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  Traditions of Medal Design and Production. On 28 December 2004 an exhibition devoted to the 280th anniversary of the St Petersburg Mint opened in the Gallery of the Numismatics Department of the State Hermitage. The exhibition has been organized jointly by the State Hermitage and the St Petersburg Mint. More than 250 exhibit items are on display, illustrating the development of medal design and production from the time of Peter the Great to the commemorative medals and coins of our own day. The appearance and development in Russia of medal design is closely linked with the currency reform which Peter the Great introduced at the start of the 18th century. The first silver rubles bearing the abbreviation “SPB” were minted in 1724 in the building of the Berg College. In 1725 the construction of a permanent Mint was begun in the Trubetskoy Bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Foreign mint masters were invited to enter the Russian service: A. Schultz (Denmark), G. Reibis (Czech lands), J. Kupij (Holland), and J. Hedlinger (Sweden). The first medal produced at the St Petersburg Mint was to mark the death of Peter the Great. During the course of the second half of the 18th century, two talented Russian medal designers, T. Ivanov and S. Yudin, practiced their art at the St Petersburg Mint. At this time there were also a number of foreign masters working in Petersburg: J.A. Dassier, the Wechter brothers, I.B. Gass, and I.K. Jaeger. Another foreigner, K. von Leberecht, was a major figure who laid the foundations for a new direction in the art of medal design – Classicism. As a result of his efforts, a medal design class was founded within the Imperial Academy of Arts, and this is where the talented Russian medal designers of the first half of the 19th century received their professional training, among them F. Tolstoy, P. Utkin, A. Lyalin and A. Klepikov. The flourishing of Russian medal making at this time coincided with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Russia. A new building for the Mint was erected in 1805 within the Peter and Paul Fortress following a design by architect A. Port. This new Mint was equipped with the latest production lines from M. Bolton. In the second half of the 19th century Historicism replaced Classicism as the predominant style. Medals now assumed features of a “document of the age.” With ever greater frequency, the new designs reflected achievements of technology and industry. The jewelers' precision of detail may be seen in works depicting the capital's monuments made by A. Gube and P. Brusnitsyn. At the end of the century there was a remarkable development in portrait medals made by such gifted artists as V.V. Alekseev and A. Grilikhes (son). The introduction of a die-cutting machine (pantograph) freed the medal producers from the need to cut dies in steel by hand. One of the first masters who worked with the pantograph was A.F. Vasiutinsky, a gifted sculptor and medal craftsman who became the chief medal designer of the St Petersburg Mint in 1893. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, there was a brief period when medal production flourished. After the First World War and the Revolution of 1917, medal design fell out of artistic favor. Artists of the 1940's and ‘50's worked under conditions of strict censorship and their best works, such as Sokolov's medal On the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad, were produced only as mint proofs. A process of rebirth began in the 1960's, during the period of “thaw,” thanks to the efforts of such masters of the art as A.A. Koroliuk. He became the mentor for many sculptors and medal designers of the Soviet Union. At this time A.V. Kozlov headed the Mint and oversaw the activity of artists and engravers, who worked on the creation of dies for commemorative medals and coins. The contemporary generation of medal designers is making its own contribution to the development of the art in Russia. Very precise micro-relief, originality of form and experimentation with different metals may be seen in the work of S.A. Kornilov, A.D. Shchablykin, E.I. Novikova, A.A. Dolgopolova, and E.V. Kramskaya. Today the Chief Artist of the St Petersburg Mint is National Artist of Russia Alexander Baklanov. He has participated actively in the development of a reward system in modern Russia. Baklanov has done a great deal to preserve and develop the best traditions of the school of medal design at the St Petersburg Mint. The St Petersburg Mint maintains close ties with the Hermitage to this day. Over the past decade it produced several medals relating to events in the life of the most important museum of the country. |
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