Attributed to the Workshop of Colin Nouailher (active circa 1539-1570) | French, Limoges, circa 1540-1560 | Oval plaque with Josaphat on horseback
Lot Closed
July 6, 02:33 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Attributed to the Workshop of Colin Nouailher (active circa 1539-1570)
French, Limoges, circa 1540-1560
Oval plaque with Josaphat on horseback
partially gilt painted enamel on copper, in an associated wood frame
inscribed: IOSAPHA T. REX. IV DA, and inscribed: VI to the reverse
plaque: 20.5 by 16.5cm., 8 by 6½in.
frame: 22 by 18cm., 8 5/8 by 7 1/8 in.
The present enamel appears to be the only known depiction of Josaphat, King of Judah, attributable to the workshop of Colin Nouailher.
The most prominent member of a family of Limoges enamellers, Colin Nouailher signed a variety of works dated between 1539 and 1545, and his activity is recorded until at least as far as 1567. He is best known for his series of large medallions depicting valiant men on horseback, the so-called Nine Worthies popularised in the fourteenth-century romance Les Voeux du Paon, comprising heroic men from antiquity, the Old Testament, and the Middle Ages. Examples of what is considered the prime series, which includes several signed plaques and one dated 1541, are held across important public collections such as the Musée du Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum, New York, while numerous similar roundels have been attributed to Nouailher or his workshop on stylistic grounds. Their motifs are invariably based on, but do not strictly adhere to, a double suite of woodcuts by Lucas van Leyden (circa 1494-1533), formerly attributed to Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, which depict the Nine Worthies and the Twelve Kings of Israel in a frieze-like equestrian procession.
Inscribed IOSAPHAT, the present plaque takes its subject from Lucas van Leyden’s woodcut of Kings Abia, Asa and Josaphat from the Twelve Kings suite; see a version in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. RP-P-BI-6236c). Forming a mirror image of the print, the enamel is relatively faithful to its source, especially in Josaphat’s garments, but as with Nouailher’s Nine Worthies, there are adaptations, including in the horse’s tail which has been moved to fit the confines of the plaque. Despite being of oval rather than circular shape and depicting a subject which does not appear in Nouailher’s known series of medallions, the present plaque bears a striking stylistic resemblance to the enameller’s work. The distinctive appearance of the horse, with a small head, sturdy anatomy, and an almost comically stern expression, is a hallmark of Colin’s medallions. A parallel for the present plaque’s colour and decorative scheme from Nouailher’s oeuvre is found in a roundel with King David in the Louvre (inv. no. MR 2527), which shows skin tones in the face, a similar rendering of the grassy ground, and an analogous red pattern on the horse’s caparison.
In 1991, Anne-Marie Bautier discussed a group of 16th-century Limoges plaques of oval shape and around 20cm. in height depicting subjects from the Twelve Kings of Israel woodcuts (op. cit., pp. 341-344). Because of the seemingly scant survival of such plaques, her discussion was based almost exclusively on entries from old collection and auction catalogues. An unillustrated entry in the 1847 catalogue of the Debruge Duménil collection (op. cit., no. 782) lists a pair of oval plaques with Josaphat and Asa on horseback, whose dimensions correspond to those of the present plaque. It is tempting to suggest that the present plaque could be the same as the Duménil Josaphat. However if the Duménil Asa is indeed, as according to Bautier, identical with the example sold and illustrated as part of the Dr R. Hamburg collection in 1938 (sale Hans W. Lange, Berlin 7-9 April 1938, lot 343), this seems unlikely, as the Asa plaque appears stylistically distinct from the present lot. What these references do provide is a tantalising glimpse into the former existence of series of enamels after Lucas van Leyden’s Twelve Kings of Israel. Bautier proposed Colin Nouailher’s as a workshop in which such a series of enamels could have been produced. The discovery of the present plaque lends credence to this hypothesis.
RELATED LITERATURE
J. Labarte, Description des objets d’art qui composent la collection Debruge-Duménil, Paris, 1847; A.-M. Bautier, ‘Les Neuf Preux et les Paladins dans les émaux peints de Limoges’, in Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France, vol. 1989, 1991, pp. 320-348; S. Baratte, Les émaux peints de Limoges, cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2000, pp. 66-68
The most prominent member of a family of Limoges enamellers, Colin Nouailher signed a variety of works dated between 1539 and 1545, and his activity is recorded until at least as far as 1567. He is best known for his series of large medallions depicting valiant men on horseback, the so-called Nine Worthies popularised in the fourteenth-century romance Les Voeux du Paon, comprising heroic men from antiquity, the Old Testament, and the Middle Ages. Examples of what is considered the prime series, which includes several signed plaques and one dated 1541, are held across important public collections such as the Musée du Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum, New York, while numerous similar roundels have been attributed to Nouailher or his workshop on stylistic grounds. Their motifs are invariably based on, but do not strictly adhere to, a double suite of woodcuts by Lucas van Leyden (circa 1494-1533), formerly attributed to Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, which depict the Nine Worthies and the Twelve Kings of Israel in a frieze-like equestrian procession.
Inscribed IOSAPHAT, the present plaque takes its subject from Lucas van Leyden’s woodcut of Kings Abia, Asa and Josaphat from the Twelve Kings suite; see a version in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. no. RP-P-BI-6236c). Forming a mirror image of the print, the enamel is relatively faithful to its source, especially in Josaphat’s garments, but as with Nouailher’s Nine Worthies, there are adaptations, including in the horse’s tail which has been moved to fit the confines of the plaque. Despite being of oval rather than circular shape and depicting a subject which does not appear in Nouailher’s known series of medallions, the present plaque bears a striking stylistic resemblance to the enameller’s work. The distinctive appearance of the horse, with a small head, sturdy anatomy, and an almost comically stern expression, is a hallmark of Colin’s medallions. A parallel for the present plaque’s colour and decorative scheme from Nouailher’s oeuvre is found in a roundel with King David in the Louvre (inv. no. MR 2527), which shows skin tones in the face, a similar rendering of the grassy ground, and an analogous red pattern on the horse’s caparison.
In 1991, Anne-Marie Bautier discussed a group of 16th-century Limoges plaques of oval shape and around 20cm. in height depicting subjects from the Twelve Kings of Israel woodcuts (op. cit., pp. 341-344). Because of the seemingly scant survival of such plaques, her discussion was based almost exclusively on entries from old collection and auction catalogues. An unillustrated entry in the 1847 catalogue of the Debruge Duménil collection (op. cit., no. 782) lists a pair of oval plaques with Josaphat and Asa on horseback, whose dimensions correspond to those of the present plaque. It is tempting to suggest that the present plaque could be the same as the Duménil Josaphat. However if the Duménil Asa is indeed, as according to Bautier, identical with the example sold and illustrated as part of the Dr R. Hamburg collection in 1938 (sale Hans W. Lange, Berlin 7-9 April 1938, lot 343), this seems unlikely, as the Asa plaque appears stylistically distinct from the present lot. What these references do provide is a tantalising glimpse into the former existence of series of enamels after Lucas van Leyden’s Twelve Kings of Israel. Bautier proposed Colin Nouailher’s as a workshop in which such a series of enamels could have been produced. The discovery of the present plaque lends credence to this hypothesis.
RELATED LITERATURE
J. Labarte, Description des objets d’art qui composent la collection Debruge-Duménil, Paris, 1847; A.-M. Bautier, ‘Les Neuf Preux et les Paladins dans les émaux peints de Limoges’, in Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France, vol. 1989, 1991, pp. 320-348; S. Baratte, Les émaux peints de Limoges, cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2000, pp. 66-68
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