The Numismatic Bibliomania Society

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V21 2018 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 10, March 11, 2018, Article 13

ON ORIENTING AND VIEWING COINS

Dick Johnson submitted these thoughts in response to a comment in last week's item on the orientation of coins and medals. See the previous article (linked below) for the full context. -Editor

Picasso painting of a woman's face Picasso-like Celtic coin obverse

I stand by what I said, correct orientation is determined by the mind. Mike Marotta's statement of "cultural context" applies only to a small segment of numismatic items, as the Celtic coins you cited. But I greatly appreciate his response.

Even the Celtic coin illustration shown has strong visual clues to correct orientation. The strong vertical side of the face on the obverse and the cross with arms of obvious horizontal and vertical orientation vividly display the intended orientation. It is the part of the brain "“ the cerebellum "“ which processes balance, coordination and perspective. Thus my attribution to the human mind.

Granted there are several types of numismatic items in which it is impossible to orientate, both of which are art medals. A class of Medallic Objects with a textural surface, say entirely composed of dots (bosses) cannot be orientated. Such textural designs have been made by the Paris Mint and are occasionally found in FIDEM exhibitions. The other would be designs of Mixed Perspective, with multiple views with jumbled base lines.

However, since most coin designs are of lineal perspective they often have visual clues indicating correct orientation.

Maybe it's my diplomat side surfacing, but I don't think Mike and Dick are so far apart on this issue. Cultural context resides in the human mind as well, so all of this is in our heads. And the clues Dick describes are only clues in two dimensions - the Celtic coins have no discernible clues indicating that they should be viewed from a third dimension.

E-Sylum contributor Prof. Giovanni "John" N. Lupia III offers these thoughts on the historical development of perspective in art. Thanks! -Editor

Anamorphic Perspective
I enjoyed reading Mike Marotta's article "Viewing Coins Obliquely". The art historical term is anamorphic perspective. I wrote a paper on this in 1976 and another in 1982 for my master's thesis.

One-point linear perspective was the mapping out of a grid to place objects in a picture into correct perspective toward a vanishing point which was typically placed dead center. The beauty of the pictures was enhanced when viewed standing in front of the picture. The idea was developed by Leonardo da Vinci to overcome the limitations of one point linear perspective since those paintings looked flat when viewed from any angle.

portrait-of-ginevra-de-benci-by-leonardo-da-vinci-art-gallery-oil-painting-reproductions

The portrait of Ginevera de'Benci in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, No.2326, is the earliest known portrait painted in anamorphic perspective.

GINEVRA circle

The picture when viewed standing directly in front is a subtle distortion rather than the correct one-point linear perspective. Leonardo placed her face within a circle so that the distortion is so subtle that you do not realize it.

GINEVRA bisect

Leonardo managed this optical trick with finesse by bisecting the face in the three-quarter view on the left and the frontal perspective on the right.

However, from any angle the face is seen in perfect three-quarter view.

This is a fascinating topic and I'd be eager to learn more about coins created with oblique viewing in mind. I know there is software the enables the creation of 3-D rotating views of a coin, and it would be great to see that done with one of the Picasso-like Celtic coins. -Editor

Oblique Sassanians from Iceni Book page 92

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
VIEWING COINS OBLIQUELY (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n09a18.html)

E-Sylum CWTS ad 2018-03-11


Wayne Homren, Editor

Google
 
NBS (coinbooks.org) Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum

PREV ARTICLE       NEXT ARTICLE       FULL ISSUE       PREV FULL ISSUE      

V21 2018 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

Copyright © 1998 - 2012 The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS)
All Rights Reserved.

NBS Home Page
Contact the NBS webmaster
coin