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Martial Courteys

Oval Dish with the Whore of Babylon, c. 1570

West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 18

Medium

enamel painted on copper

Dimensions

overall: 40 x 53.3 cm (15 3/4 x 21 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.291

Artists / Makers

Martial Courteys (artist) French, died c. 1592

Image Use

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Inscription

lower left: APOCA XVII.; lower center: M.C.

Provenance

Hollingworth Magniac, Esq., Colworth, by 1862[1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 2 and 4 July 1892, no. 248); Charles Borradaille, Paris, by 1897.[2] (Duveen Brothers, New York and London); purchased 8 November 1901 by Peter A. B. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from the Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, 1942.[3]

[1] Widener Collection records in NGA Curatorial Records indicate that Magniac bought the dish from two unidentified ladies in Bedfordshire about 1835. The dish was lent by Magniac to the South Kensington exhibition in 1862.

[2] Borradaille is named as the lender in the catalogue of the 1897 Burlington Fine Arts Club exhibition.

[3] Widener Collection records in NGA Curatorial Records.

Associated Names

Borradaille, Charles
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Magniac, Esq., Hollingworth
Unknown Patron
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

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, no. 1851. Rev. ed. 1863.

1874: Special Loan Exhibition of Enamels on Metal, South Kensington Museum, London, 1874, no. 732.

1897: A Collection of European Enamels from the Earliest Date to the End of the XVII Century, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1897, no. 143, pls. 21-22.

1937: The Art of the Renaissance Craftsman, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, no. 13, frontispiece.

Technical Summary

The foreground is of a russet purplish color. The apple green body of the beast, festering with pustules, is shadowed in yellow; its right rear leg stirs ripples of lapis lazuli blue in the pool, which represents the apocalyptic abyss. The blue sky, a turquoise color thinly applied on the white enamel underneath, darkens to lapis blue at the top, under the clouds and a gold sunburst. The other colors are translucent reds on foils, a semiopaque blue, mulberry brown, and purple. The mane of the beast and details of the garments are modeled in opaque white enamel, scratched lines revealing the black preparation underneath. The bent bodies of the cardinal and of the bishop show through their dresses. The bishop's chasuble is painted with a transparent flux on which embroideries are traced in gold. The technique is a mixture of polychrome enameling with foil and grisaille enameling with enlevage. The dish has been restored. There is a crack on the reverse.

Bibliography

1862: South Kensington 1862, no. 1851.

1892: Robinson, Sir Charles. Catalogue of the Renowned Collection, chiefly formed by the late Hollingworth Magniac, Esq.... Christie, Manson & Woods. London, July 2-8, 11-15, 1892: no. 248.

1935: Inventory of the Objects d'Art at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, The Estate of the Late P.A.B. Widener. Philadelphia, 1935: 36-37, as Large oval Dish representing a Scene from the Apocalypse.

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 10, as Large oval dish with a scene from the Apocalypse.

1983: Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 203-204, no. 31., repro.

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: 101-103, color repro. 102.

2014: Schwann, Birgit. “Enamel insert restorations on Limoges painted enamels: A study on a remarkable nineteenth-century restoration technique with particular attention to the original paillon designs.” Studies in Conservation 59:3 (2014): 161-179.