American Art Collaborative

Some members of the Society of Medalists protested Paul Manship’s medal, which they thought depicted the Greek god of wine too attractively. Manship explained that the satyrs’ coarse features, shown on the reverse of the medal, “betray the dominance of animal instincts which their master Dionysus exemplifies.” The sculptor wanted to portray the “present-day attitude” toward drinking and chose a theme that would be “commemorative of an era.” Prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment