Lot n° 110
Estimation :
200000 - 300000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 1 184 960EUR
Maître de l'Énéide, Limoges, vers 1525-1530
Les Bocages fortunés
Polychrome painted enamel plate on copper with gold highlights.
H. : 22.5cm ; W. : 19.8cm.
Small accidents and restorations at the edge, small network of fine and stable cracks in the composition, wear to the gold.
In a gilt calf frame with two flaps, gilt iron hooks and hinges (one missing), the interior in crimson red velvet, French work from the first half of the 17th century.
H.: 33cm, W.: 28cm (small accidents, missing and restorations).
Our plate belongs to a corpus of works on enamel made at the beginning of the 16th century illustrating the novel of Virgil's Eneide (70 BC - 19 BC). The adventures of the Trojan Aeneas are recounted from the capture of Troy to his settlement in Latium.
Like the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Aeneid is a classic of the epic register and the story of this initiatory journey found a favourable echo in the artistic creation of the Renaissance.
Although other enamels were inspired by this ancient novel, the suite we are interested in presents a singular technique, in almost identical dimensions, and draws its inspiration from the same set of engravings that came out of the Grüninger press in Strasbourg to illustrate the Virgil published by Sebastian Brandt in 1502. The ambitious undertaking of faithfully reproducing such a substantial iconographic set is quite exceptional in the history of Limoges enamelling. Moreover, these are the first secular subjects to be treated with this technique. As far as we know, there is no plate illustrating an episode beyond Book IX of the novel, even though it contains XIII. It is highly probable that our enameller did not have enough time to complete his work.
The eighty-two plates recorded to date all show similarities in execution, such as the use of flux on the face of the plate, the abundance of gold highlights to underline the scrolls on the clothes, the hair and the clouds, and the undulating lines to represent the waves. Skin tones are painted in pale pink tones, and faces are marked by fine lines.
The identity of our enameller remains a mystery, as does the patron of this important ensemble. This undertaking may have been carried out to decorate the studiolo of a great amateur, a humanist of his time, for although these enamels are inspired by woodcuts with a still strongly marked Gothic character, the more supple and mannerist treatment confers a new sensibility on the ensemble.
The Fortunate Groves
The scene represented on our plaque takes up a passage from Book VI, devoted to the story of Aeneas' descent into the Underworld. Before meeting his father Anchises, he crosses the Field of Weeping and goes in search of the golden branch that will give him access to the Elysian Fields, as faithfully recounted in the translation of the story illustrated in our enamel:
Once in front of the entrance, Aeneas purifies himself with fresh water and places the golden branch on the threshold. The offering accomplished, they enter the Elysian Fields. These were fresh groves, delightful woods, fortunate dwellings. There a purer air is spread over the countryside, and covers it with a purple light: these beautiful places also have their sun and their stars. Among these blessed shadows, some on the green turf exercise themselves in innocent wrestling, and fight on the soft arena: others forming choirs strike the earth in cadence, and sing verses. The priest of Thrace, dressed in a long robe, makes the seven strings of his lyre resound in different tones, sometimes using his light fingers, sometimes an ivory bow. [...]. Aeneas is astonished to see around them weapons and empty chariots: the spears are there fixed in the ground, and the steeds graze freely in the meadows; the noble passion for chariots and weapons and shining steeds, which these warriors had during their lives, still charms them in the subterranean abodes of death. Aeneas, looking to the right and to the left, saw other shadows enjoying the sweetness of feasting on the grass, and singing in chorus the joyful hymn of Apollo. They were lying in the midst of a fragrant wood of laurels, where a divine Eridan falls, rolling its abundant waters. There were those who received wounds fighting for their country; the priests who were chaste as long as they lived; the pious poets who sang verses worthy of Apollo; those who embellished life by inventing the arts; those who by their benefactions deserved to live in the memory of men. All of them have their temples girded with a snow-white band
The enamelling artist faithfully reproduces the composition of Grüninger's engraving, but with a much softer line and a more realistic look.
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