Overlijden van Petrus Smidt van Gelder, penningkundige te Zaandam 1842

This bronze medal commemorates the death of Petrus Smidt van Gelder, a numismatist from Zaandam. Made by Johannes Petrus Schouberg, it presents us with a fascinating interplay between portraiture and epigraphy. The most prominent visual symbol here is the portrait of the deceased. From antiquity, the sculpted image, be it on coins or busts, has served as a potent means of immortalizing the individual. Think of the Roman emperors whose visages, stamped onto currency, projected their power across vast territories. The impulse to preserve a likeness, to cheat mortality through art, speaks to a deep-seated human desire—a collective memory, if you will—to transcend our fleeting existence. The inscription, too, plays a crucial role. Words etched in metal offer a narrative, fixing the subject within the currents of time. Much like the epitaphs on ancient tombstones, they call out to us from the past. Each word, a tiny vessel carrying meaning, echoes through the corridors of history, reminding us of the cyclical nature of life and death.