National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Reliquary Châsse
  • Marks and Labels
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

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Inscription

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Marks and Labels

Stickers on interior (back): ON LOAN FROM T. Gambier Parry, Esq. April 19th 1862; on proper right bottom edge: 60.

Provenance

Thomas Gambier Parry [1816-1888], Highnam Court, Gloucestershire, by 1862;[1] Hubert Parry, 1888-1918; Ernest Gambier-Parry, 1918-1920; sold July 1920 to (Durlacher Brothers, London [?]);[2] sold 1922 to Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, after purchase by funds of the Estate; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] Pierre-Édouard Wagner, in his exhibition catalogue entry (Le chemin des reliques: Témoignages précieux et ordinaries de la vie religieuse à Metz au Moyen Age, exh. cat., Musées de la Cour d'Or, Metz, 2000: no. 11, 31-33, repro.), discusses the documentation he discovered that probably places the châsse at the Abby Saint-Arnoul in Metz, France, in the 18th century. The châsse was listed as lent by Gambier Parry in the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Medieval, Renaissance, and More Recent Periods on Loan at the South Kensington Museum, June, 1862, ed. John Charles Robinson, (London, 1862, rev. ed. 1863), 73, no. 1072. On the artist and collector Thomas Gambier Parry [1816-1888] see "A Great Victorian," and Blunt, Anthony, "The History of Thomas Gambier Parry's Collection," Burlington Magazine 109 (March 1967), 111-112 and 115-116. Blunt indicates that the châsse is listed in an inventory, but it is not certain from his language whether this was dated 1860 or 1875.

[2] See Blunt 1967, 115-116, for the provenance after Gambier-Parry's death; the date of purchase by Widener is recorded in NGA curatorial files. Consultation of the Gambier Parry papers that Blunt examined in 1967 at Highnam (then belonging to Thomas Fenton), may eventually provide further clues to the earlier ownership.

Exhibition History

1862
Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Medieval, Renaissance, and More Recent Periods on Loan at the South Kensington Museum, June, 1862, South Kensington Museum, London, 1862, 73, no. 1072. Rev. ed. 1863.
1995
L'Oeuvre de Limoges: Emaux limousins du Moyen Age/Enamels of Limoges 1100-1350", Musée du Louvre, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1995-1996, no. 22, repro.
2000
Le chemin des reliques: Témoignages précieux et ordinaires de la vie religieuse à Metz au Moyen âge, Musées de la Cour d'Or, Metz, 2000-2001, no. 11, repro.

Bibliography

1862
South Kensington 1862, 73, no. 1072.
1890
Rupin, Ernest. L'oeuvre de Limoges. Paris, 1890: 424.
1905
Michel, André, ed. Histoire de l'art. 8 vols. in 17. Paris, 1905-1929, 2 (1906): 944 (section on enamels by Jean J. Marquet de Vasselot).
1906
Marquet de Vasselot, Jean J. Les émaux limousins à fond vermiculé. Paris, 1906: 11-13, pl. II.
1935
Inventory of the Objects d'Art at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, The Estate of the Late P.A.B. Widener. Philadelphia, 1935: 29.
1936
Hildburgh, Walter H. Medieval Spanish Enamels. London, 1936: 107, n. 4, 120.
1942
Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 9, as Limoges 12th Century, Chasse of champlevé enamel.
1952
Christensen, Erwin O. Objects of Medieval Art from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1952: 10-15, 30, repro.
1963
Souchal, Geneviève. "Les émaux de Grandmont au XIIe siècle." Bulletin Monumental 121 (1963): 48, fig. 6, 59-60, n. 1.
1964
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. "Le goût Plantagenêt et les arts ... France du sud-ouest." Stil und Uberlieferung in der Kunst des Abendlandes. Akten des 21 Inter. Kongresses für Kunstgeschichte: Bonn 1964. Berlin, 1967: 152.
1966
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. "Une châsse limousine du ... XIIe siècle: ... iconog., comp., et ... chronologie." In Mélanges offerts à René Crozet. eds. Gallais and Riou, 2 vols. Poitiers, 1966: 2:942-945, 947-948, 951, no. C-55.
1967
Blunt, Anthony. "The History of Thomas Gambier Parry's Collection." The Burlington Magazine 109 (March 1967): 115-116.
1967
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. "A Limoges Champlevé Book-Cover in the Gambier-Parry Collection." The Burlington Magazine 109 (1967): 151-152, 156, fig. 61.
1969
Ostoia, Vera K. The Middle Ages; Treasures from The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Exh. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1969: 119; Art Institute of Chicago, 1970.
1972
Gauthier 1972, 98-99.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 36, color repro.
1987
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. Emaux méridionaux; Cat. Int'l. de ... Limoges ... romane, 1100-1190; Innovations mér.. Paris, 1987: 145-146, no. 148, color repros. 458-459, (pl. CXXX), repros. 510-512, (pl. CXXXIX), (pl. CXL).
1993
Distelberger, Rudolf, Alison Luchs, Philippe Verdier, and Timonthy H. Wilson. Western Decorative Arts, Part I: Medieval, Renaissance, and Historicizing Styles including Metalwork, Enamels, and Ceramics. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1993: 19-24, color fig. 19.
2011
Bynum, Caroline Walker. Christian Materiality: An Essay on Religion in Late Medieval Europe. New York, 2011: 70, 73, fig. 16.

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