Dood van Simon Stevin 1848

This bronze medal, commemorating the death of Simon Stevin, was made by Adolphe Jouvenel. Stevin's portrait, encircled by text, evokes ancient Roman coinage, where the likeness of emperors served to immortalize them. The profile, a persistent motif across millennia, first appears in ancient coins, then Renaissance portraits, and persists today. This conscious return to classical forms reflects a desire to legitimize and connect with a lineage of intellectual and cultural authority. The act of memorializing, too, speaks to our deep-seated need to transcend mortality. Images like these are vessels carrying not just likenesses, but the weight of cultural memory, resurfacing through time. The emotional impact of a portrait, even on a small scale, creates a link to a past era. Such an image can act as a potent trigger for collective memory, inviting us to consider how we navigate the complex interplay between memory, history, and our shared human experience.