Exhibition 'Obverse/Reverse'

About exhibition

The medal traces its origins to metal coinage on which images of religious symbols and portraits of great conquerors and emperors were struck. 17th-century coins — the thaler, rijksdaalder, novgorodka and kopeck — could be used both as a means of payment and as an award. Coronations, the births and deaths of reigning persons, battles and peace negotiations, the unveiling of monuments and the establishment of state institutions — these and many other events became reasons for producing commemorative medals in the 18th to the early 20th century. Unlike award medals, commemorative medals were not intended to be worn on clothing and could serve as gifts. Among the medals officially instituted by Russian emperors, the collection of the Panorama Museum 'Battle of Borodino' includes medals marking anniversary dates of the founding of guard regiments. A separate section of the exhibition is devoted to the process of making a medal. Contrary to a widespread saying, medals were not cast but struck at mints. The display features a portrait of the outstanding medalist Count Fyodor Tolstoy, sketches and plaster casts for medals, and tools. It is interesting to trace which subjects artists chose to depict on medals. For example, the Paris Mint issued a series of medals in which the military actions of 1812 in Russia were presented in an allegorical form, and Napoleon's army was depicted as a warrior in ancient costume — an image meant to flatter the French national sentiment but completely at odds with reality. The exhibition brings together more than 90 items that demonstrate the variety of the Panorama Museum 'Battle of Borodino' collection of Russian and European commemorative medals from the 17th to the 20th centuries.