Lot n° 70
Estimation :
8000 - 12000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 65 000EUR
Rare circular, domed copper plate with grisaille and polychr - Lot 70
Rare circular, domed copper plate with grisaille and polychrome painted enamels, gold highlights; NAYMES BAVIE*ES (Naimon of Bavaria) inscription; fondant counter-enamel. On a black background, the horseman is shown standing still, facing right. He is dressed in a violet tunic and a midnight-blue cloak edged in black; he wears a turban whose ends float at the back. The horse is caparisoned with a frame edged with turquoise fillet and enhanced with gold scrolls.
Limoges, Attributed to Colin Nouailher, mid-16th century
D.: 22.5 cm
(a few edge accidents)
Provenance: private collection, Morbihan.
Some thirty large circular plates are now known and held in public collections. One of them is dated 1541 and monogrammed C.N.. This indication and the stylistic analysis of each of them have enabled art historians to attribute these plates to Colin Nouailher, a Limoges painter of the mid
16th century. They illustrate the series of the nine Preux, as well as that of the
Paladins, Charlemagne's companions whose exploits were so brilliantly recounted in the chansons de gestes of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Naimon is not a historical figure, but an actor in the late 11th-century chanson de gestes of Roland, or in the 13th-century chanson de gestes of Huon de Bordeaux. He is presented as Duke of Bavaria and advisor to Charlemagne. He embodies the uncompromising hero, the defender of right against might. He is endowed with the qualities of moderation, common sense and justice.
The depiction of this character on enamel plates is rare. In 1897, at the sale of Madame de Rolland, a plaque was put up for auction. It bore the inscription NAYMOR and the horse was walking to the left, unlike the one shown here. This is the only example to have been referenced by Anne-Marie Bautier, based on her article on preux and paladins published in 1989. Only one plate illustrating the Paladin theme is held in public collections, Archbishop Turpin at the Musée des Beaux Arts d'Angers (inv n° MTC 1166) (fig).
Ten of the twelve Paladins depicted on circular plates were sold in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, they are probably in private collections. The one presented here is unpublished.
Works consulted: B. Ribémont, Naimes l'irremplaçable: le duc de Bavière
Bavière et le droit féodal", Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 248, 2019
S. Baratte, Les Emaux peints de Limoges, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 0, pp 66-68
A.-M. Bautier, Les neuf preux et les paladins dans les émaux peints de Limoge in Bulletin de la société Nationale des antiquaires de
France, 1989, pp. 321-348
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