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DEPARTMENT OF COINS.

THE fronts of the two upright cases (A and B) on either side of the King's Library contain electrotypes of the finest ancient coins in the National Collection, arranged in such a manner as to afford a synoptical view, at once historical and geographical, of the gold and silver coinage of the ancient world, from the invention of the art of coining money early in the seventh century B.C. down to the Christian Era.

The chief value of Greek coins lies in their being original works of art, not copies as are most of the extant sculptures in the round, and in their recording the successive phases and local varieties of Greek art, in which respect no other class of monuments, sculptures, bronzes, terracottas, fictile vases, or gems, can compete with them. If not by leading artists in all cases, they certainly faithfully represent the sculpture and even painting of many of the great masters, some of whom are only known to us by name. Thus in no other branch of Greek monuments can the student so readily and so thoroughly trace the growth, the maturity, and the decay of Greek art, the great art of antiquity.

For the study of mythology these coins present the local conceptions of the gods and heroes worshipped in the Greek world, with their attributes and symbols. The historian will find a gallery of characteristic portraits of sovereigns, almost complete, from Alexander the Great to Augustus. The geographical student will be able to verify and correct the nomenclature of the classical writers as preserved to us in manuscripts. The metrologist, by comparing the weights specified in the Guide, can gain an insight into the various systems of ancient metrology in its different standards, and obtain a just view of the relative values of the precious metals and the great lines

of trade in the Greek and Roman world. For practical purposes, the medallist and the art-workman will find this series the most profitable as well as the safest guide. The artist will not fail to perceive the suggestive value of designs which, however small, are essentially large in treatment.

Case A is divided vertically into four historical compartments, and Case B into three. These compartments, numbered I.-VII., contain the principal coins current during the following periods:

:

I. circ. B.C. 700-480, Period of Archaic Art, ending with the Persian Wars.

II. circ. B.C. 480-400, Period of Transitional and early Fine Art, to the end of the Athenian Supremacy.

III. circ. B.C. 400-336, Period of Finest Art: age of the Spartan and Theban

Supremacies.

IV. circ. B.C. 336-280, Period of later Fine Art: age of Alexander the Great and

the Diadochi.

V. circ. B.C. 280-190, Period of the Decline of Art:

age of the Epigoni, &c.

VI. circ. B.C. 190-100, Period of continued Decline of Art: age of the Attalids, &c.

VII. circ. B.C. 100-1,

Period of late Decline of Art:

age of Mithradates the Great and of Roman Dominion.

Each of the above seven compartments is divided horizontally into three geographical sections, the upper one (a) containing the coins of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, Syria, &c., and Egypt; the middle one (b) those of Northern and Central Greece, Peloponnesus, and the Aegean Islands; and the lowest (c) those of Italy, Sicily, the Southern shores of the Mediterranean and Western Europe.

Each of the seven historical compartments thus offers in its three geographical sections a complete view of the coins

current throughout the civilized world during that particular century or period, the whole forming a series of historically successive tableaux.

The individual specimens are separately labelled and numbered in each of the 21 divisions, the numbers referring to the Guide to this portion of the Exhibition (now in preparation) where full descriptions and explanations are given.

The Table-Cases C to K contain a selection of the finest and most interesting medals in the National Collection, Italian, German, French, Dutch, and English.

The Medal had its origin under the Roman Empire, although the Greeks in some cases struck coins of a medallic character intended to record events. The Roman Emperors issued a series of types, especially in their "large brass money, the reverses of which are a gazette of the events of history. They invented the Medal in striking large and more carefully executed pieces, which had no fixed value in metal, and bore the portrait of an imperial personage with a reverse type recording an event of his reign or otherwise personally commemorative. This art did not survive the fall of the Western Empire and revived with the Renaissance.

Italy, the leader in the revival of arts and letters, first restored the Medal. It is probably not a coincidence that the oldest Italian Medal was cast in 1390 in honour of Francesco Carrara, Lord of Padua, the friend of Petrarch, himself one of the earliest collectors of Roman coins. The finest Italian works are of the middle and latter part of the fifteenth century. Subsequently medal casting and striking gradually fell into the hands of inferior artists, and, however historically interesting, is rarely a worthy measure of contemporary painting and sculpture in Italy. There are few works of any merit after the middle of the seventeenth century.

