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old
coins
are
proving
to
be
an
addictive
study.
Struggled
to
draw
them
in
museum
showcases
until
I
remembered
that
I
actually
own
one:
an
8mm scrap of metal stamped with the head of an
emperor wearing a spiky crown (left). With the help of a one-day
course arranged by Hampshire Museums' Service and a fascinating
book, The
Iconography
of
Early
Anglo-Saxon
Coinage by Anna
Gannon
I was able to date it exactly (271-4 CE). But also
discovered a most peculiar practice. None of the coin experts
seemed surprised but I'll bet it's a revelation to most artists... |
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Roman Antoninianus
: (293-295
AD)
Emperor: Diocletian
Silvered wash on bronze
Hampshire Museums Service.
Pencil drawing on paper.
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Anglo-Saxon Silver
Penny (Circa 660 AD)
Series R. Type R7
Ashmolean Museum
Oxford.
Pencil drawing on
paper.
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Anglo-Saxon
Silver
Penny (Circa 679 AD)
Series Type R11
Fitzwilliam Museum
Cambridge.
Pencil drawing on
paper.
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I t
may
be hard to believe, but
the design of the central and right-hand coins is based on the Antoninianus (left)!
It
seems
that
Anglo-Saxon coiners had the difficult job of making copies of Roman
coins with no access to the originals. They
repeatedly copied images and writing that probably made little sense to
them: a kind of numismatic "Chinese
Whispers"! What fascinates me as a painter is that I use exactly the
same process to
refine and abstract an image.
This way of working
seems to
shift the artist's aim from "mimesis" (an imitation of
appearance) to a more oblique form of representation, partly defined by
the shape of the object, and the medium used to recreate it. For
most paintings that shape is
a rectangle - the medium: paint. Coins, of course,
are usually circular, the medium, sculptural: cutting away the
surface to create light and shade.
But this is just the
start of their problem. Most coins were created by bashing a metal disc
with a steel mould, called a "die" and it was this that had to be
engraved, not the coin. No wonder distortions occurred. Those
coiners were trying to copy a mysterious profile head and illegible
Latin inscription onto a tiny steel
disc. In reverse!
Each punched hollow
in the die forms a little bead-like shape, called a "pellet". There's a chain of
them forming the profile mouth on the
Fitzwilliam penny (above, right). Just
as repetitive copying of drawings or paintings encourages the
rearrangement
of brush strokes within the rectangle, could the "abstraction" of
these silver pennies be due to a rearrangement of pellets within the
disc?
Even though these
silver pennies are cruder in execution, repeated copying has
strengthened their composition.
Look at the meandering, weak shape between the profile and
lettering of the Antoninianus. Compare this
with the
integration of the profile and lettering on the two pennies.
Finally,
and
I'd
only
click this blue ball
if you want a shock. See how the same
process can be observed in all kinds of art, although I don't follow
their simplistic premise:  |
Comments or
questions regarding
this site: john.hicks@waitrose.com
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