- Museum number
- 1930,0707.23
- Description
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Cast lead medal with loop above for suspension. (whole)
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Bust of Henri IV, right, wearing the skin of the Nemean lion. (obverse)
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Bust of Gabrielle d'Estrées, left. (reverse)
- Production date
- 1597
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 52.500
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Weight: 61.16 grammes
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Jones 2
If the monogram, which unlike the monogram on registration no. G3,FrM.102 apparently reads GDVF, can be taken as Dupré's signature, this is his earliest known medal. Neither the rather awkward portraits, nor the inscriptions, show any particular affinity to Dupré's later work but the document of 1603 does refer to a work produced in 1597. There is another version (see 2) of the reverse signed simply D and the identification of Henri IV with Hercules is one which Dupré was to elaborate on his medal of 1600 (see registration no. G3,FrM.20).
Gabrielle d'Estrées (c. 1571-99), daughter of Antoine d'Estrées, marquis de Coeuvres, and Françoise Babou de la Bourdaisière, was brought to Henri IV's attention by Roger de Bellegarde. Curious to see her, the King came to stay at Coeuvres in November 1590 and made her his mistress the following April. For the sake of appearances Gabrielle was married to Nicolas d'Amerval in June 1592 (marriage dissolved January 1595), but returned to Henri in December of the same year. Her children César, duc de Vendôme and Catherine Henriette, duchesse d'Elbeuf were legitimised and she was created marquise de Montceaux (1595), duchesse de Beaufort (1597) and d'Etampes (1598) and pair de France. Henri planned to marry her on the dissolution of his marriage to Marguerite de Valois, but she died in April 1599. Gabrielle acquired the County of Beaufort, the Barony of Jaulcourt and the Seigneurie of Largicourt on 6 July 1597. Henri IV's letters patent making these territories into a duché pairie for her were registered by the Parlement on 10 July. The medal must therefore date from the second half of the year.
Other examples:
(a) Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque Nationale, 58 rue de Richelieu, 75084 Paris, France (BN, Paris), Sér. Roy. 275, cast silver, 52.0 mm.
(b) Albert I Royal Library, Brussels, bronze, reworked aftercast, 49.0 mm.
(c) Sammlung von Medaillen, Münzen und Geldzeichen, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Bibliography:
1. T.N. Méd. Fr. II pl. 1. no. 1.
2. R. Richebé 'Médailles françaises inédites ou peu connues', Gazette de Numismatique Française 1898, pp. 159-60, pl. V. A version of the reverse with a beaded border, the 7 in the date reversed and a D between the date and the end of the legend.
3. A. Desclozeaux, Gabrielle d'Estrées 1899, p. 432.
4. Mazerolle II, no. 623.
5. L. Forrer, 'Das Porträt des Gabrielle d'Estrées', Frankfurter Munzzeitung, 1907, pp. 141-145.
6. Raymond Ritter, Charmante Gabrielle, Paris 1947.
7. Dictionnaire de Biographie Française, vol. XIII, pp. 151-2.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1930
- Department
- Coins and Medals
- Registration number
- 1930,0707.23
- C&M catalogue number
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MF2 (Jones 2) (47) (1)
