Attributed to Pierre Veyrier II (active circa 1528-1558) French, Limoges, circa 1550-1560

Sotheby's London, 7 December 1989, lot 262

Overall the condition of the enamel is good with some wear and minor dirt to the surface consistent with age. There is some wear to the gilding, including to the edges, a few of the stars, and the Virgin's drapery. There is some slight pitting, which is particularly visible around the centre. There are a few very minor nicks and scratches. There is minor stable craquelure in a few areas, including to the right side at the top and bottom. There is more craquelure to the counter enamel at the back and there are losses to the counter enamel in three of the corners and under the mounts of the frame at the top, with scratches to the metal, due to the tension of the material. The gilt metal mount is in good condition with minor tarnishing and warping; one of the pins at the top is lost. There is wear to the velvet covering the frame.
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This extraordinarily large and well-preserved enamel is attributable to Pierre Veyrier II on the basis of its parallels with a set of nine plaques with scenes from the Passion of the Christ in The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, one of which is monogrammed (inv. no. 44.364.), and two further plaques with The Deposition and The Resurrection in the St. Louis Art Museum (inv. nos. 90 and 91:1988). The serene blueish flesh tones, the strongly delineated drapery folds highlighted by gilding applied in plains and dots, the starry sky, the loosely painted grass, the white pea-pod enameling technique used to accentuate the trees in the background, and the elaborate brickwork on the architecture all tie the present plaque to the enamels in the United States. Specifically note the execution of the grass of the Resurrection plaques in both Baltimore and St. Louis, the highlighting of the columns in the present plaque and The Flagellation in Baltimore, and the boldly designed drapery of the sleeping St. Paul in Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane in Baltimore and the Seated Virgin in our enamel. For the designs of the Passion plaques Veyrier was inspired by Dürer's Small Passion but here the artist wonderfully reinterprets a more modern, Mannerist work, Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio's engraving after a Parmigianino drawing now in the Graphische Sammlung, Weimar (inv. no. 7393).

Veyrier is among the more mysterious Limoges enamelers from the 16th century. In addition to the plaques mentioned above, Verdier attributes three further plaques to the artist. Bearing the elements mentioned above in mind, it may be worth reviewing the central plaque with the great Crucifixion at the centre of the often contested triptych constructed from twelve plaques in the 19th-century in the Petit Palais (inv. no. ODUT01260) as a work by Veyrier as well.

RELATED LITERATURE
P. Veyrier, Catalogue of the painted enamels of the Renaissance, cat. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1967, pp. 202-212, nos. 121-129; V. Notin (ed.), La recontre des héros, exh. cat. Musée Municipal de l'Évêché, Limoges, 2002, pp. 244-245, no. 84