Bronze medal with Henry IV fighting a centaur, c.1601 After. N.Guinier

This bronze medal is based on a famous model by Nicolas Guenier representing on its obverse an antique profile portrait of Henry IV and on its reverse, the French sovereign fighting the Duke of Savoy in the form of a centaur. "This composition, which emphasizes the ability of the king to eliminate his adversaries, joins a theme regularly present within his iconography: that of the warrior who conquers by force. This is how he appears here on a medal attributed to Nicolas Guinier, created to celebrate his victory over the Duke of Savoy, Charles-Emmanuel I, after the signing of the Treaty of Lyon of 1601, favorable to France, which marks the end of the Franco-Savoyard War The medal –. commemorative symbol intended for elite circles – then constituted the ideal support to illustrate this victory by mixing these real facts with the marvelous. The king disguised as Mars confronts a creature that is half man, half horse. He is equipped with a helmet. and a shield but wears no clothing If Henry IV, of course, never fought a centaur in the simplest apparatus, this image nevertheless refers to a concrete event and to an existing adversary, located in fact. , between historical reality and chimerical universe. The choice of this heroic nudity elevates the sovereign to the rank of god. Inspired by the ancient model, his athletic body also contributes to fueling the idea that he was an invincible superman. His musculature is once again exacerbated while the fight is particularly theatrical. The centaur, with remarkable momentum, rocks backwards and raises the crown that he had tried to usurp from his rival." (Source: Juliette Souperbie, "Reflections around the notion of verisimilitude in the art of royal portraiture at the Renaissance: the example of the representations of the sovereign Henry IV", Les Cahiers de Framespa, 35 | 2020, October 30, 2020)

The most beautiful casts of Guenier's composition contempory to our medal are today in prestigious museum institutions such as the National Library of France or the National Gallery of Art in Washington.