Virgin nursing the Christ Child: MAR.M.255-1912

Titles

Virgin nursing the Christ Child

Maker(s)

Maker: Limosin, Jean (Probably)

Entities

• Plaque

Categories

• Enamels
• Limoges painted enamels

Description

Copper, olychrome enamels and gold. A a half-length figure of the Virgin holding the Christ Child to her breast, against a black ground strewn with gold stars, titled S.MARIA, and initialled IL with an ill-defined fleur-de-lys or cross between the letters

Rectangular, convex copper plaque with a small circular hole in each corner, decorated with translucent, blue, green, mulberry and purple enamels, and yellowish-brown, pinkish-red, grey, black and white enamels, and gilded. The outlines are executed in black, and the flesh areas are hatched and cross-hatched in grey and black, and stippled in pinkish-red. The counter-enamel is transparent.
A half-length figure of the Virgin holding the Christ Child to her breast with her right hand and helping him to feed with her left. The Virgin has a blue and purple headdress over her brownish-yellow hair, and wears a purple and mulberry gown with long blue sleeves, and a blue cloak. The Christ Child wears a white napkin. There are small gold plants on the green ground below, and the black ground above is semé with gold stars around the large striated halo of the Virgin. At the bottom below a gold lines, is a horizontal black band inscribed S.MARIA’ beween stylized plant sprays, and on the extreme right the initials ‘I L’ with an ill-defined fleur-de-lys or cross between them, all in gold. A narrow gold line runs round the outer edge of the plaque.

Notes

History note: Uncertain before Charles Brinsley Marlay (1831-1912)

Legal notes

C.B. Marlay Bequest

Place(s) associated

• Limoges ⪼ Haute Vienne ⪼ France

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1912) by Marlay, Charles Brinsley

Dating

17th Century, first half
Circa 1605 CE - 1635 CE

Note

Jean or Jehan Limosin I was one of several sons of François Limosin ( c. 1550-1606-15). His brothers, Leonard, and Joseph also became enamellers. He was not mentioned in the roll for the taille in 1602 which suggests that he was too young, and therefore probably born about 1580. He married Anne Chambinaud, probably about 1605.The couple lived in the rue Manigne, and had six children of whom the second son, Jean died in 1652. Documents in the archives of the department of Haute-Vienne at Limoges dated in 1621, 1623 and 1627 referred to Jean as enameller to the King. which explains his use of a fleur-de-lys between his initials when he signed enamels. He was still working in 1635 when he was described as ‘esmailleur’ in the roll for the taille. He died in 1646.

The earlier attribution of this plaque to Jean Laudin was probably made in error for Jacques Laudin I or II who signed with the initials ‘.I.L.’, but without a fleur-de-lys or cross between the letters. The latter version is associated with Jean or Jehan Limosin (c. 1580; d. 1646) .

The image of the Virgin breast-feeding the Infant Christ (Virgo lactens) was copied from a print etched and engraved by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) in about 1585-7. A similar image occurs on a plaque with arched top, attributed to Jean Limosin (Victoria and Albert Museum 2804-1856) which has rather more prominent hatched shading and no title at the bottom.The rectangular format is comparable to plaques of the Virgin and Child in the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, and St Catherine of Alexandria attributed by Philipppe Verdier to Jean II Limosin, in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, which has a star-strewn background and S CATHARINA in gold on a horizontal panel at the bottom followed by the artist’s initials with a clear fleur-de-lys beween them. (See Documentation) An unsigned plaque of St Agnes, similarly titled, and of the same size as the Fitzwilliam’s, was with Bernard Descheemaeker Works of Art, in Antwerp in 2009.