Medals of the Sun King

Confusing exhibition at the British Museum looking at the medals of Louise XIV, described as the greatest medallic project ever.

I say confusing as it took me quite a while to work out what the project was. I do wonder if I went round backwards but there was no signage to say where to start! By the end I worked out that there was a deliberate move to commemorate all events in the kings reign with a medal with a committee called the Little Academy set up to oversee this. In 1702 all the medals were published in a book.

I sometimes found it had to tell what had been in this canon as there also seemed to be displays on anti-monarch medals which I assume weren’t official.

The show just needed a bit more narrative as I must admit I came out of the small room wondering why this was important and with no sense of the design or purpose of the objects.

Closed  15 November2015.

Review
Telegraph

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