Skip to main content

Siege of Sluis

1604
Credit LineThe Maida and George Abrams Collection
Accession number2021.223
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsNumismatics
Collections
Description

Commemorative and portrait medals gained popularity during the Renaissance and medal making spread out beyond the Italian peninsula. In the Netherlands, the period of intense economic change and new prosperity of the 17th century coincided with a new interest in medals as a portable, reproducible art form suitable for depicting a wide range of subjects. Some medals depict important people, like rulers, elected officials, naval and military heroes; some show events, such as significant battles, treaties signed, marriages; and others show buildings or institutions that spoke of the United Provinces’ prosperity and commerce, like the town hall and the stock exchange in Amsterdam. Both sides of this medal show views of the city of Sluis in the southern Netherlands under siege.

Inscriptionsrecto, around edge: PLVS QVAM PERDIDIMVS / CIC IC CIII verso, around edge: IEHOVA PRIVS DEDERAT / ORDIN TRAIEC
ProvenanceApril 17-19, 2000, sale (auction no. 24), Laurens Schulman, Bussum, Netherlands, lot 1724, to George S. and Maida Abrams, Newton, MA; 2021, gift of George S. Abrams to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 14, 2021)
Gerhard van Bylaer
1600, struck about 1620
Gerhard van Bylaer
1594, about 1620
Gerhard van Bylaer
Friends
Gerhard Marcks
1934
Hercules and the Lion
Hubert Gerhard
about 1550–1620
Pomona
Gerhard Marcks
1932
Baron von Cronstern, Jr.
Henry Gerhard Fette
Friedrich Carl Gröger
Henry Gerhard Fette
van der Kellen
1840
Steven van Herwijk
1560
Chris van der Hoef
1913