Examples are here given, including leaden proofs of the early Italian medals, classed according to the masters. The first group is by Vittore Pisano (Pisanello), A.D. cir. 1380-1451, the Veronese painter, the true founder of modern medal engraving, Sperandio (1447-1528), Matteo Pasti, Fra Antonio da Brescia, and Niccolo of Florence. In Pisano's works the

F

portraits of John VII. Palæologus, Emperor of Constantinople, and Alphonso the Magnanimous, King of Naples, are the most remarkable, and the reverse types of the eagle and vultures, and the boar hunt, on medals of Alphonso. A series of portrait medals follows, representing the most distinguished personages of that epoch, such as Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici, Federigo, Duke of Urbino, Francesco Sforza, and Savonarola, a medal which is perhaps not contemporary. Medals of the sixteenth century include works by Francesco Francia, and Benvenuto Cellini, Pietro Paolo Galeotti, called P. P. Romano, Giovanni Maria Pomedello, and a series of portraits by Pastorino of Siena, and of portraits and classical imitations by Giovanni Cavino, the well-known "Paduan' medallist, who worked in conjunction with his brother. One of the most beautiful works of this time is the medal of Jacoba Corregia, attributed to Pomedello. The works of Trezzo and

Primavera are mentioned in the English series.

The series of Papal medals contains portraits from Martin V. downwards, and is of value as the most continuous representation of Italian work in this branch. The famous medal struck by Gregory XIII. in commemoration of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, as well as a later copy, is here exhibited.

French medals present three great epochs, the Renaissance in France, the age of Louis XIV., and that of Napoleon I. The medals of the first age are of high merit, not unworthy to be compared with contemporary Italian works; those of the second are more interesting as historical documents than for any artistic value; those of the third represent the most successful modern revival of classical art by a local and purely French school.

The earliest medal in the series, that of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany, is anterior in style to the French Renaissance. The school of medallists of François I. and his descendants must be distinguished from that of Henri IV., under whom Dupré and Varin (or Warin) are the chief names. The great medals of the Valois Kings must be especially noticed; the largest are always "plaques," that is to say. having a subject on one side only.

In the Napoleon series the most curious medal is the famous

piece struck "at London" in commemoration of the conquest of England. This medal was never issued, and is not known to be extant an electrotype is therefore exhibited.

In Germany medals were first made by the goldsmiths of Nuremburg and Augsburg in the sixteenth century. The work of Albert Dürer is the highest point of their achievement, although the earliest medals are not far inferior to the other productions of contemporary art. Lucas Cranach may be placed next in merit. The later works as in Italy are of lower value, in relation to contemporary art. They are all, however, vigorously characteristic. The portraits of Albert Dürer, Luther, Erasmus, Charles V., Maximilian, and Mary of Burgundy, are specially to be noted.

The Dutch medals of the sixteenth century are of great historical interest, and although not the finest of their time, have some of the qualities which distinguish the contemporary schools of painting, correctness and attention to detail, and, in a less degree, force and picturesqueness. In the seventeenth century, their art is very poor and devoted to elaborate allegory, which throughout is essentially political, and thus owes its interest to history. The portraits of William the Silent, Prince Maurice, John of Oldenbarnevelt, and the two De Witts, Van Tromp and De Ruyter, are of special importance. Under William III. the Dutch and English series meet, and the most important specimens will be observed in the latter.

The exhibition of foreign medals is closed by a comparative view of contemporary medallic art. Special interest attaches to the medal by H.R.H. the Princess Louise of the Grand Duke of Hesse and the late Princess Alice.

The medals of England are rarely by English artists. Some of the best are by Italians, Trezzo, Primavera, and others, and by a Dutchman, Stephen of Holland. Thus the only name of real merit is that of the Simons, two Englishmen of Guernsey, who engraved for Cromwell. If, however, the medals are not a measure of English artistic skill, they have an historical value, as bearing the portraits of the chief personages, and recording the great events, of the last three hundred and fifty years. The series is carried down to the Battle of