DESIGNED BY JANUARIUS ZICK AND EXECUTED BY JOHAN MICHAEL RUMMER AT THE ROENTGEN WORKSHOPS, LATE 18TH CENTURY

This medallion portrait of a Roman matron was designed in 1778 by Januarias Zick (d.1797), Court artist to the Elector of Trier, and was executed at the Neuweid workshops of David Roentgen (d.1807) by Johann Michael Rummer (d.1812). The latter, who worked in London and Warsaw before returning to Neuweid, was considered the finest marqueteur or inlayer in the employ of Roentgen, who in turn was recognised by some contemporaries as Europe's foremost ébéniste. This Roman matron featured in a remarkable commission that Roentgen received from Prince Charles of Lorraine (d.1780) to commemorate his role as Austrian Governor of the Southern Netherlands. In February 1778, Roentgen was contracted to supply two colourful wood-marquetry tapestries, some three and a half metres square, to be displayed in the Prince's walnut and rosewood-panelled Audience Chamber at the Palais de Nassau, Brussels. The two panels, celebrating Roman History and depicting Peace with Carthage and the Sabines were, according to the contract, to be executed from the finest drawings and in such a manner that the pieces would stand criticism from any painter. The inlay work was to be done on a broken white ground with finely selected woods, and Roentgen himself was to supervise their fixing in place. The first of these 'tapisseries' was in position by May 1779, according to a note made by the Prince in his Journal Secret; and the two were described as 'riche et extraordinaire' in the Palace inventory of 1780. At that time, some of Roentgen's mosaic marquetry was displayed at the 1779 Salon des Artistes et Savants, Paris, where it was described by the art critic Pahin de la Blancherie as being 'Of a type completely different from that in use until now. All the figures are well drawn, the shades and shadows are not burned or engraved or tinted with wax or smoke, ... but solidly indicated in little pieces of wood properly graded. The accuracy of the design, the liveliness of the composition, and the exactness of the shapes, lead one to believe that it is either painted or carried out in a more solid and substatial material' (Hans Huth, Roentgen Furniture, London, 1974, pp.40-45).

This medallion depicts the veil-draped head of the Roman matron or priestess who appears in the main panel giving advice to a Carthaginian maiden. Entitled, 'The Peace between the Romans and the Carthaginians', it is likely to depict the end of the Punic war in 202 BC, when Scipio won his title of Africanus and Carthage ceded Spain.

A related medallion, executed in Roentgen's workshops by Rummer after a portrait by Zick, was formerly in the possession of the Roentgen family (Huth, op. cit., fig 243)