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Image 40. Siège de la Bastille. Époque du 14 Julliet 1789. Dedié aux patriotes. [Siege of the Bastille. Epoch of July 14, 1789. Dedicated to the patriots.]

Andrieu is known to have produced two versions of this medal, although their differences were slight (in one version, for example, the windows in the building on the right have more cross-hatching than those of the other) [Image 40].9 These medals also proved to be extremely popular. Over 800 forgeries were produced to meet public demand.10 In all, these medals complement those images produced in contemporary prints such as Charles Thévenin's Prise de la Bastille le 14 Juillet 1789 [Image 29].  Encouraged by the success of these medals, Andrieu planned to create a series of medals commemorating the great events of the Revolution.11

His second great medal was a depiction of the October Days and the king's arrival in Paris. The image produced here, unlike the print A Memorable Day at Versailles, shows the arrival of the royal family at the Place Royal (later to be renamed Place de la Concorde).  The equestrian statue of Louis XV (which gave the place its name) can be made out in the background.  Escorted by marching soldiers and mounted officers, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their dauphin (the “baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's son”) are plainly visible in the windows of the carriage. The atmosphere is one of jubilation.  Well-dressed Parisians cheer the royal family.  In the family depicted on the right, a father even lifts his son to his shoulders for a better view of the event.  The only hint of the mob action that ultimately brought the king to Paris may be the image of the more commonly dressed woman (in center-left) who walks beside the royal carriage and brandishes a sword or stick of some kind.  She is almost lost, however, in the throng of soldiers.

	Image 41. La nation a conquis son roi. Arrivée du roi à Paris le 6 Octobre 1789. [The nation has conquered its king. Arrival of the king in Paris, October 6, 1789.]

As with Andrieu’s earlier works, two versions of these pewter medals were struck.12 Each possessed a different legend. The original medal bore the legend “La Nation a conquis son roi” [Image 41], a title which at first glance appears to be provocative, to say the least. It is not a reference, however, to what was to become the reality of the king’s moving to Paris (to be removed from power by the mobs in August 1792), but rather a reference to the 17 July 1789 greeting said by the mayor of Paris, Jean Sylvain Bailly, to the king in the aftermath of the fall of the Bastille. While giving the king the keys to the city, Bailly noted that they were the same keys given by the city to Henry VI, who had conquered the hearts of his people; in 1789 it was the people who had conquered the king.13 According to Michel Hennin, Andrieu soon came to regret that legend and produced a second variant with the less controversial “Arrivée due roi à Paris” [Image 42] which was perhaps more appropriate to the circumstances of 1790.14

While the commemorative medals of Bertrand Andrieu are obviously the work of a master craftsman who attempted to depict  historical events realistically, other medals and jetons often commemorated those same events symbolically.   An example of this later type is represented by the sole jeton in this virtual collection. Jetons, smaller and made of baser medals, were less expensive and were, thus, designed for a mass audience and often freely distributed as souvenirs. Larger works such as medals or medallions were intended for wealthier audiences and dignitaries and were typically struck in bronze, pewter, or precious metals.15 The size and type of metal used to create these medals reflected their intended audiences. Frequently the same medal was struck in copper for a mass audience as well as in gold or silver for those able to bear the cost. Such a diffusion made it possible for a particularly successful design, such as Bertrand Andrieu's Siège de la Bastille, to reach the widest possible audience.16

Image 17. Medal: Vivre libre ou mourir [Live Free or Die]

The symbolism is readily evident in the various elements of the Vivre Libre ou Mourir jeton, a medal undoubtedly used to commemorate the capture of the Bastille [Image 17]. The most obvious symbols—the legend “Vivre libre ou mourir,” the Phrygian cap, the fasces, and the fleur-de-lys (which dominate the field of the medal)—were frequently associated with the events of 14 July 1789 in various medals, banners, and other commemorative devices. A quick scan of Hennin's catalog of Revolutionary-era medals, for example, reveals that a number of medals and jetons bore the legend displayed on this jeton [Images 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38]; 17 and with few exceptions, those medals commemorated the fall of the Bastille as the birth of liberty. Likewise, the Phrygian cap, originally worn in ancient Rome by freedmen as a sign of their emancipation, represented love of liberty and came to symbolize the freedoms gained by the destruction of the Bastille. In its continued evolutions, as Maurice Dommanget has noted, by 1792 the Phrygian cap had become a patriotic and anti-aristocratic symbol to be worn everywhere in public (it also helped that the cap was similar to an inexpensive worker's hat).18

Another classical symbol, the fasces, represented strength in unity. During the Revolutionary era, the fasces took on additional complementary meanings. In the exciting days of the Estates-General, the fasces came to represent the union of the three orders. At other times, the bundle of sticks or pikes (or in rare cases baguettes) might represent the departments of France or the unity of France in general. If sixteen pikes comprised the bundle, however, the fasces represented Paris and its sixteen districts. The composition of the bundle was also important: the pike was a simple weapon that could be employed by ordinary citizens and that was associated with the crowd’s role in the storming of the Bastille and with the later journées of the Revolution.19 Together the legend and these symbols not only commemorated one of the great journées of the Revolution, but they also created a powerful message for the crowds: Strength lies in collective action. It was the action of the crowd on 14 July 1789 that destroyed the vestiges of despotism, and it would be the collective strength of the crowd which would preserve its newly won liberty.

And although at first glance the fleur-de-lys might seem out of place on a medal commemorating the fall of the Bastille, one need only recall that until 1792 many perceived Louis XVI to be the restorer of the French liberties. His appearance at the Hôtel de Ville on 17 July seemed to condone the crowd's actions of three days earlier, thus linking the king to the ideals represented in the iconography of this jeton—at least until the crowds once again showed their collective power and overthrew the monarchy on 10 August 1792.  Thus jetons and medals, using both symbolism and realistic depictions of events or personages, served as a means of propagating the ideals and messages of the French Revolution, in this case, the role of the crowd in winning and securing the idea of liberty.

Most important for the purposes of this collection, the persistence of those images and messages in metallic or print format served as constant reminders of the power inherent in the unity of crowd/mob actions. It was the crowd that both brought down the Bastille and forced the king to Paris. It would also be the power of the unified crowd that would bring an end to the monarchy and create the Republic.  And until the suppression of the 13 Vendémiaire uprising by Napoleon's “whiff of grapeshot,” the crowd would continue to be a driving force in the Revolution, and medals and jetons would continue to be a reminder of its power and its successes.  It was their ability to recall past glories, after all, which led David to make his speech before the Convention.

Notes