Prince Henry Stuart, 1725-1807, Cardinal of York 1747 [obverse] 1788

Filippo Cropanese created this bronze medal of Prince Henry Stuart, Cardinal of York, in 1747. It represents not just an individual but also the complex politics of 18th-century Europe. Cropanese’s medal participates in the visual codes of power associated with both the Catholic Church, of which Prince Henry was a high-ranking member, and the Stuart dynasty, which had been exiled from Britain. The medal was made in Italy, where the Stuart court-in-exile was based at the time. The Papal States, where Cropanese worked, had close ties to the Stuart cause, due to their shared Catholicism. The Stuart claim to the British throne was a continuing source of political instability. The medal therefore functions as a kind of propaganda. To understand this work better, we would want to examine the archives of the Stuart court, Papal records, and collections of similar medals, each of which can reveal a rich context of political and religious institutions.