédery-Hunt,
called for the formation of Canada’s new medal
society in
July 2000.
He invited a group of artists, who gathered at a round table to discuss
the
possibilities of reviving a proper focus on medallic arts. His major
inspiration was Canada’s Dora de Pédery-Hunt, who amongst many other
of her important medals, created the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on
all current Canadian coins. Today, MASC reaches out beyond Canadian borders with members from Ireland, England, United States and Australia. |