Round Dish with the Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche, c. 1562

West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 18

Medium

enamel painted in grisaille on copper

Dimensions

overall (diameter): 42.6 cm (16 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.293

Artists / Makers

Leonard Limousin (artist) French, c. 1506 - 1575/1577

Image Use

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Provenance

Debruge Duménil collection, Paris, by 1847;[1] Prince Petr Soltykoff [c. 1801-1889], Paris; (his sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 8 April-1 May 1861, no. 472); Frédéric Spitzer [1815-1890], Paris;[2] (his estate sale, at his residence by Chevallier and Mannheim, Paris, 17 April-16 June 1893, no. 443); Maurice Kann [1839-1906], Paris; purchased 1908 with the entire Kann collection by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); purchased 18 November 1909 by Peter A.B. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[3] inheritance from the Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, 1942.

[1] Labarte, Jules, Description des objets d'art qui composent la collection Debruge Duménil, Paris, 1847: no. 699.

[2] La collection Spitzer: Antiquité, moyen-âge, renaissance, 6 vols., Paris, 1890-1892: 2(1891):28, no. 27, repro. émaux, pl. 6; text on painted enamels by Claudius Popelin.

[3] Widener Collection records in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Debruge Duménil family collection
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Kann, Maurice
Soltykoff, Petr, Prince
Spitzer, Frédéric, Baron
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Technical Summary

This is a variation of the grisaille enamel technique. The design has been built up using successive applications of black and white enamel, with some pale pink and gray possibly added in the white flesh areas. Design elements have been added in gold over the fired enamel. There are numerous edge losses; on the inner rim of the dish where there are losses, it is possible to see the cross-hatching of the substrate copper to prepare it for accepting the enamel. The enamel on the reverse is badly abraded. Four oval medallions on the outer rim of the reverse, painted in black over a white background, appear to have been restored.

Bibliography

1847: Labarte, Jules. Description des objets d'art qui composent la collection Debruge-Duménil. Paris, 1847: no. 699.

1892: Molinier 1892, 2: (1891):28, no. 27, repro. Emmaux pl. 6.

1935: Inventory of the Objects d'Art at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, The Estate of the Late P.A.B. Widener. Philadelphia, 1935: 38, as The Feast of the Gods by Jean Courteois.

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 10, as Large plate with the Feast of the Gods by Jean Courteois.

1983: Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 212, no. 24.

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: 92-94, color repro. 93.