S5004018

Coin and the representation of authority

Understanding serial imagcry

Iron Age coins are sometimes described as being wonderful artistic objects. The skill of execution of a few of them is certainly inspirational, though by no means all. Be ca ute of the naturę of the abstraction on some types, this appreciation is not perhaps untypical of modem aesthetics where ‘art’ is equated with novełty, whilst repcddon, however well executed, is demeaned as ‘craftwork’ or morę basely as ¹ industrial’ (Eco 1990:83). Yet applying this modem aesthetic judgement to Iron Age coin is bound to be incorrect. We are viewing the materiał out of context. Originally it is unlikely that each coin would have been viewed on its own in isolation. The reality of the coinage of a particular time and place, when viewed en masse, is one of repetition, where innovation and novelty are far from obvious.

Our contemporary distinction between arts and crafts is not one that passes muster in many other cultures. Freąuently anthropologists find it difficult to idendfy nadve words approximating to our notion of ‘art’. Indeed, back in the ancient world and the Middle Ages, the distinction was suspended: ‘The same term (techne, ars) was used to designate both the performance of a barber, or a shipbuilder, and the work of a painter or poet. The classical aesthetics was not so amćous for innovation at any cost, it freąuently appreciated as “beautiful” the good tokens of an everlasting type.’(Eco 1990:84).

If we are going to look at how coins were perceived, and in what way the styles and images on them changed, it is important to develop an understanding of the aesthetics of a senes. This is by no means the same as that of ‘high art’ or ‘good craftsman-ship\ The debate on the subject has largely taken place in Italy, with Eco’s essay ‘Interpreting serials’ being by far the most accessible text. Let us look at two contemporary examples of serial stimuli to examine the relationship between audi-ence and creator. The two case studies come from very different media. The first, from television, is the police detecdve series ‘Columbo’ (Eco 1990; Calabrese 1983). This series, as do all series, works on a number of fixed pivotal characters in a fixed situation, around which changing secondary actors weave. In this case there is only one fixed character, the lieutenant    Hu shabby clothes and mannerisms are

instantly mcmorable, and the story ałways imfelds the same way: a murder is enacted tellingjgs who the criminal is. Columbo guessesArho this is within the first five minut es and then gathers the evidence in a senes of set piece interviews where he chafms and yet harasses the suspect and invariably forgets to ask one finał ąuesdon on each encounter. Finally the last piece of evidence falls into place and the villain, whom we and the lieutenant have known all along, is unmasked.

With a series onetxmeves one is enjoying the novelty of the storyi^jfcich is always the samerwhile in het one is enjoying it because of the recurrence of a narradve scheme that remains constant. The series in this sense responds to the infantile need of always hearing the same story, of being consoled by the ‘return of the identical’, superficialły disguised.

(Eco 1990:86)

The supcrficial viewer will be led along by the story, enjoying the tale as the

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