Palau – 2012 – 10 Dollars – Tiffany Art Neoclassisism (incl box) (PROOF)

Description

Metal: Silver .999
Weight: 2 OZ
Diameter: 50 mm
Quality: Antique-finish
Mintage: 999 pcs.

From the middle of the 18th century the history of art has changed dramatically. Instead of the excessivly pompous Rococo style, simplicity, geometry and symmetry featured in Neoclassicism. It found its role-models in Greco-Roman antiquity and its philosophical foundation in the Age of Enlightenment from the same era. Like these, Neoclassicism also has its roots in Germany and above all in France. Two key buildings, which are eternalised in the new Tiffany Art edition, are located in its political and cultural centre Paris.

The obverse shows the Panthéon, which Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713–1780) erected as the abbey church Sainte-Geneviève, by order of the king from 1764 onwards. Shortly after completion it was secularised by the leaders of the French Revolution in 1791 and was declared the French National Hall of Fame.

The reverse represents another national symbol – the Arc de Triomphe. Shortly after the Battle of Austerlitz it was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806, designed by the architect Jean-François Chalgrin (1739-1811) and completed by Jean-Nicolas Huyot und Guillaume Abel Blouet in 1836.