Kroning van Anna tot koningin van Engeland 1702

Editor: So, this is a metal engraving from 1702, titled "Coronation of Anne as Queen of England," by an anonymous artist and it’s currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. It’s small, but detailed. It strikes me as quite formal, celebrating power and authority. What's your take on it? Curator: I see it as a fascinating artifact rooted in the patriarchal structures of its time. Consider the imagery. One side shows a portrait of Anne herself, but how is she presented? Is she actively ruling or being passively observed? And on the other side, we have a classical scene celebrating conquest of a monster that clearly resonates with classical stories like Perseus and Andromeda; in a sense England "wins" its sovereignty. These symbols speak volumes about the limited agency afforded to women, even a queen. Does the contrast of these images strike you as significant? Editor: Absolutely. There's this very...official portrait versus the almost theatrical depiction of victory on the other side. Is it really about Anne, or about what she represents for England at the time? Curator: Precisely. These power dynamics are often expressed through gendered lenses. Consider how Queen Anne, despite her power, needed to project strength through traditional patriarchal visual languages. How might feminist theory help us deconstruct the power that's being expressed through those languages here? The very material also presents challenges; being on coinage it participates within capitalism and has ties to commerce. In order for these actions and choices to take place requires further unearthings of the economic background, too. Editor: It's almost like the artwork's performance is in reinforcing traditional norms even while depicting a female monarch. It is powerful but quite troubling at the same time, too, in these considerations. Curator: Exactly! We see this tension echoed throughout history when women rise to leadership roles within unequal and inequitable systems. Examining these power structures makes a work of art such as this ever more important. Editor: This really shifts my perception. I went from thinking about formal portraiture to questioning the social and political environment that would shape the art. I'll be thinking about this coin for a while.