FINE ARTS.
THE GUILDHALL AND CORONATION MEDALS: WYON AND PISTRUCCI.
Tait fame ef the "Guildhall Medal" made us anxious to see it ; and it having been engraved by Mr. WILLIAM WYON, the chief engraver at
the Mint, where it was struck, we repaired direct to head-quarters ; and, by the courtesy of one of the chief officers of the establishment, we were favoured with a sight not only of the Guildhall medal, but of proof impressions, if the term may be allowed, of a whole series of dies for the coinage of the last four reigns. We were thus furnished with the beat evidence on which to form a judgment of the relative merits of the rival medallists and die.engravers 'of our coins, Wvosr and PISTRUCCI : a comparison that is in a measure forced upon us by the nature of their labours, putting out of the question the volumoious and seemingly interminable controversy between the respective friends of the two artists.
The Guildhall medal, struck in honour of the Queen's visit to the City, is indeed a most beautiful work of art. Its size is imposing, being larger than a crown-piece; and its deep rim, and the high relief and sharpness of the engraving, at once attract admiration. The ob- verse bears a profile bust of the Queen, wearing the diadem in which she appeared at the banquet ; the proportions of the head being as large as the size of the medal will permit of to give it due effect : on the re. verse is an elevation of the entrance front of Guildhall, surmounted by the royal standard—pity so much good workmanship should have been thrown away on the representation of such an architectural monstrosity ! Her Majesty's profile is designed in the purest taste, and modelled in a style of classic elegance acid simplicity ; and the likeness is by far the best of its kind extant—we should have said, the only good one, had we not seen the original model for the new coinage, before the relief was lowered to suit the purpose of the currency. And here it may be as well to explain the difference, which is not generally understood, between a medal for the cabinet and a coin in. tended for circulation. One great excellence of a medal is the promi- nent projection of the figures, or boldness of relief: the prime requi• site in a coin is flatness ; the effect of relief being shown in an illusory manner, by the abrupt edge given to the outline, and the leading mark. ings of the features. The object of this is to prevent the abrasion of the surface and loss of metal by friction ; the raised rim protecting the surface. Moreover, the coin is struck at one blow, whereas the medal requires repeated blows to raise the relief to the full height.
The " Coronation Medal" is the work of PISTRUCCI; but, as the dies were engraved in great haste, and illness prevented him from making it what he wished it to be, it is hardly fair to institute a corn. parison between it and the Guildhall medal : let us therefore take one that may be considered his tour (le force, the medal with the head of Lord Maryborough, his patron. It is in exceeding bold relief; the profile of its cross section being a cycloidal curve, while that of IVY014.8 medallion of the Queen forms a segment of a circle : but it wants the sculptural elegance and aplomb for which WYoN's style is so admirable ; and the position of the ear, almost down in the nape of the neck, is a glaring instance of bad modelling, that shows a want of correct anatomical knowledge. This defect, however, PISTRUCCT may have since that time repaired by study. As an engraver of cameos and intaglios, his original profession, PISTRUCCI is justly celebrated ; and to him is doubtless owing the great improvements that have taken place in the execution of the coinage, commencing towards the end of the reign of GEORGE the Third. The head of that Monarch on the die for a new issue of sovereigns that was preparing at his death, is strikingly expressive; but it, as well as previous ones, has an un- gainly contour, and looks as if the impression had been flattened out by after.pressure. GEORGE the Third's profile was the reverse of classic, and any thing but beautiful, certainly; but its defects are here exag- g..rated, instead of being lessened. The head of GEORGE the Fourth by Pwritocci, also is coarse and vulgar compared with the finished elegance of WvoN's: PISTRUCCI represents a gross debauches, We the refilled voluptuary. In a word, WYoN shows himself to be sun,. rior to PisTaccer in taste of design, knowledge of anatomy, and
tive skill.
WvoN's medal is the only one of the "good things" provided by "The Royal Entertainment Committee" that has survived the °eel-. sion ; and the Committee manifest their sense of its value in a eharae. terietic manner, by limiting its circulation to themselves and their friends : we hope Mr. %%riot,: duly appreciates this truly civic eompii. merit. The commercial "reward of merit " is monopoly : its standard of value is high price, that being the sign of rarity—for a thing to be good, it should be scarce. A Mr. WILE:lasts (we are sorry not to know his Christian name—the tribe of Willi:wises is a very numerous one) distinguished himself by his Conservative notions of hue art: "if the medal were distributed generally," said he, "its value would not be worth more than one farthing "—we quote the newspaper report. Now, to carry out Mr. WILLIAMS'S own principles, he is bound to do all honour to the artist, and give the highest possible value to his ex. quisite work, by destroying all but one. This is the bibliomaniac mode of producing unique works--whether it be a Queen Anne's farthing or a halfpenny ballad. BYRON said that " Nature broke the die in moulding Sheridan : " therefore, following the example of Dame Nature in making a nonsuch, let Mr. WYON "break the die" of the Guildhall medal, in honour of his fame. Out of the mouth of as Alderman, however, will we convict the Common Councilman. An epicure of turtle being quizzed for his love of that civic dainty, by a wag, who said, " You only like it because its dear,"—lifting his eyes from his soup, with his laden spoon suspended midway between the plate and his mouth, the gourmand emphatically replied, " If this soup were ladled out to the paupers of a union workhouse, or distributed by the Mendicity Society, I should relish it as much." There is a way of evading the restriction, however, which we hope Mr. WYON will avail himself of. The model of the Queen is his own; he may engrave another die from it, and publish a medal with a muck more elegant reverse than the barbarous façade of Guildhall ; and therm the conservators of tine art may break the dies and destroy the medals, to enhance the value of the few remaining copies, as soon as they like, But, to strike a medal in honour of a feast, and not to distribute it ta the leading guests, is ridiculous.
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