after a long pause, I found another 16th century jeton from the low countries (the 17 provinces of the Netherlands/Belgium/Luxemburg and French Flanders) that was inspired by an even older Embleme Book
1591 Dugniolle 3289, van LoonI.425 Rare
Province of Brabant, mint of Antwerp
'War between Spain and Henri IV of France' OBV: Buste Philips II DOMINVS MIHI ADIVTOR (God helps me)
REV: Maze with tree in the center FATA VIAM INVENIENT ( Fates will find a way, which means: (if you persevere) fortune will favor you) 1591
The image and legend of the reverse of this jeton, which (as was usual for the region and period) served propaganda goals, closely resembles a page in a old
french (!) embleme book
Devises heroïques (1557) from Claude Paradin. The outline of the maze seems very similar (if not identical), but the die engraver added a tree in the middle.
Context: the war between Philippe II and Henri IV was because of different opinions about religion: freedom of choice (Henri IV) versus obliged catholisism and the inquisition (Philippe II). The image and legends of the jeton were chosen by the Antwerp engraver to underline that Philippe was convinced that God was on his side and that God would help Philippe to reach a favorable outcome. One should realize this jeton was made three years after the disaster of the Spanish Armada (1588). Decades later, Spain would loose both the Northern Provinces (aka United Provinces which would become later The Netherlands) and the Spanish Netherlands to France (which would become later Belgium and French Flanders) .
We have encountered other images from Devises heroïques (1557) from Claude Paradine a few times before in this thread. Clearly this book was popular with the master engravers both in the Netherlands and in Neurenberg, Germany.
Source :
https://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/...p?id=FPAb060
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Posted 01/24/2022 3:47 pm
