Navigate by Category: < Previous Next >
Zoom Obverse
Zoom Reverse
Category: Exonumia

EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE & INTERNATIONALE, BRUSSELS, BY MARCEL RAU, 1958

M013

Silvered Bronze medal

80 mm (3-1/8), 224 gm (7 oz)

HISTORY: This international expo was the first to be held following World War II. The theme was “Evaluation of the World for a more Human World.”

OBVERSE: The medal features two nude men, walking hand in hand, side by side, on top of the world. A rainbow arcs from horizon to horizon in a celestial background. The crescent moon, to the left, descends among planets and stars of the Milky Way. On the right is the year “1958” and designer/sculptor “RAU” at the bottom. Marcel Rau (1886–1966) was a prolific artist who maintained a career through commissions for large-scale sculptures that were intended to last for thousands of years. Rau made sculptures for Omaha Beach on the Normandy coast of France and for the Federal Court Building in Philadelphia. He created the Boy Scout Memorial Tribute in Washington, DC; the Harvey Firestone Memorial in Akron, OH; and “George Washington Kneeling at Prayer at Valley Forge, Pa.” His medals are also sculpted on monumental themes, projecting grand scale.

REVERSE: “EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE & INTERNATIONALE” encircles to top half of the medal, while “ALGEMENE WERELDTENTOONSTELLING” completes the bottom half. As though casting a spell, the portrait of a young woman dominates the center, looming beyond the earth. In her right hand, she holds out a single wheat spike with florets, while her raised left hand sparks a starlet and a full moon. To her right is the word “BRVXELLES” and to her left is “BRVSSEL.”