A medallist or medalist (see spelling differences) is an artist who designs medals, plaquettes, badges, coins and similar small works in relief in metal. Art medals are a well-known and highly collected form of small bronze sculpture, most often in bronze, and are considered a form of exonumia. "Medalist/medallist" is confusingly the same word used in sport and other areas (but not usually in military contexts) for the winner of a medal as an award. Medallists very often also design, or produce the dies for coins as well. In modern times medallists are mostly primarily sculptors of larger works, but in the past the number of medals and coins produced were sufficient to allow specialists who spent most of their career producing them. Medallists are also often confusingly referred to as "engravers" in reference works, referring to the "engraving" of dies, although this is often in fact not the technique used; however many also worked in engraving the technique in printmaking.
Art medals have been produced since the late Renaissance period, and, after some classical precedents and Late Medieval revivals, the form was essentially invented by Pisanello, who is credited with the first portrait medal, which has remained a very popular type. He cast them like bronze sculptures, rather than minting them like coins.
By nationality
An incomplete list, biased towards the 19th-century onwards; see also :Category:Medallists. (Note: Where an artist is best known by other than his first given name, the commonly used name is highlighted in boldface.)
Argentinian
Soto Avendaño
José Bellagamba
Alfredo Bigatti (1898 – 1964) Ernesto de la Cárcova (1866 – 1927) Arturo Dresco (1875 – 1961) Juan Gottuzzo (1858 Buenos Aires – 1924 Buenos Aires) José Horta Jorge Maria Lubary Victor de Pol (1865 Venice – 1925 Buenos Aires) Affonso Rossi Constante Rossi
Australian
Ernst August Altmann (circa 1850-1920), jeweller, die-maker and engraver. W.J. Amor, Sculptor, (1860 England – after 1947 Sydney, New South Wales) William Leslie Bowles, Sculptor, (1885 Leichhardt, Sydney, New South Wales - 1954 Frankston, Victoria) Stuart Leslie Devlin, Sculptor, (1931 Geelong, Victoria - 2018 Chichester, United Kingdom) Vladimir Gottwald (born 1950 in Czechia) Horst Hahne, Chief Engraver of the Royal Australian Mint Canberra (born 1940 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany) Stanley James Hammond MBE, Sculptor, 1913 Trentham, Victoria – 2000 Melbourne, Victoria Rayner Hoff (1894 – 1937) Ing Jong (since 2011 coin designer at Perth Mint) Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennal (1863 – 1931) (1900 – 1972) (born 1945) Mark Nodea (born 1968 Derby, Western Australia) Dora Ohlfsen (1877 – 1948) Wojciech Pietranik (born 1950) Charles Douglas Richardson (1853 – 1932) Signature: CDM Harry Stokes (active 1880 – 1901) Signature: H.S. Thomas Stokes (1831 Edgbaston, Birmingham, England – 1910 Alphington, Melbourne, Victoria) founder of Stokes & Son in 1893. Jeanette Timbery (born 1941 La Perouse, Sydney)
Austrian
(born 1973 in Linz, Oberösterreich) Michael Blümelhuber (1865 – 1936) (born 1924 in Vienna — died 2017 in Kirchberg am Wechsel) Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834 Vienna, Austria – 1890 London, England) (1869 – 1930) Josef Cesar (1814 – 1876) Josef Christian Christlbauer (1827 – 1897) Hans Dietrich (1868 – 1936) Ignaz Donner (1752 – 1803) (1802 – 1974) (1882 – 1987) Josef Fabi (1780 Mint-warden at Günzburg on the Maria Theresia Thalers). Signature: S.F. in conjunction with Tobias Johann Schöbel. Emil Fuchs (1866 – 1929) Heinrich Friedrich Füger (1751 – 1818) Edwin Grienauer (1893 – 1964) (born 1933) Grete Hartmann (1869 – 1946) née Chrobak Philipp Häusler (1887 Panczowa, Hungary, today Pančevo, Serbia - 1966 Frankfurt am Main) Alfred Hofmann (1879 – 1958) Otto Hofner (1879 – 1946) Ludwig Hujer (1872 – 1968) Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928 – 2000) (1833 – 1912) Josef Kaiser (1954 Bač, Vojvodina -) Heinrich Ernst Karl (1781 Vienna – 1854 Kremnitz) Josef Köblinger (1912 Innsbruck – 1960) (1911 Steyr – 1995 Steyr, Oberösterreich, Austria) Franz Kounitzky (1880 – 1928) Ernst Wilhelm Kubiena (1902 Neutitschein, Moravia – 1973 Salzburg) Friedrich "Franz" Leisek (died in 1898) Rudolf Marschall (1873 – 1967) (1929 – 2019)
