Filips II en Isabella, koning en koningin van Spanje, rekenpenning van de rekenkamer van Vlaanderen te Rijssel 1563

Curator: This intriguing coin, dating back to 1563, is a commemorative piece featuring Filips II and Isabella, King and Queen of Spain. It served as a reckoning penny from the Chamber of Accounts of Flanders in Lille and now resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: The material has aged with such dignity; it feels very weighty. Something about these stern faces and their mutual gaze hints at the fraught dynamics of power… Do you get that sense? Curator: Absolutely. The double portrait crowned above seems like it aims at consolidating power. And indeed it also served to lubricate the bureaucratic machinery of the region's financial administration. Flanders at that moment in time was very key to fill up the crown's coffers! Editor: It is difficult to grasp such implications in a portrait, and that's something interesting about objects like these coins. Beyond iconography, it's all these implicit layers of control and colonial exploitation, even when they look neutral in themselves. But looking closely, that decorative element around the coin...it's not entirely celebratory, is it? Curator: Well, these pennies were used for calculations. Their visual presence likely contributed to shaping public opinion, no doubt. Editor: These objects offer such a tangible connection to the past, allowing us to touch and feel history in a profound way. Though the scale of a coin limits artistic expression, it captures the political mood. Curator: It makes one consider the circulation of the image, of ideas, the role art has played through history! Editor: I see in it something that speaks to this present moment: it whispers stories of endurance, but also serves as an insistent reminder of past oppressions. Curator: And I’m touched by the simple, unpretentious nature of this coin—a silent witness of the times.