This remarkable set of four pearl, shell and hardstone panels is the only known surviving work by the elusive Flemish artist De Vély, who is recorded as having created two further reliefs (now lost) which appeared in the Dávila sale in Paris in 1767. Unique in European art, they draw upon the legacy of the 17th-century Paris goldsmith François I Roberday (Orléans circa 1590 – Paris 1651). The panels belong to a category of works described in the 18th century as the goût Roberday, after the seed pearl and hardstone animals, herms and figurative groups created by the goldsmith during the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. Only a handful of objects made by Roberday survive: principally in the Louvre and in the Palazzo Pitti. Like Roberday’s works, De Vély’s panels represent a French response to the 17th-century vogue for mounted hardstone sculptures, for which Florentine workshops, principally the Medici Opificio delle Pietre Dure, were celebrated.

The Fairhaven Panels depict four personifications or gods, two of which follow models from the French 1643 illustrated edition of Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, originally published in 1593 (op. cit.). The centre left figure holding a shield emblazoned with the Latin motto, Nec Sorte Nec Fato (Neither by chance, nor fate), follows Ripa’s Vertu invincible, whilst the farthest right figure, who is crowned and holds an architectural plan, is inspired by his Magnificence. The remaining two figures, far left and centre right, respectively display attributes associated with Mars and Minerva, some of which are seen elsewhere in the Iconologia. The panels embody the baroque taste for magnificence and pagentry, and seem to convey the shared themes of triumph in war and prosperity in peace. Each panel is a tour-de-force and a brilliant display of technical virtuosity and patience; a point that is underscored by De Vély himself in the right titular cartouche which states that the ensemble was begun in 1685 and completed in 1700[?]. In their dazzling incorporation of exotic and expensive materials, from seed pearls and shells, to lapis and sardonyx, De Vély’s works form a unique marriage of nature and artifice.

A French origin for the Fairhaven Panels is supported by the iconography seen in the panel with Mars, who stands before an elaborate military trophy formed principally of flags associated with the court of Louis XIV: the banner of the elite Gardes françaises - a white cross imposed upon a blue ground enlivened with gold fleurs de lys - and a white flag emblazoned with the golden sun. Curiously, the Angevin flag or banner of Plantagenet England – three gold lions set against a red ground – can be seen at the bottom left corner alongside a fallen helmet and sword. Further unidentified flags adorn the upper tier of the panel, suggesting that De Vély did not intend to convey a political message such as the triumph of France over England (as the presence of the Angevin/ Plantagenet banner could suggest). Rather, it seems more likely that he was drawing upon a contemporary visual repertoire for purely decorative effect, a point underlined by Mars’ generic theatrical costume. However, the prominent inclusion of imagery associated with Louis XIV is a strong indicator that De Vély, like many Flemish artists, worked in Paris.

The Fairhaven Panels are defined by the use of expensive and exotic materials, near miniature (in the case of seed pearls) and intricately arranged to create mesmerising ensembles. The two outer panels with Mars and Magnificence are defined by their elaborate baldachini, each supported by monolithic lapis lazuli columns, and respectively adorned with baroque pearls and engraved gems. The figures themselves are formed of minute seed pearls, whilst their costumes are picked out with gold and mother of pearl and set with cabochon gems. The figures stand above 17th-century hessonite garnet busts carved in the round, each of which are flanked by fantastical lions and panthers set with gleaming garnet eyes. The inner panels, depicting Virtu invincible and Minerva, are surmounted by cartouches which proudly proclaim De Vély’s authorship, and are differentiated from the more sumptuous outer panels by the predominance of shellwork and mother of pearl. Whereas the outer panels feature fantastical beasts, the two figures in the inner panels stand above animal pelts made from tinted mother of pearl and shells.

De Vély’s unique style was associated with François I Roberday in the 18th century, when two of his compositions, representing Diana and Endymion and Diana turning a woman into a bird, were offered in the sale of the Spanish naturalist Pedro Franco Dávila (1711–1786) in Paris in 1767 (lots 954, 955); it is in this catalogue that the artist is said to be: un Flamand (Flemish). Interestingly, the Dávila panels, described as being in high relief, had landscape backgrounds and were – like the Fairhaven Panels – placed in gilt bronze cases. Most significant is their designation in the sale: Différens morceau dans le gout de Roberdet [sic].

François I Roberday was a celebrated goldsmith and musician active during the reign of Louis XIII, and Anne of Austria’s subsequent regency. Roberday worked under the protection of Gaston d’Orléans, the King’s brother, and produced several works in silver for Cardinal Mazarin, which later entered the collection of Louis XIV. Interestingly, Roberday is recorded as having employed lapidaries in his workship and, following the death of his first wife, married Jacqueline Le Secq, widow of two Parisian lapidaries, from whom he acquired a large stock of hardstones including engraved gems; it was after this marriage that Roberday directed his talents to making luxuriant hardstone mounted objects. Numerous 18th-century inventories attest to the existence of figures, heads and animals composed of pearl and mother of pearl made by Roberday. These include, in the Cabinet of Curiosities of M. du Bois-Jourdain, ‘une armoire … paraissait couverte de vases de cristal de roche, d’agathes, de jaspes sanguins, de têtes d’animaux faites de perles et de nacre, ouvrages du fameaux Roberdet [sic]’ (a cabinet seemingly covered with rock crystal vases, agates, blood jaspers, animal heads made of pearl and mother of pearl, works by the famous Roberdet’). The collection of Charles Cressant, sold in 1749, similarly included sculptures of animals, real and fantastical, made of seed pearls, shell and hardstones, all attributed to one ‘Bertodet’ [sic] (for all of the above cf Bimbernet-Privat, op. cit., p. 25).

