The exhibition, The Art of Medals from 1700 to 1799 in the Collection of the National Museum in Wrocław, features medals, plaques, tokens and medal dies from the museum’s own holdings.
The works commemorate major events in 18th-century Wrocław, the wider region and Europe as a whole.
Museum director Piotr Oszczanowski said the pieces form “a kind of extraordinary metal chronicle” created through the skill of their makers.
“We will see dignified heroes, historically consequential events, exceptional ceremonies and spectacular foundations, in a word, everything that 18th-century Wrocław, Silesia and Europe were living through at the time. People talked about it, people commented on it,” Oszczanowski said.
Photos: PAP/Maciej Kulczyński
The exhibition includes works by leading 17th- and 18th-century royal engravers and sculptors Jean Dassier, Matthäus Donner, Jean Duvivier, Nicolas-Marie Gatteaux, Johann Philipp Holzhaeusser and Franz Andreas Schega.
Their medals feature rulers and members of ruling families, officials, military commanders, clergy, scientists and artists, as well as references to contemporary and historical events.
Curator Magdalena Karnicka drew attention to two-part numismatic objects that could be opened. She said miniature oil paintings were once placed inside them and later replaced with prints.
Another exhibition, Tiles, Delft Tiles, Small Tiles. Ceramic Intermezzi, opening next Tuesday, June 9, will present a selection from the museum’s collection of 186 wall and floor tiles, officials said.
The display will include Dutch Delft tiles, thin fired-clay tiles most often used for wall coverings, along with Spanish azulejos and a group of medieval German floor tiles.
Curator Jolanta Sozańska said several objects in the collection deserved special attention because of their richer or unusual decoration and quality of craftsmanship.
Among the Spanish works, she pointed to a ceramic address sign, a form used on the Iberian Peninsula from the early Renaissance to mark homes. Such azulejos, often decorated with a coat of arms, clearly signaled the owner’s social status.
Another highlight is a large Rococo ceramic picture tile showing an exotic bird, probably a kingfisher, which Sozańska described as perhaps the greatest aesthetic ornament of the collection.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP