Huwelijk van Koningin Wilhelmina met Hendrik van Mecklenburg-Schwerin 1901 1901

Pier Pander crafted this bronze medal in 1901 to commemorate the marriage of Queen Wilhelmina to Hendrik van Mecklenburg-Schwerin. One side presents the conjoined profiles of the royal couple, while the other features a boat with a single figure within. The vessel evokes images of journeys, but also of isolation and transition. We see this, too, in funerary art across cultures, where boats carry souls to the afterlife, a motif resonant with both hope and melancholy. The boat is a powerful symbol, found even in ancient Egyptian iconography, where it was linked to the journey of the sun god Ra across the sky, representing cyclical renewal. In the context of a wedding, the boat suggests the start of a shared voyage, laden with the unknown. The depiction of such a symbol offers insight into the emotional currents surrounding this union. It invites reflection on the cyclical nature of life and the symbolic weight of beginnings and endings, resonating through the ages in various guises, each bearing the imprint of human hopes and fears.