After Pisanello raised medalllic art to its pinnacle in the fifteenth century, hundreds of years passed in which the medal was more or less reduced to its utilitarian character.

Medals as a political medium for communicating information were generally subject to strict guidelines regarding their content and design, the artistic aspect was almost totally neglected.

Medallists such as Jules-Clément Chaplain, Oscar Roty and Alexandre Charpentier renewed medallic art in France during the nineteenth century, leading to a revival that attracted worldwide interest.