Roundel with the monogram LG, c. 1460. White glass,

silver stain, diameter: 19.5 cm. Musée de Cluny, Paris.

 

 

Nardon Pénicaud is the first of a numerous family of Limousin artists; we first notice his work from the beginning of the 15th century. He worked with a white primer background, widely applying a sepia tone to the whole with a brush. The flesh tints are modelled in white on a violet foundation, which shows through and forms the chief feature of his works. All the accessories are in translucent enamels, skilfully heightened with gold. The costumes and architectural adjuncts are often embellished with artificial gemstones. The black-enamel of these plates is always opaque and very thick, a circumstance which prevents us from determining whether Nardon was the first to make use of the stamp we find used by the other members of the family. Jean I originally followed the same traditions with the exception that, apart from the complexions, the design is prepared in sepia on the metal. Later, he tried grisaille, tracing the design on the black by enlevage and endeavouring to soften the effect with a few touches of white enamel on the shadows. The colourless reverse shows the stamp we’ve just discussed.

Jean II, or Penicaudius Junior, frankly belongs to the Renaissance. Besides the delicate design of his figures, a special feature in his style should be noticed; consisting in his careful modelling by enlevage, not in a pure black, but rather a grey tint. This imparts perfect softness to his work and, moreover, enables him to obtain perspective planes in complicated designs by restricting his mezzotintos to the first planes and allowing the others to pass into the deeper layers. He colours the flesh with pinkish sepia in his portraits, enhancing the shadows while imparting animation to the draperies by means of translucent glazes. Jean III Pénicaud is one of the most charming masters of the family. He places his graceful compositions directly on the black background, relieving them by the application of a milky white that gives them astonishing vigour. They seem to emerge from the background to which they are united with a wonderful fluidity.

Leonard Limousin takes the foremost place amongst enamellers. Painter and man of taste, he delighted in reproducing the compositions of Raphael and, thanks to his talent as a portrait painter, left us a curious iconography of the celebrities of his time. He was familiar with all the processes, which he often combined with a rare happiness. Notwithstanding his versatility, his works can always be easily recognised by their vigour and general harmony. Only a few pieces, produced in old age, betray symptoms of his weariness and exhaustion.

 

 

Venetian enamels

 

Here is a special series of painted enamels which claims particular attention. We refer to those produced in Venice, no longer embellished with subjects and figures, but rather with arabesques and reliefs which gave them a very ornamental character more appropriate for church furniture. It was a piece of this description that enabled us to ascertain the date of a homogeneous specimen, which one might suppose produced, if not by the same hand then at least in the same workshop, which, as far as we have noticed, did not borrow anything from the Western enamels or from those of the Far East. On a cylindrical ciborium with a dome-shaped lid and supported by an elegant stand, one can read an inscription made in the year 1502.

The colours of the Venetian enamels are limited to dark blue or green on the backgrounds, besides turquoise blue, white, and, more rarely, red. The parts are generally disposed in gadroons on the circular pieces, their ornamentation more or less recalling the peacock’s plumage. Thus, on the dishes, bases, or rim cuts, gadroons or flutings are alternately repoussé with a hammer, enamelled in blue and white or in green and red. Next, a delicate ornamentation of gold foliage suggests the central quill of the feathers with the lateral plumes disposed as if to expand to the utmost extent, and by a still grander motif representing the eye, occasionally relieved by touches of a bright enamel different from the background. The grand masses, on the other hand, are semé with gold, either small fleurs-de-lis, crosses, or flowers regularly staggered in a quincunx. The sacred objects include chalices, ciboria, monstrances, altar lanterns, and reliquaries. Those intended for civil use are comprised in sections; several kinds of tazze, dishes, torches, hunting flasks, covered goblets, and boxes.