Champlevé, enameled, engraved and gilded... - Lot 4 - Giquello

Lot 4
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7000 - 9000 EUR
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Result : 22 100EUR
Champlevé, enameled, engraved and gilded... - Lot 4 - Giquello
Champlevé, enameled, engraved and gilded copper plate of diamond-shaped and poly-lobed form representing Christ, turquoise, dark blue, white, red-brown, brown, green and yellow enamels. Standing, head turned three-quarters to the left, Christ holds the Book in his left hand and blesses with the other; haloed head with half-length hair framed by the alpha and omega; guilloche background punctuated by an eight-pointed star and two enameled quatrefoils as well as other quatrefoils simply engraved. Limoges, Group of enamels with starred background, circa 1225-1235 Height: 14,7 cm - Width: 9,9 cm (slight wear to the gilding) Provenance: Former private collection, Italy This plate belongs to a group of works defined by the art historian W.F. Stohlman which share the same type of decoration of rosettes or stars on a guilloche and gilded background, hence the name Star Group. It includes, among others, the reliquary of St. Francis of Assisi in the Louvre Museum (inv. OA 4083), the plaque with the same subject in the Cluny Museum (inv. OA 84, fig.a), the Bonneval cross in the same museum (inv. Cl. 22888) as well as a shrine and two gable plaques in the Hermitage (inv. 181, inv. 2288 a,b, fig.b). A similarity of enamel colors can also be observed in this corpus, with a wide use of turquoise and deep blue, a "dirty" white and a "speckled" red. There is also a certain archaism in the workmanship which refers to an older production, that of the years before the 13th century of the "vermiculated funds". The realization of the reliquary plates of St. Francis of Assisi is located shortly after 1228, the date of the canonization of the Franciscan saint; it allows us to date the activity of the workshops at the origin of this production to the beginning of the second quarter of the thirteenth century. The plate with the blessing Christ was to be attached to the reverse of a large processional cross similar to the one with the same shape in the collection of the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg illustrating the article by Stohlman (inv. 1886.60). Iconographic peculiarities have been noted on certain works with "starred backgrounds", notably on the Bonneval cross with the figure of the Savior, enthroned between the Greek letters alpha and omega, showing in an unusual way the stigmata of his hands and feet (fig.c). Here, the blessing Christ, singularly standing, does not raise his right hand in a gesture of blessing but extends his arm, more in a gesture of designation. These iconographic characteristics have led the great specialist in champlevé enamels, Marie-Madeleine Gauthier, to question the Limousin origin of this production, going so far as to suggest the activity of Limousin artists working in central Italy or of artists from the Peninsula working after Limousin models. It remains that the works of this group of stars are particularly seductive by the preciousness that emerges from them and the singularity of their style. Works consulted: F.W. Stohlman, "The Star Group of Champleve Enamels and its Connexions" in Art Bulletin, XXXII, 1950, p 327-330. Exhibition Paris - New York 1995/1996, L'Œuvre de Limoges. Emaux limousins du Moyen-Age, Musée du Louvre - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p 306 to 317. Exhibition Limoges 2004, Emaux limousins du Musée national de l'Ermitage de Saint-Pétersbourg, Musée municipal de l'Evêché, cat.30 et 31. E. Nekrasova, The Azure and Gold of Limoges, Saint Petersburg, 2009, cat.43 and 44.
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