Christian Tual’s Collection – A Treasure Trove of Art Medals from the Renaissance

Unlike historical medals, which were typically produced to commemorate a specific event, the early art medals were created as works of art, much like the small bronzes of the era. Their creators were not official stamp cutters at an official mint, but rather bronze artists, sculptors and the top silversmiths of the day, who favoured working in high relief and did not always allow themselves to be limited to the circular format. While the historical medals were, for the most part, struck between two stamps, the art medals from the Renaissance were usually cast and very often only decorated on one side. New casts were generally made of the most popular medals in the centuries that followed, which in turn formed the basis for further casts, etc. The richness of detail of the original work of art therefore diminished with each new cast, and it’s extremely rare today to stand before a collection which contains as many fine and early pieces as Christian Tual’s.

Christian Tual, who is now retired, was born in Paris. After studying in England and Rome, he took a doctorate in film history at the Sorbonne University in 1969, where he taught for several years. Christian Tual held positions at the French embassy in Washington and Peking as well as at the European Commission. In 1981, he was appointed “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”, a title and order intended to reward people who have distinguished themselves by their creations in the artistic or literary field or by the contribution they have made to the influence of the arts and letters in France and in the world.

Christian Tual’s great interest in bronzes began in 1967, when, as a cultural attaché at the French embassy in Kathmandu, he was fascinated by Nepalese and Tibetan bronzes. Back in Paris, however, he read an interview with Sir Roy Strong, the legendary director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, who explained that medals and plaquettes from the Italian Renaissance often possessed qualities on a par with sculptures, which were not something one could collect. They were prohibitively expensive at best and, in most cases, already in museums. Inspired by this, Christian Tual created his medal collection, which was quickly supplemented with drawings from the Renaissance.