A pair of eglomisé panels with allegories after Andries Both
Eglomisé paintings in lustre pigments on gold and silver leaf and opaque colours between panes of glass, in ebonised and giltwood frames. Finely painted and well-preserved depictions after Both's allegories of the sense of touch ("t' Gevoel") and smell ("De Reuck"). The sense of smell monogrammed lower left "N.M.Sp. pinx.1756." With original frames H 31.5, W 26.7 cm.
Niklaus Michael Spengler, Bodensee/Constance, 1756.
Nikolaus Michael Spengler (1700 - 1776) came from a family of glass painters in Constance who had been engaged in this activity since the 16th century. There are few signed and dated panes by his hand, but the style of painting practiced by his family and the impressive use of lustre pigments on gold and silver leaf are unmistakable.
Drawings by the Utrecht artist Andries Both (1612/13 - 1641) from the series of the Five Senses, engraved by his brother Jan Both (1618 - 1652) between 1620 and 1638, served as models for both eglomisé paintings (see Rijksmuseum Amsterdam obj. nos. RP-P-BI-4216 and RP-P-BI-4218).
Literature
For more on Spengler see Steiner, Goldglanz und Silberpracht. Hinterglasmalerei aus vier Jahrhunderten, Berlin 2015, no. 40 ff. - Ryser, Verzauberte Bilder. Die Kunst der Malerei hinter Glas von der Antike bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, Munich 1991, illus. 275 ff.