Limoges (enamels) - Venus And Cupid. Neo-renaissance Triptych, 19th Century

LIMOGES (Emailing Workshop of ) - In the vein of decorative objects made by the Master Enamellers of Limoges in the 16th and 17th centuries, a unique Neo-Renaissance Triptych to stand or wall, welcoming, set in molded panels with a wooden core, radiant and advantageous pictorial compositions on enameled copper plates with a most pleasant allegorical subject. Of convex rectangular shape, these, executed on a sepia background in a palette where a delicate cameo of bluish tones rubs shoulders with a gray - also called "grisaille" - with very refined iridescent reflections, show: - depicted half-length, full-frontal and three-quarter, the charming duo of Venus and her son Cupid, God of Love. Haloed in a light and airy fabric, preciously adorned, her hair studded with a diadem, the smiling Goddess of Beauty embraces with her right arm the diligent winged Child playfully displaying his bow, his arrow with the fatal line. In a gesture not devoid of feminine coquetry, she seems to approve of its ardent fervor. A grace all Bellifontaine * - delicacy and eurythmy of the lines imbued with an elegant mannerism, undulating or nervous silhouette of the figures with exquisitely affable attitudes, dreamy expressions - individualizes this central pictorial composition endowed on the formal as well as aesthetic level with a great charm. - profiled in full length, one captured in a serious and reserved posture, the other with a dancing step, two female figures modestly dressed "A L'Antique" in fine and long tunics emphasizing their bodies with blooming forms. In these young women holding a Lyre and a Cythare respectively, we can recognize Erato, Muse of Love Poetry, and her sister Terpsichore, a Greco-Roman deity presiding over The Dance. Sitting on the inner face of the side panels of the Triptych, these allegorical figures imbued with a balanced "classicism" appropriately complete the amorous thematic of this object which, under the invocation of "Venus and Love," violates the codes of its initial religious function. Nestled in the triangular pediment of this Triptych of a sober architectural form, a small enameled plaque decorated with a mischievous bust of a winged Sphinx flanked by foliage scrolls flowered with passion flowers adds a Neo-Renaissance note to this piece revisiting in the second half of the 19th century techniques, forms and favorite subjects of Limousin Enamels of the 16th-17th centuries whose artistic prowess is in accordance with the names of Léonard Limousin (1505-1577), Jean III Penicaud (+1570) or Pierre Reymond (1513-1583). Closed, the Triptych is decorated on its shutters and the back of its central panel equipped with hinges with metal straps allowing it to be hung. Mounting hole at the top. *Béllifontain: graceful and sophisticated stylistic movement, which appeared and cultivated in Fontainebleau between the years 1550-1600 during the development and implementation of the large decorative ensembles designed at the request of François 1er by the Italian Masters Le Rosso (1494-1540), Le Primatice (1503-1570) and their followers Materials: Tinted wood and metal; - Enamels on copper painted in grisaille and shades of blue on a sepia background with partly erased gold highlights. Dimensions: of the Triptych - closed: H.: 40 cm; W.: 26 cm - Open: W.: 52 cm Enameled plaques: Central plaque: H.: 27.5; -W: 22 cm Side panels: H.: 27.5.-W.: 10 cm Pediment plaque: H.: 4 cm; L.: 19cm Limoges (Emailing Workshop of) - Limoges work in Neo-Renaissance style from the last third of the 19th century. Circa 1870 Good general condition - Small chips on the edge.