Tomb of Desaix
Medium
Gilt bronze, struck
Dimensions
Diameter: 1 1/16 in. (2.7 cm)
Classification
Medals and Plaquettes
Culture
French
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Hon. Levi P. Morton, 1885
Accession Number
85.2.119
Art Historical Context
This gilt bronze medal, struck in 1805 at the Paris Mint under the direction of Dominique Vivant Denon, commemorates the tomb of French general Louis Charles Antoine Desaix. A hero of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic campaigns, Desaix fell at the Battle of Marengo in 1800. Created by engraver Nicholas Guy Antoine Brenet, the small-scale work reflects the Napoleonic regime’s use of medals to honor military valor and shape public memory during the First Empire. Medals like this one served both as portable tributes and instruments of state propaganda. Their struck technique allowed precise relie...