A Limoges enamel ewer with Moses and the Brazen Serpent
Enamel, gilding and silver plating on copper. Vessel made up of a funnel-shaped foot, ovoid body with rounded shoulder, tapering neck and tall handle. The lower section painted with and Old Testament scene, the shoulder with a river god, faun, female figures and scrollwork, the handle with trophies on white ground. The shaft and neck with acanthus scrolls, the foot with a patterned cymation. Chips and cracks to the handle, the neck and shaft restored. H 28.8 cm.
Attributed to Pierre Reymond, third quarter 16th C.
Pierre Reymond (c. 1513 - c. 1584) ran one of the most successful enamel painting studios in Limoges. He specialised in grisaille painting on a black background, which suited the taste of the time, and created the most important works of art of his era. They are represented in all the major international collections, with the Louvre having by far the largest number of signed and attributed objects by Reymond.
Provenance
Dutch private collection, acquired from Jan Dirven Works of Art, Tefaf Maastricht 1995 - 2005.
Literature
Cf. Netzer, Maleremails aus Limoges. Der Bestand des Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseums, Berlin 1999, cat. no. 10, a stembowl by Pierre Reymond with the same depiction, albeit with faces picked out in iron-red.
Cf. Müsch, Maleremails des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts aus Limoges, Braunschweig 2002, cat. No. 94, a similarly painted jug, monogrammed Pierre Reymond.
Cf. Weinhold, Maleremail aus Limoges im Grünen Gewölbe, Munich-Berlin-Dresden 2008, cat. no. 6, another similarly painted jug, also attributed to Pierre Reymond.
Cf. Baratte, Les émaux peints de Limoges. Musée du Louvre, Paris 2000, p. 194 f., a stembowl with a very similar depiction of Moses and the Brazen Serpent, monogrammed PR and dated 1556, inv. no. OA 6188.
For the shape of the jug and the decorative scheme, see ibid., p. 204 ff, inv. no. MR 2416.
Another jug with the same decorative scheme, the image of Melchizedek and Abraham, in the collection of The Walters Art Museum Baltimore, acc. no. 44.168.