Memoranda Numismatica Atheniensia 5
Wolfgang Fischer-Bossert
Bemerkungen zum griechischen Münzrelief
MNA 5 (2020)
Wolfgang Fischer-Bossert, a keen scholar specialized in archaeology, history and numismatics of the ancient Hellenic world, has put forward an erudite study titled Bemerkungen zum griechischen Münzrelief (=Remarks on the Relief of Greek Coin Images). In the 5th issue of the series Memoranda Numismatica Atheniensia (MNA) the treatment of the subject builds upon the different techniques: marble reliefs are created by carving the stone and the background comes into being only in the end; with coins the relief is created in the opposite way, as the field is the given and the figures are sunk into it (on the surfaces of the upper and lower die which function as negatives). The author examines the practices of the sculptors and the engravers through the ages and he comments in a knowledgeable fashion on the trends that defined the transformation of the aesthetic ideas, signalling the transition to the forms of the Hellenistic art.
