Coins in art

[chrisild]

Last week I came across an article about Rembrandt's "Money Changer" in Die Zeit. And you know how we sometimes meander ... So here are three paintings that involve coins.


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(Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn: The Money Changer – various titles | Gemäldegalerie Berlin)

[chrisild]

Another Rembrandt ...


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_024.jpg/800px-Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_024.jpg
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn: Christ driving the money-changers from the Temple | Pushkin Museum, Moscow

[chrisild]

Here we have a work by Gerrit or Gerard van Honthorst.


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(Gerrit van Honthorst: Old woman examining a coin by a lantern | The Kremer Collection)

Christian

[Figleaf]

That money changer is as brilliant as Rembrandt gets. It is not another morality tale, but a study of light and how it plays in a grotto of papers and shielded by a hand. All this before someone thought of photography. Have you seen the delicate coin scales on the desk, camouflaged by light surplus?

Peter

[WillieBoyd2]

Another painting by Marinus Reymerswaele (1490-1546) who painted the original poster's (OP) painting:


Marinus Reymerswaele - The Banker and his Wife
From Wikimedia Commons

Marinus Reymerswaele made lots of paintings of a man and woman with coins with titles like "The Banker and his Wife", "The Money Lender and his Wife", "The Money Changer and his Wife", etc.

This one was on the cover of the book Money in the Middle Ages by Jacques Le Goff, published in 2010.

[chrisild]

Yesterday we had a Museums Night here - about 40 museums and galleries were open between 7pm and 2am. And with a single ticket you could see all of them plus use three shuttle bus lines that connected them. So why not visit places that I usually do not find that interesting, such as a ceramics/pottery/porcelain museum?

Anyway, it was not dull at all. Well, this exhibit was not most thrilling one but (surprise) it has to do with coins. Yeah, some big pot. With a bunch of ... coins?

[chrisild]

This is a Zunftkanne, a guild or corporation pot that would be used for ceremonial guild meetings. Now the explanation did not say anything about which guild, but it was interesting to see how each of those little lions had a chain with a coin in the mouth ...

Christian

[chrisild]

Since <k> just started a topic about Swiss coins, I remembered this topic ... and that the mint building in Bern also has some coins. I mean, outside.   Images taken from this Swissmint publication.

Christian

[Figleaf]

Portrait of a young man by Sandro Botticelli (around 1474, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence). This medal was also identified: Cosimo de Medici, surrounded by the legend MAGNVS COSMVS   MEDICES PPP. The maker of the medal was painter and engraver Niccolo Fiorentino. Some say the young man is Fiorentino himself.

Interesting quotes: The medallion itself, built of gilded pastiglia, is a three-dimensional object that is inserted into a hole cut in the very surface of the painting. and While the pseudomedallion is not actually made of metal, as a true medallion is*, it takes the exact form of one. It is quite large, but its scale is not necessarily unusual for the early modern period, considering that physical examples of medallions ranged significantly in size, from fitting easily within the palm of one's hand to spanning nearly five inches in diameter.

From: A mnemonic reading of Boticelli's portrait of a man with a medal by Rebecca M. Howard, available here.

Peter

* since medallions can be made from non-metallic material, the argument that this is not a medallion is somewhat shaky.

[Pellinore]

I saw this painting by Marinus van Reymerswaele a week ago in Antwerp: The Taxman of the Town.

-- Paul

[Figleaf]

See reply #4. This is a variant on Reymerswaele's "two men in an office" series. One of the two is always looking like the bad guy, but I keep wondering about the other one. Is he a soulless, indifferent tax collector or a dedicated bookkeeper or (good hat!) the big boss, interested only in keeping the money flowing in?

Peter

[brandm24]

Not fine art maybe but an interesting sketch depicting the weighing room at the Philadelphia Mint c1850. Here about 40 women worked weighing and filing any overweight planchets. They were paid 11 cents an hour for this tedious work, which was actually considered a good wage for the day.

Bruce

[Figleaf]

Weighing and other quality control tasks certainly, but filing? No files in sight and according to the mores of the day, filing would be a (better paid) man's job. The women-only room is no surprise. At this time, agriculture was progressively mechanised, causing a surplus of female labour in agricultural areas. Young, naive girls would move into big cities, looking for a job and a husband, not necessarily in that order. Many would end up lonely, in a tiny room and severely underpaid. You'll find the type in the stories of O Henry. Their counterpoint is the female welder of the second world war.

Peter

[brandm24]

Weighing and other quality control tasks certainly, but filing? No files in sight and according to the mores of the day, filing would be a (better paid) man's job. The women-only room is no surprise. At this time, agriculture was progressively mechanised, causing a surplus of female labour in agricultural areas. Young, naive girls would move into big cities, looking for a job and a husband, not necessarily in that order. Many would end up lonely, in a tiny room and severely underpaid. You'll find the type in the stories of O Henry. Their counterpoint is the female welder of the second world war.

Peter

The captions attached to the picture mentioned weighing and filing, but the filing could have been passed onto other workers. A majority of the planchets were probably of the correct weight or slightly under so no adjustments were needed.

It's interesting that on some of the old US silver coins, especially the silver dollars and half dollars, adjustment marks can still be seen under the strike. At times the coin's image didn't always flatten them out. The third party grading services don't consider them damage and won't lower the assigned grade.

The women in the weighing room worked 10 hour shifts, so would have to be very patient to do their tedious work. No wonder they always employed women, most men wouldn't have the patience to do it. I know I wouldn't. After a couple of hours, I'd run out into the street and jump in front of a horse cart.

Bruce

[brandm24]

Here's another interesting piece of art I ran across. Unfortunately, I don't know the artist's name. It depicts the use of a screw press c1760's. The person in the pit feeding the planchets into the machine had a hazardous job for sure.

Bruce