The blue and green beasts, locked in battle and compressed into the circular medallion, are emblematic of goldsmith work created at Conques under the patronage of Abbot Boniface (r. 1107–after 1121). On a similar box still at Conques, an inscription proudly proclaims: “In all respects, the coffrets of Conques demonstrate brilliant workmanship.”
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Artwork Details
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Title:Eagle Attacking a Fish (one of five medallions from a coffret)
Date:ca. 1110–30
Geography:Made in Conques, France
Culture:French
Medium:Copper-gilt, champlevé enamel
Dimensions:Overall: 3 9/16 x 9/16 in. (9 x 1.5 cm) Overall (with nail tangs): 3 15/16 x 9/16 in. (10 x 1.5 cm)
Classification:Enamels-Champlevé
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.689
Jean-Baptiste Carrand, Lyons (before 1856); Michel Boy, Paris; Sigismond Bardac, Paris (in 1900); Georges Hoentschel (French)(sold 1911); J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1911–1917)
Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris. "Exposition universelle de 1900. L'exposition retrospective de l'art francais," April 14–November 12, 1900.
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," June–December 1989.
State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. "Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki," February–July 1990.
Paris. Musée du Louvre. "L'Oeuvre de Limoges," October 23, 1995–January 22, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Enamels of Limoges, 1100-1350," January 22–June 16, 1996.
Paris. Musée du Louvre. "La France romane au temps des premiers Capétiens, 987–1152," March 10, 2005–June 6, 2005.
Rupin, Ernest. L'Oeuvre de Limoges. Paris: Alphonse Picard et Fils, 1890. pp. 57–62.
Catalogue officiel illustré de l'exposition retrospective de l'art français des origines à 1800. Exposition universelle de 1900. Paris: Lemercier & Cie., 1900. no. 2409, p. 292.
Guibert, Louis. Les Vieux Émaux de Limoges à l'Exposition de 1900. Limoges: Veuve H. Ducourtieux, 1901. pp. 12–13, (as no. 2409).
Pératé, André. Collections Georges Hoentschel: Émaux du XIIe au XVe siècle. Paris: Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1911. no. 30–34, fig. XVI.
Forsyth, William H. "Mediaeval Enamels in a New Installation." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 4, no. 9 (May 1946). p. 233.
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. Émaux Méridionaux: Catalogue International de l'Oeuvre de Limoges; L'Époque Romane. Corpus des émaux méridionaux, Vol. I. Paris: Editions du centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1987. no. 38, p. 61, pl. XXIV, ill. 119–123.
Gaeta Bertelà, Giovanna, and Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, ed. Arti del Medio Evo e del Rinascimento: Omaggio ai Carrand, 1889–1989. Florence: Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 1989. p. 428.
Pushkin Museum and State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki: Kratkii Katalog Vystavki. Moscow: Pushkin Museum, 1990. no. 18, p. 10.
State Hermitage Museum. Dekorativno-Prikladnoe Iskusstvo ot Pozdnei Antichnosti do Pozdnei Gotiki. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum, 1990. no. 18, pp. 44–45.
Taburet-Delahaye, Elisabeth, and Barbara Drake Boehm, ed. L'Oeuvre de Limoges: Emaux limousins du Moyen Age. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1995. no. 8, pp. 83–86.
Boehm, Barbara Drake, and Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye, ed. Enamels of Limoges, 1100-1350. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996. no. 8, pp. 83–86, fig. e.
Martín Ansón, María Luisa. "Los Esmaltes Silenses: Problemática Sobre su Origen." In De Limoges a Silos, edited by Joaquín Yarza Luaces. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, 2001. p. 263.
Luaces, Joaquín Yarza, ed. De Limoges a Silos. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, 2001. p. 315.
Taburet-Delahaye, Elisabeth. "Los Inicios de los Esmaltes en Aquitania." In De Limoges a Silos, edited by Joaquín Yarza Luaces. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, 2001. pp. 42–43, fig. 22.
Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle, ed. La France romane au temps des premiers Capétiens (987-1152). Paris: Musée du Louvre Editions, 2005. no. 286a, p. 375.
Boehm, Barbara Drake. "Le goût des Américains pour l'Œuvre de Limoges aux XIXe et XXe siècles." In L’Œuvre de Limoges et sa diffusion: Trésors, objets, collections, edited by Danielle Gaborit-Chopin, and Frédéric Tixier. Paris: Institut national d'histoire de l'art, 2011. p. 126.
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