Small Wonders: Early Gems and Jewels

Small Wonders: Early Gems and Jewels

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 25. ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN VANGROL  FRENCH, PARIS, CIRCA 1640 | PENDANT WITH A DOUBLE SIDED CAMEO WITH JESUS CHRIST AND THE VIRGIN MARY.

ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN VANGROL FRENCH, PARIS, CIRCA 1640 | PENDANT WITH A DOUBLE SIDED CAMEO WITH JESUS CHRIST AND THE VIRGIN MARY

Lot Closed

July 9, 12:24 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN VANGROL

FRENCH, PARIS, CIRCA 1640

PENDANT WITH A DOUBLE SIDED CAMEO WITH JESUS CHRIST AND THE VIRGIN MARY


amethyst in an enamelled pendant

cameo: 20mm., 0.78in.

28mm., 1.10in. overall


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This exquisite devotional pendant is a new addition to the oeuvre of the French royal goldsmith Jean Vangrol who was active in the Galerie du Louvre circa 1640 and was valet de chambre ordinaire to Marie de Médicis. Vangrol appears to have been connected to the great Parisian goldsmith Pierre Delabarre (fl. 1625-1654), who pioneered the cosse de pois or peapod style in which jewellery design incorporates the vegetal forms of peas.


Vangrol's virtuoso enamelled mounts are distinctive with their flame-like trefoil leaves adorned with black dots and interspersed with gold terminals. The British Royal Collection has one of the largest assemblages of works attributed to Vangrol. The present pendant compares closely with several of Vangrol's works in the collection, in particular the Vespasian/ Otho pendant (inv. no. RCIN 65745). Interestingly, this pendant is likewise double sided though through combining an onyx and a sard cameo (the present cameo appears to be a single piece of amethyst carved on both sides). Note the similar trefoil leaves which are white and black but likewise exhibit traces of a pale blueish hue. Compare also with a Roman intaglio with similar mounts in the Cabinet des médailles (inv. no. camée.146).


Vangrol, a gold and silversmith who worked in Paris circa 1620 - 1640, was of Flemish origins and is reported to be the son of the Antwerp goldsmith Jean van Groll. He occupied a workshop at the Galerie de Louvre. His documented works include both jewellery and enamelled decorative arts which are featured in the Louvre. Vangrol's masterpiece is the aiguière from the collection of Louis XIV for which he made the mounts (again composed of his characteristic white and black enamel vegetal forms. The aiguière is now in the musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. OA 400). A 1644 posthumous inventory of works still in Vangrol's possession after his death is preserved in the French National Archives (Arch. nat. Min. centr., XXIV, 424, 7 mai 1644).


The Jean Vangrol attributed works were all identified in the Royal collection circa 1872 but a firm date identifying the accession date is unavailable. It is believed that a group of cameos were acquired by Queen Caroline (1683 - 1737). Although only one work is directly attributed to Vangrol in the Cabinet des Medailles, there are quite a large number of ancient and Renaissance cameos mounted in brooches in the characteristic style of Vangrol, the earliest of which are identified to have been acquired in 1664 in the initial inventory after the collection of Gaston duc d’Orleans (1608 - 1660) was merged with the engraved gems belonging to King Louis XIV (1638 - 1715). Gaston duc d’Orleans’ engraved gem collection was purchased from Henri (1585–1650) or Jean Antoine (1598–1673) de Mesmes, comte d'Avaux, President of Parliament who purchased the engraved gems from Louis Chaduc de Auvergne (1564 - 1638). Chaduc is reported to have amassed a large collection of 2,000 engraved gems. Due to the common enamelling the group of engraved gems in the Royal Collection and the present gem may be related in some way to the group of gems purchased by Gaston duc d’Orleans. A larger collection of similarly set engraved gems owned by de Mesmes, de Auvergne, or Gaston duc d’Orleans may have dispersed prior to the entrance of some gems into the Cabinet des Medailles. Based upon information contained herein, Vangrol produced a variety of works primarily for royal commission for the French royal household, and this work may be such an example.

There are a number of examples of double sided gems carved with heads of Christ and the Virgin in the Medici collection in the Museo degli Argenti at the Pitti Palace in Florence. Such devotional pendants appear to have been popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. The present example compares with a heliotrope carving dated to the early 17th century (cat. no. 437). The cameo may be Italian but it is also possible, given the mounts, that it was carved in France, and likely dates to circa 1600.


RELATED LITERATURE

M. Bimbenet-Privat, Les Orfèvres parisiens de la Renaissance (1506-1620), Paris, 1992; R. Gennaioli, Le gemme dei Medici al Museo degli Argenti: Cammei e Intagli nelle collezioni di Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 2007, p. 337, no. 437; K. Ashengreen Piacenti and J. Boardman, Ancient and Modern Gems and Jewels in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 2008, pp. 58, 62 and 80, nos. 44, 49 and 89