Medal of Anne of Austria, Queen of France, commemorating the founding of the College of Nanterre
Jean Darmand (c.1600 - 1669)
Category
Coins and medals
Date
1642
Materials
Bronze
Measurements
506 mm (Height); 503 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Paris
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 773247
Summary
Bronze, medal of Anne of Austria, Queen of France, commemorating the founding of the College of Nanterre, by Jean Darmand, called l’Orfelin (c. 1600-1669), cast Paris, 1642. A bronze medal of Anne of Austria (1601-1666), wife of King Louis XIII of France (1601-43) and Queen of France, by Jean Darmand, called L'Orfelin. The obverse shows the queen in profile, facing to the right, wearing a soft-collared dress, the Latin legend translating as ‘Anne of Austria, Queen of France and Navarre’. The date 1642 is on the truncation of the bust. The reverse has a long inscription relating to the laying, on 16 March 1642, of the foundation stone for the Priory of Nanterre, of which the queen was the patron and which was dedicated to Saint Genevieve. Queen Anne was especially devoted to Genvieve (died c. 500 A.D.), an early Christian saint and the patroness of Paris, who was born in Nanterre, just outside Paris and today a suburb of the city.
Full description
The medal commemorates the laying of the foundation stone of the Priory of Nanterre, on 16 March 1642. The college was established by the charismatic priest Paul Beurrier (1608-96), who had arrived in Nanterre in 1634, from the abbey of Saint-Geneviève in Paris, and quickly transformed the profile of the Church in the town, which at that time lay just outside Paris. Anne of Austria, wife of King Louis XIII and mother of the future Louis XIV, was especially devoted to Saint Genevieve and would often come to Nanterre, now part of the western suburbs of Paris, to pray to the saint. Beurrier obtained agreement and funds to establish in Nanterre the Royal College of the Canons-Regular of Saint Genevieve in Nanterre, established under the patronage of Queen Anne. The royal college operated as a school, educating boys in subjects such as mathematics and engineering. In the same year of the foundation of the college, 1642, Beurrier published a life of Saint Genevieve, La Vie de saincte Geneviève, which he dedicated to Anne of Austria. Jean Darmand worked at the Paris Mint between 1630- and 1646, where he was employed in the cutting of dies. He succeeded Nicolas Briot (c. 1579-1646) and was succeeded by Jean Warin (1607-1672). Darmand is known to have made just five medals, including two others in 1642 of Anne of Austria, which employ the same obverse portrait of the Queen, but with a different reverse, illustrating the queen’s aspiration to a heavenly crown (example in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Inv. 1957.14.1170). The medal with the inscription was specifically made for the ceremony of the founding of the College; an example of the medal in bronze and another medal of Saint Genevieve were placed inside the foundation stone (Pierre Ferier, L'abbaye de Sainte-Geneviève et la congrégation de France, 2 vols., Paris 1883, II, pp. 61-62). Other examples in gold and in silver were also placed in the foundations of the new building (Jean Lebeuf, Histoire de la ville et de tout le diocèse de Paris, Paris 1757, pp. 119-20). Jeremy Warren 2019
Provenance
Given to the National Trust in 1993 by George Child Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey (1910-1998).
Marks and inscriptions
Obverse, legend: ANNA. AVSTRIACA. FRANC[iae]. ET. NAVAR[rae]. REGINA Obverse, truncation : 1642 Reverse, legend: +/D. O. M./ANNA AVSTRIACA FRANC ET/NAVAR REGINA IN B GENOVEFAM/VRBIS ADEOQVE ORBIS GALLICI/ PATRONAM EXIMIVM PIETATIS/ SVAE MONIMENTVM PRIMARIVM / HVNC ET ANGVLAREM LAPIDEM P./ NOMINE ET TITVLO FVNDATRICIS/ ANNO DNI M. D. C. XLII/ VRBANI VIII PONT XIX/ LVD.XIII. XXXII.
Makers and roles
Jean Darmand (c.1600 - 1669) , medallist
References
Mazzerolle 1902-4: Fernand Mazzerolle, Les médailleurs français du XVe siècle au milieu du XVIIe, 3 vols., Paris 1902-04, vol. II, p. 157, no. 779.