Pierre Reymond (1513 - after 1584) | French, Limoges, 16th century | Plaque with Saint John the Baptist

The present enamel with a rounded top was designed for setting into a devotional pax. The monogram “P.R.” on its reverse establishes it as belonging to the hand or workshop of Pierre Reymond, a prolific enameller thought active for more than 40 years.

The present enamel follows Reymond’s masterful handling of the grisaille technique featured on a quantity of his other notable works. A modest use of red-mulberry provides the flesh tones and a final application of highlighted gilding finishes the enamel. The Baptist scene appears to have been a workshop model. A later coloured example, lacking the gilt inscription, is attributed to Reymond (Sotheby’s London, 9 July 2015, Lot 132). It is alike in shape and size and is characterized by several differences, though remains visibly based upon the same model. Another colour version is in the Parisan collection of the Musee Les Arts Décoratifs and a crude colour example is also in the Museu de Lleida in Spain. One further example is in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum.

The Baptist enamel was likely produced alongside other cognate works like a well produced figure of Jerome known also by an autograph version with a bordered inscription in the Wallace Collection (Inv. C581). Pax enamels may have been offered individually for private devotional use or paired for public use in which the paxes would be presented concurrently to the congregation on the 'Gospel' and 'Epistle' sides of the church. 

Gilt monograms appearing on the reverse of Limoges enamels is rare, however six pax enamels, inclusive of the present example, feature Reymond’s monogram on the reverse. One further example features his monogram on the reverse, albeit in black. It is indiscernible whether the monograms are cold painted onto the counter-enamel or if they were applied beneath the enamel and bonded during firing. Though impossible to prove, there remains the possibility these monogrammed examples could be by Reymond’s own hand and not by an assistant. Early enamels connected with Reymond evidence a high standard of workmanship while later works are more evidently the product of workshop assistants. In particular, the fine handling of the present enamel’s execution is marvellous and adept. Possibly further suggestive of the enamel being an autograph work is Verdier’s discussion of the present enamel as being an early work by Reymond and one that served as the impetus for another enamel based upon its design at the Walters Museum (see Verdier, op.cit., No. 119). The Walters enamel is round and is set into a silver-gilt tazza, possibly of Italian origin (Verdier suggests Florence during the late Mannerist period).

RELATED LITERATURE

P. Verdier, Painted Enamels Renaissance in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1967; S. Baratte, Les émaux peints de Limoges, cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2000, p. 192, no. OA 4008