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Lot Essay
The recent discovery of this large enamel triptych represents a very rare opportunity to acquire a set of twelve 16th century enamels from a single commission. The importance of this group is enhanced by the fact that each of the twelve panels has incorporated into the design a coat-of-arms which are quartered in the final scene. Two of the armorials have been tentatively identified as the Tullier and Baroz families. The triptych muct have been commissioned to commemorate an as yet unidentified marriage between serveral dynasties.
Judging by the very similar palate and the slightly different painting styles of some of the faces - consider, for example, Christ's facial type in the plaque of Pilate Washing his Hands and the Resurrection - it would appear that the commission was executed by one workshop but by at least two different painters. To date, it has not been possible to identify the painters or, indeed, the workshop but on the basis of stylistic comparison it seems likely that it was a workshop active in the second quarter of the 16th century and close to another unknown, yet celebrated, enameller called the Aeneid Master.
In looking at the various panels from the circa 1530 Aeneid series, now dispersed amongst numerous collections including the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore(Verdier, loc. cit.), and the Los Angeles County Museum (Caroselli, loc. cit.), one can see a similar palate to the series offered here, with varying tones of translucent browns and almost watercolour-like washes of blues for the skies and greens for the ground. In terms of style, parallels can also be found in the painting of the drapery which is composed of large blocks of single colours with darker, quickly sketched lines to suggest shadow and elaborate gilded foliate scrolls that do not follow the undulating contours of the textiles. The faces on both series also share some similarities in that they are rendered with a similar sketchiness - with rudimentary lines to suggest features, beards and hair - and also in that the white skin tones which are considerably more intense than any of the other translucent background colours and thus give the faces far greater prominence.
On the basis of these comparisons, therefore, it seems clear that this series was created at around the same time as the Aeneid series sometime during the 1530s. This idea is further strengthened by the fact that after the 1540s a new generation of enamellers, such as Pierre Reymond, Jean II Penicaud and Jean de Court, came to prominence. Their precise, detailed and mannered painting styles radically changed the predominant style of enamel painting in Limoges and moved away from the more lively, painterly, style of the 1530s to the more refined and detailed enamels seen from the 1540s onwards.
Judging by the very similar palate and the slightly different painting styles of some of the faces - consider, for example, Christ's facial type in the plaque of Pilate Washing his Hands and the Resurrection - it would appear that the commission was executed by one workshop but by at least two different painters. To date, it has not been possible to identify the painters or, indeed, the workshop but on the basis of stylistic comparison it seems likely that it was a workshop active in the second quarter of the 16th century and close to another unknown, yet celebrated, enameller called the Aeneid Master.
In looking at the various panels from the circa 1530 Aeneid series, now dispersed amongst numerous collections including the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore(Verdier, loc. cit.), and the Los Angeles County Museum (Caroselli, loc. cit.), one can see a similar palate to the series offered here, with varying tones of translucent browns and almost watercolour-like washes of blues for the skies and greens for the ground. In terms of style, parallels can also be found in the painting of the drapery which is composed of large blocks of single colours with darker, quickly sketched lines to suggest shadow and elaborate gilded foliate scrolls that do not follow the undulating contours of the textiles. The faces on both series also share some similarities in that they are rendered with a similar sketchiness - with rudimentary lines to suggest features, beards and hair - and also in that the white skin tones which are considerably more intense than any of the other translucent background colours and thus give the faces far greater prominence.
On the basis of these comparisons, therefore, it seems clear that this series was created at around the same time as the Aeneid series sometime during the 1530s. This idea is further strengthened by the fact that after the 1540s a new generation of enamellers, such as Pierre Reymond, Jean II Penicaud and Jean de Court, came to prominence. Their precise, detailed and mannered painting styles radically changed the predominant style of enamel painting in Limoges and moved away from the more lively, painterly, style of the 1530s to the more refined and detailed enamels seen from the 1540s onwards.