Iconography

E5　—　What is depicted, and what is left out

Coins were the only medium that the state distributed to all its people. Rulers therefore chose what to put on them with great care. Caesar placed his own living face on a coin, and a little over two months later, he was assassinated. The silver coins of the Dutch Republic bear neither a king's face nor a king's name. And what is important is what was not depicted.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): course text ~7 min + textbook ~45 min = ~52 min　／　Beyond the text: 8 exercises · 4 coins · 11 readings · 3 references

What this course teaches you to do

• Looking at both faces of a coin, you can point to what lies in each part.
• You can explain how the meaning changes when the portrait is of a living rather than a dead person.
• You can turn what was not depicted into a question.
• From changes in imagery you can read the period when power shifted.
• Can explain when and where the introduction of portraits of living people occurred, and what it signified.
• Can read coin iconography not only as a design, but as a proclamation of the ruling power of the time.

TEXTBOOK

Lessons (8)

1. First, be able to point at itObverse and reverse are a pair. Blank space is not emptiness but the trace of a choice.
2. It took seven hundred years for a face to appearIconography is not decoration but the guarantor's signature. Who appears points to who guarantees.
3. Turn what was not depicted into a question"Absent" is strong evidence, but absence has more than one cause. Do not assert; make it a question.
4. There is one more country that gave up the faceCoins without a face have at least three separate reasons. Do not explain the same form by the same cause.
5. The lifting of the ban on living faces — From Ptolemy to the TestoneEngraving one's own living face was a taboo. Each time it was broken, it was a declaration of royal authority.
6. A Small Proclamation — Coins PropagandizeCoins are the smallest proclamations, reaching every hand in the nation. Regimes spoke and fought through their iconography and inscriptions.
7. Speaking in the Enemy's Script — Three Stages of BorrowingThe script of another is first copied only for its form, then used with meaning, and finally incorporated into one's own narrative.
8. The Lineage of the Engraving Hand — From Craftsman to EngraverEvery image has a hand that engraved it. From anonymous craftsmen to renowned engravers, the history of the hand is also a part of numismatic history.

Case studies — applied in the materials (11)

• Hellenism　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　323 BC　The Horns of Ammon
  The scene where a deified king appears on a coin. Note the single step of restraint in the horns.
• Byzantium　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　AD 696　Damascus
  The source of §3. How the choice of erasing the face is explained, in the original.
• Gods and money　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　two thousand seven hundred years　From the Face of Gods to the Face of the State
  A full circle: god → king → state → and then "In God We Trust."
• Epilogue　Overview: 2,700 years of the world　the end of the journey　A Promise of 2,700 Years
  What remains on a worn coin. The story of what survives even after the image is gone.
• The gold of the Valois　France　1514–1547　The mint of the kingdom
  Section 5. The paragraph where the material corrects the common theory that "Francis I was the first." It was Louis XII who began it.
• The usurper's mint　Britain　296　Londinium retaken
  Section 6. Both usurpers and legitimate rulers spoke and fought through coinage—the origin of coinage as propaganda.
• The coin that took its enemy's name　Spain　from 1174　The mint of Toledo
  Section 7. "Amir of the Catholics". The inscription on a gold coin that speaks of faith in the enemy's language, in the original text.
• The birth of the yen　Japan　1881　the Paper Money Bureau, the engraving room
  Section 8. The hand that engraved nearly 500 dies, and the Westernized face of Empress Jingū.
• What the Coin's Face Kept Saying　Russia　20th century　Moscow
  Despite having a coat of arms, grain, a factory, and a globe, a personal portrait did not become the main design of the coin. This is a passage that embodies the subtitle of this course: looking at what is not depicted.
• The Eagle on the Coin　Austria　1945　Vienna
  The eagle that returned in 1945 has broken chains on both its legs. This is an example of how a coat of arms can commemorate not only pride, but also the memory of absence.
• Mother and Son　South Korea　2009　Amidst Public Opinion
  The debate over whose face to feature can continue even after issuance. Please read about the comments made regarding the color and artistic style when a woman's portrait first appeared on the 50,000 won banknote.

Assessment

8 exercises in this course (7 check, 1 compare, 0 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.

References

• Iconclass — Henri van de Waal Foundation　A system for classifying the content of images. Started in the 1940s by art historians at Leiden University, it is now in its 4th edition. Used by many museums and libraries for subject searches.
• Silver tetradrachm of Lysimachos（05.44.430） — The Metropolitan Museum of Art　The actual specimen for the second observation assignment. 297–281 BC, public property. Obverse: Horned Alexander / Reverse: Seated Athena and Nike.
• Tetradrachm of Lysimachos（1919,0820.1） — The British Museum　Commentary on a different specimen of the same type. The dimensions and details are for this specimen and differ from the one at the Met.

Only works and primary sources whose existence has been verified are listed.