INIGO JONES: LAUDATORY MEDAL

CARTER, Charles Frederick: England, 1849, Bronze, 54 mm
Obv: Bust of Inigo Jones (r)    INIGO JONES
Rev: Facade of Banqueting House, Whitehall
Signed:  C.F. CARTER F.
Exergue:  BANQUETING HOUSE WHITEHALL 1616
Edge:  ART UNION OF LONDON 1849
One of a series of medals published by the Art Union of London.
Ref: Beulah 182/5; BHM ii, 142/2348; Eimer 1437; Eidlitz 101/611;  Weiss BW017

Inigo Jones (1573-1652) began as a landscape artist, but later he turned to architecture. His early career found him in Italy where he designed a palace in Venice. After spending time in Denmark at the invitation of Christian IV, he returned to England where he was appointed court architect to James I.  Inigo Jones, along with Sir Christopher Wren, gave London some of its finest buildings. He built, in the manner of Andrea Palladio, the Queen's house, Greenwich and the Banqueting Hall, Whitehall, the subject of this medal.
The Art Union of London was founded in 1837 to foster and encourage interest in the fine arts. Members paid an annual subscription of one guinea, for which they received an engraving. The funds which accrued enabled the Art Union to become patrons and purchase art which they considered had merit. Between 1842 and 1887, they sponsored a group of thirty medals, each with a portrait of an eminent artist, together with an illustration of their work. Bronze medals were given to members of the Art Union who would otherwise have chosen an engraving. It is estimated that of each issue of medal produced by the Art Union, only thirty examples were struck in silver.

LINK to portrait of Inigo Jones after Sir Anthony van Dyck (from National Portrait Gallery)

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