Art: Too Many Eagles?

The art of the coinmaker is one of mankind's oldest. To the coiner and his fellow craftsman, the medalist, has gone the job of commemorating history's great events and famous men. The result, when an artist like Benvenuto Cellini went to work, was often a miniature masterpiece. In Madrid last week the Spanish government staged a sweeping show of 2,000 years of coin and medal-making and, with exhibits from 42 countries, took stock of the modern medalist's art.

The outstanding conclusion: in an age when most other arts have been going through revolutionary experiment, the medalists have been standing remarkably pat. Athletes, warriors, profiles of the great and near-great, eagles, lions and horses are still the favorite subjects. There is scant difference in style between a 16th Century coin likeness of Philip II of Spain and modern U.S. medallions of Henry Ford and Harry Truman. Among the most venturesome artists in the Madrid show were the Italians, and the venturesomeness was rewarded. Filippo Sgarlata's mildly impressionistic discs of hunters and shepherds won Madrid's first prize for artistic excellence. Pietro Giampaoli's profiles in stroboscopic sequence took second.

Nellie Tayloe Ross, Director of the U.S. Mint, shepherded a collection of U.S. coins and medals which included medallion heads of U.S. Presidents in platinum. Said she, after a good look around: "It's time we got away from the standard designs, and so many eagles on our coins and medals. When I get home I will try to give our young medalists some new ideas."