Allegorical Medal in Honor of Louis XIV 1650 - 1714

Sébastien Leclerc I created this allegorical medal in honor of Louis XIV as an engraving on a sheet of paper sometime in the late 17th or early 18th century. The print depicts a medal of Louis XIV framed by symbolic ornamentation, like the winged figures of Fame, and the visual language of absolutist power. Made in France at the height of Louis’s reign, the print testifies to the social function of art as an instrument of royal propaganda. The medal itself, prominently displayed, presents Louis as both a powerful ruler, with the inscription around his portrait, and as the bringer of public happiness, personified on the right. Leclerc, as an engraver attached to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, was helping to construct the public image of the king, lending visual form to the idea of absolute monarchy. Historians of art and culture can draw on an archive of prints and medals, like this, to study how power was represented and circulated in early modern Europe. It speaks to the complex interplay between artistic production, political power, and social norms.