Filips van Croy 1599

This silver medal, crafted by Jacques Jonghelinck, captures Filips van Croy in striking detail. But let your gaze drift to the reverse side, where a ship braves the waves, flanked by towering cliffs. Above, the inscription: "Bona Vicina Malis," or "A Good Neighbour in Times of Trouble". This image of a ship navigating perilous waters is a timeless metaphor. We see echoes of it in ancient Greek depictions of Odysseus battling the sea, a symbol of life's tumultuous journey. Consider, too, the medieval "Ship of Fools," a vessel adrift, embodying societal folly and moral chaos. The cliffs remind us of the binary of safety and danger, and how we internalize these concepts and project them into our everyday lives. The ship, seemingly caught between a rock and a hard place, conveys a psychological tension between the longing for safety and the thrill of adventure. The sea, the ship, the cliffs—recurring motifs in the human drama. They resurface across epochs, evolving yet retaining their primal power to stir our collective memory.