A Limoges enamel astrological plate with Capricorn
Copper panel with an enamel depiction of a pig being slaughtered accompanied by a woman with a ladle and a man carrying wood. The zodiac sign of Capricorn can be seen in the cloud formations above. The narrow border decorated with gilded tendrils and four male figures in white medallions. The underside also with a tendril border and a bust in an oval medallion flanked by two amoretti playing instruments. Restored rim chips. D 19.8 cm.
Mid-16th C.
Two artists have been considered as possible authors of this zodiac plate, namely Léonard Limousin (around 1505 - around 1577) and Pierre Pénicaud (around 1515 – 1590), but an attribution to Pénicaud is more probable. The composition may have been based on the engraving “Decembre” by the famous goldsmith and printmaker Etienne Delaune (around 1518 – 83).
Literature
A plate with a similar depiction as a "Monatsteller Dezember" in Müsch, Maleremails des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts aus Limoges, Braunschweig 2002, cat. no. 93. The Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig houses a complete series of allegories of the moths with the monogram of Pierre Reymond and dated 1571.
A further plate with a similar depiction for the sign of Saggitarius, attributed to Jean Court, in the Louvre, inv. no. R 280.
For more on Pénicaud cf. Louvre, inv. no. R 310.
Cf. Baratte, Les émaux peints de Limoges, Musée du Louvre, Paris 2000, OA 985a,b, both plates with the story of Moses by Léonard Limousin. Cf. ibid. R 310, for a plate without an attribution with a similar depiction on the reverse.