Conveners
S84. MEDALS 2. POLAND
- Tom Hockenhull (British Museum)
Unlike coins, medals were not bound by any restrictions of size or weight. Cast or struck, they were usually larger, thicker and more three-dimensional than the flat coins, sometimes with the obverse and/or reverse shaped in high relief. This phenomenon is especially noticeable in the facing and three-quarter facing portraits frequently seen on medals. However, the compositional scheme of...
The paper aims to present the figure of the titular Queen of Great Britain Maria Klementyna Sobieska-Stuart based on medals which commemorate the most important moments in her life. The medals were minted by the top-class medalist Otto Hamerani at the request of Popes Clement XI and Benedict XIV. The medals commemorate the princess's escape from captivity in Ambras Castle, her triumphal...
The 18th century was the time when the whole Europe widely introduced the award or prize medals not only as a gift or token of gratitude to commemorate the merits of an individual or an institution, which was an established practice, but also a specific type of a universal medal. Like many other rulers of the Enlightenment, king Stanislaus II Augustus introduced this type of medal (e.g....
