Bowdoin College Museum of Art

The Marchese Cesare Molinari D’Incisa

Raised in Venice, Italy, the Marchese Cesare Molinari D’Incisa (1879—1964) developed a deep appreciation for art and history, with a particular fondness for collecting and studying medals. In 1911 Molinari married the Philadelphia native Amanda Marchesa Molinari, née Hendrickson (1881—1968). The couple traveled regularly, frequently acquiring medals as they visited cities throughout Europe. The collection’s strength in Italian and French medals may reflect their homes in these countries.

During World War II, the Molinaris hid the collection in their Parisian apartment while waiting out the war in New York. The collection survived the war intact, and in their later years the couple sought to donate it to an institution dedicated to education. Inspired by this Museum’s exhibition of the acclaimed Salton Collection of medals and plaquettes in 1965, the Marchesa chose to give their collection to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Since the first shipment’s arrival at the College in four large chests in 1966, the Molinari collection has grown to include over 1,500 examples of medallic art, ranking among the largest public collection of medals in the country.

Louis XIV’s Monumental Propaganda Medals

This selection of medals, displayed with the accompanying volume Medailles sur les principaux evenement du regne entire de Louis de Grand: avec des explications historiques [Medals about the Major Events of the Entire Reign of Louis the Great, Accompanied by Historic Accounts] represents part of the Uniform Series of Louis XIV.  These government-issued medals, together with the book that explicated them, celebrate the achievements of the Sun King during his seventy-two-year reign. Exhibited here, with one exception, are the reverses of the medals that depicted the monarch’s likeness. This likeness was itself modeled after the Historia Augusta, a series of issues of gold solidus, silver denarius, and bronze sestertius coins created by the first twelve Roman emperors. Scholars recognize parallels between the Uniform Series and the Historia Augusta in their “conscious attempt” to disperse a widespread physical record of both the ruler and his achievements

Studying Medals as Historical Objects

Medals represent important historical documents in their own right. This French edition of the seminal 1732 work by the Dutch lawyer Gerard Van Loon surveys the history of the Netherlands through textual and visual evidence gleaned from Dutch numismatics. The page displayed here discusses the history of Johann (1625–1672) and Cornelius de Witt (1623–1672), key political figures in Dutch politics of the seventeenth century whose liberal and republican ideals stood in opposition to the powerful House of Orange-Nassau, headed by the Sovereign Prince William III. Johann’s and Cornelius’s diplomatic skills led to the Triple Alliance of 1668 between the Dutch Republic, England, and Sweden, which halted the French invasion of the Netherlands. However, in 1672 Charles II of England abandoned the alliance, prompting the French to invade the Netherlands. In frustration, the Dutch people turned on the de Witt brothers. These three medals, produced by supporters in the wake of their lynching at the hands of the mob, use rich metaphorical imagery to portray the brothers as martyrs of Dutch republican patriotism. The medal by Pierre Aury, for example, depicts the brothers in a wreath of horns entwined with ribbon being consumed by a many-headed beast.

The Ancient Origins of Medals

During the middle ages, circulating coins were often struck with rudimentary images that referenced worship of the divine. A notable exception was the early thirteenth-century gold currency of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. In an attempt to evoke his ties to the glory of the ancient Roman Empire, Frederick II had gold coins designed with his profile bust on the obverse (or front of the coin) in homage to imperial coins of the past. This represented the first adaptation of the conventions of ancient portraiture by a European ruler and preceded the inception of the portrait medal by two centuries.

Medals are distinct from coins in that they are not intended to be used for monetary purposes. The format of the traditional medal, however, harkens back to ancient currency in that the obverse (“heads”) features the portrait of the sitter and the reverse (“tails”) an informative image with which the sitter wished to be associated. References to ancient numismatics are frequently found on medals, from a subtle adoption of ancient motifs to outright mimicry and copying. This is evident in the second row in the sixteenth-century bronze medal of Alessandro I de’ Medici by Domenico de’ Vetri and that of Cosimo Scapti by Giovanni del Cavino, which mimic the second-century Roman sestertius of the Emperor Trajan on the far left. At the bottom of the case, the reverse of an 1806 medal of Napoleon by Nicolas Guy Brenet carries a direct rendition of the reverse image of the ancient Greek coin above it.

The Reproducibility of Medals

Before the age of photography, medals were attractive to art patrons as one of the few mediums that could be faithfully and easily duplicated for wider distribution. However, late copies (aftercasts) can be distinguished from earlier examples by the shrinkage in diameter and loss of detail associated with the molding process. These three examples of the famous 1438 medal of John VIII Paleologus by Italian painter Pisanello—widely credited as the first portrait medal ever made—are illustrative of the copying process. The specimen on the left represents an early cast, indicated by its larger diameter and sharp details. The center specimen is a later cast, as evidenced by its slightly smaller diameter. The specimen on the right represents a still later copy, on which the hair of Paleologus was retooled by the copyist to compensate for the loss of detail on the mold after extensive use. Evident in a late sixteenth-century Dutch engraving, the practice of reproducing medals helped ensure the lasting impact of the artwork across time and place.

Medals were made in several different metals for distribution to a variety of potential patrons. Lead, considered the cheapest material, was used by artists to make test impressions (because of its softness) or for budget-minded collectors. Bronze and gilt (gold-plated) copper were the most common mediums for presentation. Silver and gold medals were normally produced only for wealthy, high-status recipients.