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Two Crowned Martyrs
Workshop: Unknown
Plaque from the gable end of a reliquary. Copper, champlevé, engraved, enamelled, in two shades of blue, green, red, and white, and gilt. Pentagonal with ten small circular holes situated at each corner and half-way along each side. Two crowned maryrs wearing long gowns, and each holding a palms in his left hand, are seated on a cross-hatched plank surrounded by scrolling stems bearing leaves, and between the figures, two cones, reserved in a blue ground. Under their feet is a gilt band bearing the inscription EXVLTABVNT: DÑO OSSA: HVMILIATA (The humiliated bones shall rejoice in the Lord) . Below it is a wavy band over two skewed rectangular coffins containing bones, and at the bottom of the plaque, diagonal wavy lines representing water.
History note: Louis-Fidel Debruge-Duménil (1788-1838), Paris; sold Paris, Bonnefons de Lavialle, commissaire-priseur, 23 January - 9 February and 4-12 March, 1850, Catalogue des objets d’art qui composent la collection Debruge Duménil, p. 75, lot 81; Lord Hastings; Christie, Manson & Woods, 20 March 1888, Catalogue of majolica, Palissy ware, German stoneware, Limoges enamels, the property of The Right Hon. Lord Hastings of Melton Con¬stable, Norfolk, ADD; Frank McClean, Tunbridge Wells
Frank McClean Bequest
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1904) by McClean, Frank
13th Century, Early
Medieval
Circa
1200
CE
-
Circa
1210
CE
Limoges champlevé enamels were made by gouging out a shallow recess in a hammered copper plate, which was filled with powdered glass. When heated this fused to become level with the divisions formed by the edges of the ‘fields’. The surface was then polished. The resulting images have bold linear modelling, and jewel-like colours. Early examples had gilded backgrounds, but by the thirteenth century blue predominated. The hands, feet and faces of figures were sometimes made separately, and were attached by means of rivets.
The matching gable end, formerly in the Keir Collection, is in the Thomson Collection in the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto (2003/1325). It has an inscription from Psalm 33: 21: CVSTODIT D[OMI]N[V]S OMIA OSSA S[AN]C[T]OR[VM] The Lord keeps all the bones of the saints.
Decoration
composed of
enamels
( two shades of blue, green, red, and white)
gold
Plaque
composed of
copper
At Apex
Height 24 cm
At Widest
Width 17.7 cm
Accession number: M.31-1904
Primary reference Number: 118316
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Two Crowned Martyrs" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/118316 Accessed: 2024-12-24 13:57:21
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{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/118316
|title=Two Crowned Martyrs
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-24 13:57:21|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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