Few works by Roberday have been identified today. These include a casket inlaid with exotic hardstones acquired for the collection of Louis XIV from the younger François II Roberday in 1671, which Michèle Bimbernet-Privat has convincingly attributed to the elder goldsmith (Bimbernet-Privat, op. cit.). Some of the hardstones on this casket are engraved to the reverse with designs consistent with other Parisian 17th-century engraved gems. Tantalisingly, these are very similar to the engraved gem with a goddess on the present De Vély panel with Magnificence.

The strongest comparison for the Fairhaven Panels comes from a remarkable sculptural group with the Flight into Egypt by François I Roberday in the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. RFML.OA.2022.41.1). Like in De Vély’s panels, the figures of the Virgin and Child, donkey, St Joseph and attendant, are each covered with seed pearls of different colours depending on whether the surface is supposed to be fabric or animal pelt. The primary difference is that the areas of body flesh are composed of large baroque pearls; although this finds a parallel in the two baroque pearl cuirasses above De Vély’s figure of Mars. One of the most striking concordances is found in the Virgin’s cloak which, as in the costumes of De Vély’s female figures, is set with cabochons of hardstone, notably turquoise, together with seed pearls, in order to mimic elaborate brocade and striped fabrics. The ground around the trees and the edges of the terrasse is close to that seen in De Vély’s panels with Mars and Magnificence, being composed of seed pearls which mimic mossy vegetation, interspersed with rocks made from turquoises and other semi-precious stones. The same techniques for the costume, but with mother of pearl for the flesh tones, can be seen in a seated Pagode ascribed to Roberday, which was with Galerie J. Kugel, Paris, in 2013. For a further comparison, see the hardstone Terme adorned with baroque pearls, seed pearls and hardstones, in the Louvre (Bimbernet-Privat, op. cit. fig. 22).

The near-identical treatment of the figures, whose surfaces are covered in seed pearls, combined with hardstones, mother of pearl and baroque pearl in the Louvre Flight into Egypt and Kugel Pagode, is so similar to De Vély’s technique seen in the Fairhaven Panels that the question should be posed as to whether he trained under Roberday’s son, François II Roberday, a famous musician, who began his career as a goldsmith and later became valet de chambre to Queen Marie-Thérèse. Unfortunately little is known about the younger Roberday’s career as a goldsmith, aside from the sale of the aforementioned casket (ascribed to his father) in 1671; he died of fever in 1680. However, the use of shared techniques and the access to expensive materials (the younger Roberday is recorded as having visited Italy to source hardstones) could suggest a link between De Vély and the more well-known Roberday dynasty beyond a mere stylistic affinity.

The Fairhaven Panels are thought to have been acquired for the Fairhaven collection by the Anglo-American collector and philanthropist Cara Leyland Rogers (1867-1939), who later became Lady Fairhaven; her husband Urban Hanlon Broughton was due to receive a peerage but sadly died before it could take place. Lady Fairhaven was the daughter of the American oil tycoon Henry Rogers of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, a descendent of a Mayflower pilgrim who went on to amass a huge fortune, principally through his business partnership with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil. The future Lady Fairhaven moved to England with her husband in 1912, where the two established themselves in a lavish mansion at 37 Park Street in Mayfair. A philanthropist in her own right, Lady Fairhaven saved the famous Meadows at Runnymede, where Magna Carta had been signed, for the British nation. She was also a significant collector, principally of jewels and hardstones which she left to her sons, Huttleston, 1st Baron Fairhaven, and Henry, who became 2nd Baron Fairhaven. The Fairhaven Panels reflect her taste in precious objects. Whilst their 20th-century history reflects the intertwined relationships of the American and British upper classes, the panels are ultimately a unique testament to the taste for lavishly mounted hardstone objects in the reign of Louis XIV.

RELATED LITERATURE
C. Ripa, Iconologia, translated into French by Jean Baudoin, Paris, 1643, pp. 83, 132; A. M. Giusti, Pietre Dure. L'arte europea del mosaico negli arredi e nelle decorazioni dal 1500 al 1800, Florence, 1992; A. M. Massinelli, The Gilbert Collection: Hardstones, cat. Gilbert Collection, London, 2000; D. Alcouffe, Les gemmes de la Couronne, Paris, 2001; M. Bimbernet-Privat, ‘Nouvelle découverte d’une oeuvre de François Roberday: Le coffret en pierres dures de Louis XIV,’ in Versalia. Revue de la Société des Amis de Versailles, no. 8, 2005, pp. 14-28; W. Koeppe and A. Giusti (eds.), Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe, exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2008; P. Mansel, King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV, London, 2009