The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 23, June 2, 2002, Article 12

NUMISMATIC NUDIES

  A news item about Philadelphia models who pose nude
  for artists wanting to form a union triggered my memory
  of who has modeled nude for artists creating medallic
  models. Of course, the Philadelphians wanted more
  money, $15 an hour instead of $12, and, perhaps,
  cushions for where flesh meets any hard surface.

  Both sexes are in demand for the human form. But it is not
  just for art students to learn the location of muscles and to
  commit graceful body curves to memory.  Experienced
  artists still need the realism a live model provides. In 1929
  Laura Gardin Fraser used her male studio assistant for
  America's most prestigious sculpture award, the National
  Sculpture Society's Special Medal of Honor.  We found
  the photograph of artist and model and reproduced it on
  the sleeve of the video I wrote for "The Medal Maker."
  [Are numismatic videos considered literature within the
  precepts of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society?]

  The nude human form removes time from a medallic design.
  Clothing dates a design because of fashions. The nude human
  is timeless and classic and was chosen by sculptor Robert A.
  Weinman when, in 1950, he designed a new series of the
  most artistic award medals for the N.C.A.A. (recently
  replaced by pictographs). He needed models for each sport.
  Surprisingly, my old boss at Medallic Art Company, Bill Louth,
  volunteered to do Golf.  So he is preserved in perpetuity in his
  best swing stance in the buff.  Both men are still alive and can
  verify this story, but it was also printed in Sports Illustrated in
  1972 in an article on sports awards and trophies.

  P.S. This does lead to some incongruities. The Ice Skater is
  also shown in the nude. Shiver!  The Philadelphia models
  story can be found at:

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62466-2002May23

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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