David and Goliath [reverse] c. 1565 - 1566

This bronze medal was made by Federico Cocciola around the turn of the 17th century. It depicts David about to behead Goliath. Bronze medals were a popular medium for celebrating historical, religious, and mythological subjects. They were made by creating a mold and pouring molten metal into it. Afterward, the medal would be chased, tooled, and finished. The great skill involved is apparent in the incredible detail of the figures, despite the medal’s small size. The texture of the ground, the contours of the bodies, and the expressions on their faces are all sharply rendered. The medal’s value resides not only in the material, but in the time and skill required to produce it. This labor-intensive process, requiring a complex combination of artistic and craft abilities, elevated the status of the medal, and the person for whom it was made. It also demonstrates how such an object collapses our conventional distinctions between art and craft, design and production.