DOI Heft:
No. 37 (April, 1896)
DOI Artikel:S., E. B.: Oscar Roty and the art of the medallist
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17296#0174
Oscar Roty and the Art of the Medallist
limits of our ordi-
nary coins. It is
not easy for the
most experienced
designer to pre-
serve his large
effect with such a
radical difference
in scale. Even in
black - and - white
work by old hands,
too great reduc-
tion, which is often
resorted to by in-
capable men to
hide defects, when
applied to first-class
work, entirely alters
from the original by oscar roty at south kensington museum its character.
Therefore it is not
Dubois, F. Vernon, Eugene Monchou, A. Paleey, surprising to find that the sculptors who essayed
L. A. Bottee, E. Tasset, and others, with the latest, (many for the first time) the art of the coin, alto-
but not least, Oscar Roty, whose works are the text gether misunderstood its character. Several of the
of this discourse. In studying these you will find, of designs—those by Mr. Onslow Ford, for instance—
course, that their merits vary, but nowhere do they were exquisite examples of the art of the medallion,
reach the abject ineptitude of British work. One and in the size of an ordinary cheese plate, looked
and all preserve at least a memory of a grander entirely admirable, but when reduced the charming
style. TheCresarism of the two Empires left its trace detail became too obtrusive, and the simple planes
upon the art of the medallist, and certain Roman in their reduced proportion no longer told out as
virtues are yet present, even in the least worthy restful surfaces, but merely as spots unable to fulfil
examples. Especially in all do you find a more their purpose. One of the coins, with its obverse
or less broad quality of design, which proves that design of the archangel Michael and the Dragon,
the size of the
intended work
was carefully
borne in mind.
In England, as
an exhibition
of designs by
eminent sculp-
tors for the
Jubilee coin-
age showed
but a few years
ago, it is the
practice to
work elaborate
roundels of a
fairly large
size, which are
afterwards re-
duced by
mecha n i c a 1
means to the from the original by oscar roty at south Kensington museum
159
limits of our ordi-
nary coins. It is
not easy for the
most experienced
designer to pre-
serve his large
effect with such a
radical difference
in scale. Even in
black - and - white
work by old hands,
too great reduc-
tion, which is often
resorted to by in-
capable men to
hide defects, when
applied to first-class
work, entirely alters
from the original by oscar roty at south kensington museum its character.
Therefore it is not
Dubois, F. Vernon, Eugene Monchou, A. Paleey, surprising to find that the sculptors who essayed
L. A. Bottee, E. Tasset, and others, with the latest, (many for the first time) the art of the coin, alto-
but not least, Oscar Roty, whose works are the text gether misunderstood its character. Several of the
of this discourse. In studying these you will find, of designs—those by Mr. Onslow Ford, for instance—
course, that their merits vary, but nowhere do they were exquisite examples of the art of the medallion,
reach the abject ineptitude of British work. One and in the size of an ordinary cheese plate, looked
and all preserve at least a memory of a grander entirely admirable, but when reduced the charming
style. TheCresarism of the two Empires left its trace detail became too obtrusive, and the simple planes
upon the art of the medallist, and certain Roman in their reduced proportion no longer told out as
virtues are yet present, even in the least worthy restful surfaces, but merely as spots unable to fulfil
examples. Especially in all do you find a more their purpose. One of the coins, with its obverse
or less broad quality of design, which proves that design of the archangel Michael and the Dragon,
the size of the
intended work
was carefully
borne in mind.
In England, as
an exhibition
of designs by
eminent sculp-
tors for the
Jubilee coin-
age showed
but a few years
ago, it is the
practice to
work elaborate
roundels of a
fairly large
size, which are
afterwards re-
duced by
mecha n i c a 1
means to the from the original by oscar roty at south Kensington museum
159