Portrait medal of Antoine Perrenot Granvelle (obverse); Don Juan of Austria Receiving the Standard from Granvelle (reverse)

Giovanni V. Melon

1571 · Bronze (Copper alloy with orange-brown, mottled cuprite patina). · Robert Lehman Collection

The obverse presents a portrait of Antoine Perrenot Granvelle (1517 – 1586), a leading minister for the Spanish Habsburgs during the resurgence of Protestantism in the sixteenth century. A friend and patron of the master painter Titian, Granville possessed a magnificent library and art collection. When Philip II of Spain became emperor in 1556, Granville was dispatched to the Netherlands, where his repression of Protestants forced him to be recalled. This medal commemorates the moment when Don Juan of Austria received from Granvelle the standard as commander of the fleet of the Holy League (Venice, Spain, and the Papal States) against the Turks, which is represented on the medal's reverse.

Artist

Giovanni V. Melon

Date

1571

Medium

Bronze (Copper alloy with orange-brown, mottled cuprite patina).

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975