613 - Pierre Reymond

Pierre Reymond A Limoges enamel plate depicting the month of March Painted enamel in grisaille on copper, with a few iron-red accents and gilding. Depicting two wood gatherers. Above, framed by clouds, the zodiac sign Aries on a gold ground. A grotesque frieze around the border. On the underside, a strapwork cartouche with four mascarons bearing baskets of fruit on their heads. Monogrammed "P.R." beneath the bundle of branches. Diameter 20.4 cm. Limoges, Pierre Reymond, around 1560. Pierre Reymond (c. 1513-c. 1584) ran one of the most successful workshops for painted enamels in Limoges. He specialised in grisaille painting on a black ground, which suited the taste of the period, and created some of the most important works of art of his era. In addition to ecclesiastical vessels, he also produced secular wares, including plates, bowls, salt cellars and jugs, which he often signed and dated. As he was active for at least 40 years, there is a considerable span of dated works, from 1537 to 1578. They are represented in many international collections, with the Louvre holding by far the largest number of signed and attributed objects by Reymond. Another plate with the same motif is held in the Kunstkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, inv. no. Kunstkammer, 3256. The graphic source for all three identical March plates was created by Étienne Delaune (c. 1518-1583), a medallist and engraver who worked in Paris, Strasbourg and Augsburg. Plate 3 from his twelve-part series entitled "Seconde Suite des Mois de l'Année", dated 1568, is held, for example, in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, obj. no. E.2587.1913. Certificate Formerly in the collection of Julius Böhler, Munich; offered to the Leipzig Municipal Museum of Decorative Arts in 1910, after which it passed into private ownership. In a German family’s possession ever since. Literature Cf. Netzer, Maleremails aus Limoges. Der Bestand des Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseums, Berlin 1999, cat. no. 7, pp. 82 f., a similar plate by Pierre Reymond after the engraving by Étienne Delaune of 1568. Cf. Baratte, Les émaux peints de Limoges, Paris 2000, no. 1292, a plate with the same depiction from another cycle of month plates for Anton Ulrich of Brunswick. Cf. Müsch, Maleremails des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts aus Limoges, Braunschweig 2002, cat. nos. 83 ff., the eleven month plates of 1571.