A Limoges enamel plate representing the month of June
Enamel in grisaille and iron red and gilding on copper panel. With a sheep shearing scene in the centre. Inscribed "IVING" in the upper right beneath the zodiac sign Cancer on gold ground. The border with four mascarons alternating with scrollwork and garlands. The underside painted with a scrollwork cartouche with two mascarons and the monogram "I.C." Monogrammed I.C. on the reverse. D 18.8 cm.
Monogrammist I.C., around 1550 - 60.
The masterfully painted pieces by this as yet unidentified artist are among the highlights of any collection. They are in no way inferior in quality to the products of Pierre Reymond's studio. This monogramist also preferred painting en grisaille on a black background with white highlights. The particularly fine light red colour used for the skin enhances the plasticity of the figures and gives them a lively physicality, even against the grey backdrop.
Provenance
Dutch private collection, acquired from Jan Dirven Works of Art, Tefaf Maastricht 1995 - 2005.
Literature
For the monogramist IC see. Netzer, Maleremails aus Limoges. Der Bestand des Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseums, Berlin 1999, cat. no. 14 ff.
Cf. Baratte, Les émaux peints de Limoges. Musée du Louvre, Paris 2000, p. 336, a similarly decorated June monthly plate by the same artist in the Louvre collection, inv. no. N 1362. There also the discussion about the attribution to Jean Court.
See also Weinhold, Maleremail aus Limoges im Grünen Gewölbe, Munich-Berlin-Dresden 2008, cat. no. 10 f.
An identically painted June monthly plate by the monogramist IC, only with a varied border/lip, in Descheemaeker, Works of Art. Catalogue 9, cat. no. 19 b and again Catalogue 15, cat. no. 11.