Circle of the Master Alpais (active circa 1180-1200), French, Limoges, circa 1200

Raoul Heilbronner collection, Paris;
Christie's London, 28 November 1961, lot 66;
Bruno Speybrouck, Kortrijk

Medieval and later treasures from a private collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, May-September 2005, no. 53

The corpus is missing from the current book cover. There is some wear to the gilding consistent with age and handling. There are some minor losses to the enamel along the lower edge and in the top corners. An 'x' is engraved where the figure od Christ would have been. There is some denting to the edges of the cover. Otherwise the condition is good.
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The Master Alpais is one of the few identified artists producing champlevé enamels in Limoges around 1200. The body of work associated with his workshop has been attributed based on the distinctive usage of colour and style of engraving present on a celebrated ciborium in the Louvre which is signed MAGISTER:G:ALPAIS:ME FECIT:LEMOVICARUM (inv. no. MR R98).

From the works attributed to the master a panel from a reliquary chasse with a Crucifixion and the Martyrdom of St. Thomas Beckett in Cleveland (inv. no. 1951.449) is most closely related to the present plaque. Its Crucifixion scene has a virtually identical colour scheme. The faces applied to both plaques have been given the calm and placid nature typical of the figures on the Louvre ciborium and the almost childlike facial features of the angels are equally distinctive. Lastly, several details of the engraving, like the chequered pattern around the knees of the Virgin and the collar of John are employed in both the present plaque and the chasse fragment in Cleveland.

RELATED LITERATURE
E. Taburet-Delahaye and B. Drake Boehm, L'oeuvre de Limoges. Emaux limousines du Moyen Age, Paris, 1995, pp. 246-249, no. 70