Exceptional King Henry VIII Nuremberg Casket of Secrets, English Medieval school of the 15th century - STAR LOT - Exceptionnel Coffre à Secrets de Nuremberg ayant appartenu au Roi Henri VIII d'Angleterre (1491-1547), Ecole médiévale anglaise du XVe siècle au début du XVIe siècle - STAR LOT
A ROYAL CASKET BY DIEGO DE ZAYAS FOR KING HENRY VIII OF ENGLAND - TEMPLUM FINE ART AUCTIONS IS PLEASED TO PRESENT TO INTERNATIONAL CLIENTS BOTH PRIVATE AND FOREIGN INSTITUTIONS THIS EXCEPTIONAL CHEST BELONGING TO THE KING OF ENGLAND HENRY VIII. Made in 1544 and arrived in Spain as a wedding dowry gift to Emperor Philip II of Spain by the English court on his marriage to Mary Tudor England, by descent within the same noble family. Provenance: Toledo noble family private collection, by descent. Made by the Spanish goldsmith Diego de Zayas first at the service of Francis I of France and later expelled from the French by the "Ottoman French King" Zayas made his way to King Henry VIII of England and spend the rest of his career working for his new patron. It is documented a knife by Zayas in the Royal Collection Trust, published in detail by Blair in 1970 (Journal of that year, pp. 149 to 198). In this knife, Zayas damascenes the conquest of Boulogne sur Mer by the English army, which occurred in the summer of 1544. The chest, presented here, has a base of 20.0 x 13.2 and a height of 17.0 cm. Its weight is 3.04 kg. The decoration consists of twelve different war scenes (six on the box -two on the front, separated by the espagnolette, another two behind and one on each side- and six on the lid -with the same distribution-. Each scene represents one or more towns, more or less fortified, surrounded by an enemy army, with the presence of numerous soldiers, on foot or on horseback, cannons, chariots and other military effects. Three such scenes reproduce, quite faithfully, as many fragments of a painting, The Siege of Boulogne, which, since 1545, adorned the dining room of Cowdray House, an imposing Tudor palace in West Wessex, which Sir Anthony Browne had inherited three years earlier. Sir Anthony, an important politician and military man of the time, was appointed by Henry VIII, in 1538, his Master of the Horse and would have a special role accompanying the king in the Normandy campaign of 1544, which would result in the conquest of Boulogne and other nearby strongholds. On his return to England, Browne commissioned the first three paintings that would remind him of his participation in the campaign: The departure of Henry VIII from Calais, The camp of Henry VIII in Marquison (Marquise, a place located inland and halfway between Calais and Boulogne sur Mer) and The siege of Boulogne. The first two paintings represent events of July 1544 and the last one, a chain of situations of the siege: from the landing of the British fleet, on July 19, near the lower town, to the (Henry VIII arrived, by land, a week later), the implementation of artillery and the digging of trenches. The three paintings mentioned above, along with two somewhat later ones by a different hand (The English Army, Portsmouth Sedge, depicting the naval battle of the Solent, 1545, and The Ride of Edward VI, from the Tower of London to Westminster, 1547) disappeared in the fire that swept through Cowdray House in 1793. Fortunately, a few years before this loss, the London Society of Antiquaries had commissioned copies of these five paintings, with a view to publishing the corresponding engravings. Samuel Grimm was commissioned to copy four of them, including The Siege of Bologna, James Basire being the engraver. The Cowdray engravings were published in 1788. Thanks to them, we know today the content and details of those paintings. The three scenes reproduced by Zayas are the following: 1) Landing of the troops transported by the English fleet, commanded by Sir Charles Brandon, Duke of Sulfolk and brother-in-law of the king, on July 19. The lower town, near the port, would fall two days later. Zayas copies, with the utmost detail, the Turris Ordinis or Caligula's Lighthouse. A magnificent 60m tall fortress, built in 39 AD, which would collapse a hundred years after the events that concern us. It also reproduces the English ship closest to the lighthouse, the four cannons resting on it, accompanied by a gunboat, the boats approaching the land, the walls of the lower city and many other details, such as one of the two women in the painting, with a basket on her head and a cruiser. Zayas includes many more ships of the British navy than those reproduced in Grimm's eighteenth-century copy; we believe the original painting would include that larger fleet. 2 ) Royal encampment. Arrived Henry VIII to the outskirts of Boulogne on July 26, the royal camp is set up, in which the conical tents of the officers, topped with flags, surround the detachable tent of the king, a rectangular house-shaped pavilion, provided with two square windows. The entire enclosure is surrounded by a palisade covered with fabrics with ornate geometric motifs. Zayas extreme the copy of some minimal details of the original. 3) Siege of the castle located on the extreme left of the upper city. Zayas reproduces, with precision, the towers, walls and access to the fortress, the long artillery battery, located behind the barrels-parapet, the line of arquebusiers near the fortress, located behind the barrels-parapet, the line of arquebusiers near the fortress, the carriage carrying a triangular-shaped attack platform, and a long list of details. It is obvious that Zayas had to take notes from the original "in situ". And we do not believe that it was not by his own decision, but at the behest or orders of his patron, the king. The three visits that Henry VIII made to Cowdrey House during his long reign are documented today: the first two in the summers of 1538 and 1539, when the mansion was owned by Sir William Fitzwilliam, a friend of the king since childhood and half-brother of Sir Anthony Browne (who inherited it in 1542, upon the death of Sir William). The third and final visit takes place in August 1545; the three paintings depicting the military successes of the previous year are still fresh. It may be that this visit had to do with the royal desire to meet them personally at the mansion of his right hand man. If so, it would be understood that, among the monarch's entourage and service, Diego de Zayas, armorer and damascene maker on his payroll, would have been present. Then Zayas was commissioned to copy episodes of The Siege of Boulogne, transporting them, in the following weeks, to the chest that concerns us. In any case, the chest had to be decorated after the Henry VIII, before his death in January 1547. The different characteristics of Diego de Zayas's work are clearly evident in this chest. His traditional sense of horror vacui; his miniaturism, ostensible with the 293 foot soldiers and the 69 horsemen engraved on the chest. Provenance: formerly on a Spanish noble collection, Toledo.
Estim. 1 000 000 - 1 500 000 EUR
