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Commemorative and portrait medals gained popularity during the Renaissance and medal making spread out beyond the Italian peninsula. In the Netherlands, the period of intense economic change and new prosperity of the 17th century coincided with a new interest in medals as a portable, reproducible art form suitable for depicting a wide range of subjects. Some medals depict important people, like rulers, elected officials, naval and military heroes; some show events, such as significant battles, treaties signed, marriages; and others show buildings or institutions that spoke of the United Provinces’ prosperity and commerce, like the town hall and the stock exchange in Amsterdam. Pieter van Abeele shows a quintessential Dutch windmill in the view of Amsterdam here in this medal recognizing William II’s siege of the city.
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William II's Siege of Amsterdam (Leeuwarden Medal)
Pieter van Abeele (Dutch, 1608–1684)
1650
Credit Line
The Maida and George Abrams Collection
Accession Number2021.234
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsNumismatics – Coins
Commemorative and portrait medals gained popularity during the Renaissance and medal making spread out beyond the Italian peninsula. In the Netherlands, the period of intense economic change and new prosperity of the 17th century coincided with a new interest in medals as a portable, reproducible art form suitable for depicting a wide range of subjects. Some medals depict important people, like rulers, elected officials, naval and military heroes; some show events, such as significant battles, treaties signed, marriages; and others show buildings or institutions that spoke of the United Provinces’ prosperity and commerce, like the town hall and the stock exchange in Amsterdam. Pieter van Abeele shows a quintessential Dutch windmill in the view of Amsterdam here in this medal recognizing William II’s siege of the city.
Inscriptionsrecto, upper edge, banner: Ons herten hande is voor het landt
verso, around edge: Zyn Hoogheyt Wilhem Prins van Orange, heeft de Stadt Amsteldam beleegert den 30 July, ende Weederom afgetrocken den 4. Augusty 1650.
Verso, center: GODT HEEFT ONS BEWAERT.
verso, around edge: Zyn Hoogheyt Wilhem Prins van Orange, heeft de Stadt Amsteldam beleegert den 30 July, ende Weederom afgetrocken den 4. Augusty 1650.
Verso, center: GODT HEEFT ONS BEWAERT.
ProvenanceNovember 15-17, 1999, sale (auction no. 23), Laurens Schulman, Bussum, Netherlands, lot 1941, to George S. and Maida Abrams, Newton, MA; 2021, gift of George S. Abrams to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 14, 2021)