FRICK COLLECTION MEDAL GALLERY

 
Gentile Bellini's "Doge Giovanni Mocenigo" (1478-85) hangs prominently in the new medals gallery

Over the course of six decades, Stephen K. Scher—a collector, scholar, and curator—has assembled the most comprehensive and significant private collection of portrait medals in the world, part of which he and his wife, Janie Woo Scher, gave to The Frick Collection last year. To celebrate the Schers' generous gift of what is the largest acquisition in the museum's history, the Frick presents more than one hundred of the finest examples from their collection in The Pursuit of Immortality, on view from May 9 through September 10, 2017. The exhibition is organized by Aimee Ng, Associate Curator, The Frick Collection, and Stephen K. Scher.

Comments Director Ian Wardropper, "Henry Clay Frick had an abiding interest in portraiture as expressed in the paintings, sculpture, enamels, and works on paper he acquired. The Scher medals will coalesce beautifully with these holdings, being understood in our galleries within the broader contexts of European art and culture. At the same time, the intimate scale of the institution will offer a superb platform for the medals to be appreciated as an independent art form, one long overdue for fresh attention and public appreciation." The exhibition, to take place in the lower-level galleries, showcases superlative examples from Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, England, and other regions together with related sculptures and works on paper from the Frick's permanent collection, helping to illuminate the place of medals in a larger history of art and their centrality in the history of portraiture in Western art. A short film will demonstrate one method by which medals were made, and visitors will have the opportunity to handle a reproduction of one of the most famous medals of the Renaissance.

The portrait medal is one of the most important artistic inventions of the Renaissance and an essential part of the history of portraiture in Western art. This art form flourished across Europe from the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries, during which time the making, form, and function of medals varied widely. As tokens of identity, medals evoke an individual's characteristics. The likeness of the subject is displayed on the front (the obverse) of the medal, and associated imagery and text, such as a heraldic device, personal allegory, emblem, or narrative scene, can typically be found on the back (the reverse).

The Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher Center for the Study of Commemorative Medals

Established in 2024, The Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher Center for the Study of Commemorative Medals at The Frick Collection serves as an institutional platform dedicated to the study and advancement of medal studies. It prioritizes an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating perspectives from art history, history, conservation, iconography, sociology, heraldry, the history of collecting, and propaganda studies.

Moving beyond a strictly numismatic focus, the center emphasizes the study of medals as sculptural objects, exploring their artistic, historical, and cultural significance. Through training in connoisseurship, scientific analysis, and conservation techniques, the center aims to equip the next generation of scholars with the tools necessary to advance research and preserve these artifacts for future study.

The Scher Collection is the most significant collection of medals in private hands, and a large portion of it has been generously donated to the Frick by Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher. Rotated selections of masterpieces from their collection are displayed in a room on the second floor of the Frick mansion, which celebrates their gift.

For more on the Frick renovation, see:
After 5 Years and $220 Million, the Renovated Frick Feels Familiar. That's the Point (https://news.artnet.com/art-world/frick-reopening-april-2025-2631844)
Change Is Good (https://www.archpaper.com/2025/04/the-frick-reopens-selldorf-architects/)
Is the New Frick Collection Just the Same Old Thing? (https://hyperallergic.com/1003333/is-the-new-frick-collection-just-the-same-old-thing/)

For more on the Frick's medal collection, see:
The Pursuit of Immortality: Masterpieces from the Scher Collection of Portrait Medals (https://www.frick.org/press/pursuit_immortality_masterpieces_scher
_collection_portrait_medals)
Medals (https://www.frick.org/art/medals)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: SCHER COLLECTION OF PORTRAIT MEDALS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n30a06.html)
NEW BOOK: THE SCHER COLLECTION (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n46a03.html)

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