Lodewijk XIV en Maria Theresia van Oostenrijk 1660 - 1672

This small silver medal was created by Jean Warin, and features Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Austria. As you can see, the portraits are rendered in very high relief. This would have been achieved through a process of die-striking, where the image is first carved in hardened steel, and then used to impress the design onto the softer silver. The crispness of detail speaks to the skill of the die cutter; it takes considerable force to achieve this result. Medals like these were essentially early forms of propaganda, intended to circulate an idealized image of royal power. It is important to remember that these objects were not simply passively consumed; like coins, medals were held, passed around, and collected. Their value existed as much in the labor and material they represented, as in the message they conveyed. By recognizing the medal's status as a designed object, we can understand how it effectively translated royal power into a medium of mass communication, anticipating today's media-saturated world.