Margaretha van Oostenrijk before 1900

Adolphe Jouvenel made this bronze medal of Margaretha van Oostenrijk in the nineteenth century. It commemorates Margaret of Austria, who governed the Netherlands in the early 1500s. The medal shows a portrait of Margaret, her hair covered, along with an inscription. The reverse displays a crown, book and sceptre above more writing. The medal references a specific moment in the institutional history of the Netherlands: Margaret's role as governor. France annexed the Netherlands between 1810 and 1813, before the Dutch regained independence. Jouvenel, a French artist, was commissioned to make the medal, but it represents a more complex political moment in which the Dutch were re-evaluating their national history and institutions. Historical records, institutional archives, and studies of nineteenth-century French art can help us understand the complex history surrounding this object.