Studio: international art (15.1899)

The Renaissance oj the Medal in France

present revival. Each of these precursors secured meditative poet, who came to a premature end in
for his successors the benefits of emancipation and 1889.

progress. The initiative of David d'Anger deserves These salutary and decisive influences, far from
to be recognised first of all and with special empha- weakening the prestige of the leaders of modern
sis, for it has too often happened that his medallion glyptics, tend rather to explain the causes of their
portraits, of world-wide fame, have caused his nobly-
conceived and often tragic works to be forgotten.
Ondine's distinction lay in hastening, as much by his
teaching as by his own example, the enfranchise-
ment of an art which, since the days of the First
Empire, had been confined to the reproduction

mirror-back by oscar roty

renown. The powers1 of men like Roty or Chap-
lain stand out the more prominently as they mark
the logical conclusion, the result of half a century
of labour and research. There is an abundance of
contrasts between the works of the two men; and
"aux maitres de la glyptique francaise " tne diversity of talent shown by these leaders,

plaquette by lechevrel while adding considerable lustre to the present

of other people's fancies.
Then came Ponscarme,
a teacher of eminence,
from whose studios
emerged many a pupil of

note, and who under- ^
stood the art of adapting
to medal-work the prin-
ciples of low-relief, by
subjecting it to the
unifying bonds of the
enveloppe; while later
the work of the medallist
was in due course en-
dowed with feeling and
grace and emotion by
Chapu and Degeorge,

the latter a dreamy "labergere" by oscar roty

19