Internationaal Congres van Actuarissen te Rome 1934 1934

This medal, made by Mistruzzi in 1934, commemorates the International Congress of Actuaries in Rome. I love how the design feels both solid and delicate; it’s like the artist was working in two dimensions at once, carving out space and then filling it in with these wispy details. Look closely, and you can see how the surface has a slight texture, like it was buffed by hand. The light catches on all these tiny imperfections that make it feel alive. My eye is drawn to the head in profile. The engraver has managed to render the hair with all this fluidity. It reminds me of when I’m working on a painting and I get lost in the process of layering colors, each stroke building on the last. It's interesting to see this in relation to the work of someone like Pisanello, who also worked with medals; both artists capture a certain timelessness through this process. The medal becomes a kind of artifact, loaded with history but open to endless interpretations.