J-g Berdot (att): Magnificent Battle Scene; City Siege. Painting On Metal & Gold Frame.

Exceptional miniature painting painted on metal, attributed to Jean-Georges Berdot.

The round miniature is painted on a gray metal, probably zinc or lead.

The painted scene depicts a horseman in the middle of a battlefield, soldiers fighting around him. Behind him is a goddess or allegory seated on clouds.
In the background on the right, a fortified city is depicted high up, overlooking the scene. We can see a temple behind the walls.

This battle scene, with the fortified city on top and the probable temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, could be a representation of Personna's siege of Rome in 508 BC. Event considered legendary by some historians.

This hypothesis is supported by the existence of an oil on copper painted by Jean-Georges Berdot, entitled, The Sack of Rome. Our miniature would be the representation of another episode of the same event.



The composition is very dynamic, centered on this moving horse around which many actions take place: soldiers fighting, a man dying, etc.

Due to the lack of signature, the style of the painting, the touch and the subject lead us to attribute this miniature to Jean-Gorges Berdot, a rare painter of whom only a few works are known.
We find great similarities in the attitude of the horses, the work of the draperies, the luminous touches on the soldiers' armor, the sinuous treatment of the vegetation, the presence of ancient architecture, etc.

One of the images puts the rider in our miniature and that of the Sack of Rome side by side.


Jean-Georges Berdot was born in Montbéliard in 1614, reportedly a student of Henry Tournier, brother of Caravaggio Nicolas Tournier. Active in Paris for a few years, he then settled in Sens. The Montbéliard museum keeps one of the rare paintings signed and dated by the artist: The Triumphant Church, 1647.
Félibien, in Names of the Most Famous and Best-Known Painters, Paris, 1679, says of Berdot that he “painted very well on a small scale”.

The miniature is highlighted by a yellow gold rim and protected by a curved glass. The whole is in a later gilded brass frame decorated with a frieze of palmettes and a blackened wooden frame.

6.2 cm in diameter at sight
11.5 cm in diameter with frame

I had great difficulty taking photos which did not pay homage to the talent of the painter.

Very good state.


Hand delivery in Paris or sending by insured Colissimo.

France: 20€
Europe: 25€
World: 40€