08 Relief with the Head of Saint John the Baptist

Fig. 1. Leonardo da Vinci, Study for an Equestrian Monument (facsimile), Florence, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe degli Uffizi Indicative of our anonymous artist’s great talent is the outstanding, individual modelling of details. In addition, the whole body has a delicately hammered surface structure. As the design, skilled production and artistic quality of this horse are exquisite it must have been created in the workshop or in the vicinity of the great Renaissance master.

The technical execution of this single cast could only have been achieved by an experienced craftsman who certainly would have received an apprenticeship within the circle of Leonardo.

“I personally am particularly fond of this horse, as the Italian Renaissance is my great passion. It is the most beautiful bronze I have ever owned.”

Christ Carrying the Cross

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CHRIST CARRYING THE CROSS

Germany (Augsburg or Nuremberg) Circa 1520–30

High relief, enameled, gold and silver Height: 6.4, width: 4.5 cm

Provenance: Lord Francis Pelham Clinton Hope, 8th Duke of Newcastle (1866–1941), London; L. Harris, London; Joseph Brummer, Auction Parke-Bernet, Part I, 20–23 April 1949, no. 705; Melvin Goodman, Auction Parke-Bernet, 24 April 1969; Collection Paul W. Doll jr., New York, until 2020.

Exhibition: Decorative Arts of the Italian Renaissance 1400–1600. The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1958–59, cat. no. 349 (as Italian around 1500); On loan to The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1962–68.

Literature: Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of a collection of European Enamels, 1897.

Steingräber, Erich. ‘Süddeutsche Goldemailplastik der Frührenaissance’ in Studien zur Geschichte der europäischen Plastik, Festschrift Theodor Müller, 1965, Kurt Martin, Halldor Soehner, Erich Steingräber, Hans R. Weihrauch (eds), Munich 1965, pp. 223–33, fig. 16.

Related Literature: Müller, Theodor, Steingräber, Erich. ‘Die französische Goldplastik um 1400’ in: Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (ed.), 3rd series, vol. V, pp. 29–79, Munich 1954. The relief depicts Christ in a purple robe kneeling under the weight of the Cross that has since been lost. He is just leaving the city of Jerusalem on the way to Mount Golgotha where the crucifixion is to take place. Two figures in the group on the far left are the Virgin Mary and Saint John, standing below the arch of a building. They and three more companions are dressed in violet, blue, turquoise and green robes, all contributing to the dynamic colouration of the relief. In the background is a hill with a castle on top, above which is a translucent blue sky. The vegetation in the foreground is modelled in the round.

The enamel was made using the ronde-bosse enameling technique. In such works, a goldsmith creates the figures out of gold or silver (hammered or cast) and then coats them with a glass paste that is then melted to form enamel. The figures would then be placed on a silver or gold plate, on which the coloured, mostly translucent glass forming the background is melted between gold bars. The colour palette of our relief ranges from transparent blue and green for the background, to opaque white for the faces and turquoise, cobalt, purple and green for the robes. These precious shimmering colours give the small relief an incomparably elevated character; even the curly hair is made of gold shavings.

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Fig. 2. Pax board with silver enamel relief, Christ before Pontius Pilate, southern Germany, early 16th century, gold and silver, enameled, 14 cm x 26 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris, Gift of Adolphe de Rothschild, 1901, inv. no. OA 5627 The Carrying of the Cross is a traditional scene from the Passion of Christ. Our enamel plaque was originally part of a series comprising several scenes. Four other gold enamel works from this series belong to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (fig. 1). The plaques are all the same size with a round finish at the top and are comparable in their artistic execution. The character of the faces and robes, the treatment of the background with white, gold-ornamented architecture, right down to details such as the plants made of emerald-green as well as the small-scale leaves on gold wire in the foreground, suggest they all belong to the same group. These scenes from the Passion could have adorned a reliquary box or a casket.

Another enamel plaque, also with an oval finish and depicting Christ in front of Pontius Pilate, also fits into this group. This enamel was attached to a pax board at a later date and was donated to the Louvre in Paris in 1901 by Adolph de Rothschild (fig. 2).

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Fig. 1. Four Enamels with scenes from the Passion of Christ: Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, The Capture of Christ, Crowning with Thorns, The Resurrection, Germany, Augsburg or Nuremberg, 1520–30, silver, enamel, gold, each circa 6.2 x 4.5 cm, purchase, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Acquisitions Fund, 2015, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. no. 2015.388.1–4

Relief with the Legend of the Shoeing of the Horse Hans Thoman

(ATTRIBUTED TO)

RELIEF WITH THE LEGEND OF THE SHOEING OF THE HORSE

HANS THOMAN attributed to

Active in Memmingen, Germany, circa 1514–25

Lindenwood, painted and gilded Height: 93 cm, width: 100 cm

Provenance: Figdor Collection; Oscar Bondy Collection; Private American Collection.

Related Literature: Sculptures souabes de la fin du Moyen Âge, exh. cat., Musée de Cluny – Musée National du Moyen Âge, 1 April–27 July 2015, Réunion des musées nationaux, Musée de Cluny, Paris 2015.

Jopek, Norbert. German Sculpture 1430–1540: A catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2002.

Baxandall, Michael. The Limewood Sculptures of Renaissance Germany, Yale University Press, New Haven 1980.

Baxandall, Michael. South German Sculpture 1480–1530, Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1974. This relief depicts the most popular legend from the life of Saint Eligius – the saint in the process of shoeing a possessed horse. The legend tells of saint Eligius trying to shoe a vicious stallion which, possessed by the devil, could not be quietened down enough to be shoed. Saint Eligius cut off the horse’s foreleg, shoed the hoof of the amputated leg and then miraculously re-attached the leg to the horse. On the left, the relief shows Saint Eligius, intently hammering the shoe onto the hoof. To the saint’s left, a woman is touching his shoulder. Closer inspection reveals that this figure is in fact the devil disguised as a woman, with claws instead of fingers and a grotesque tongue. On the right, a groom holds the horse that is standing on three legs attentively watching Saint Eligius at work. In the foreground, the groom holds the horse’s injured leg, anticipating the re-attachment of the limb. All the figures, depicted in three-quarter profiles, are dressed in garments and footwear typical of the time. Their faces are highly individualised and expressive. Together with the movements of the respective bodies in different directions, their expressions underline the dynamics and drama of the moment.

Saint Eligius (France, 588–660) is the patron Saint of goldsmiths and other metalworkers, of horses and veterinarians. Eligius was born close to Limoges, France, into an influential and educated family. The family recognised his exceptional talent and sent him to the Limoges mint to learn the goldsmith trade. His goldsmith work earned him a good reputation, leading Clotaire, the Merovingian king of France, to appoint Eligius master of the Marseilles mint and take him into the royal household. Clotaire’s son Dagobert I would later make him his chief councilor that spread Eligius’ political influence and fame. This prominence also enabled Eligius’ widely praised good deeds towards the poor and the enslaved. During his lifetime Eligius founded many monasteries and built and restored numerous churches in France.