Enamels of Limoges, 1100–1350

Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine, Bernadette Barriere, Dom Jean Becquet, Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye, Barbara Drake Boehm, Michel Pastoureau, Beatrice de Chancel-Bardelot, Isabelle Biron, Pete Dandridge and Mark T. Wypyski (1996)

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Limoges enamels, the richest surviving corpus of medieval metalwork, were renowned throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. Yet today they are little known outside academic circles. The present volume, published in conjunction with the exhibition Enamels of Limoges, 1100–1350, brings to deserved public attention nearly two hundred of the most important and representative examples from the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée du Louvre, the great church treasuries of France, and other sources. Early in the twelfth century, goldsmiths at the Benedictine Abbey of Conques in the hills of the ancient province of Rouergue began to create enamels whose jewel-like colors and rich, golden surfaces belied their fabrication from base copper. Within a generation, this technique was established in the area of the Limousin itself. By the 1160s the enamels created at Limoges, known as opus lemovicense, were a hallmark of the region. They were to be found not only in the Limousin and the neighboring region of the Auvergne but also in Paris, in monasteries along the pilgrims' road to Santiago de Compostela, at the Vatican, and in the cathedrals of Scandinavia.

The works of Limoges were created for important ecclesiastical and royal patrons. The wealth of enameling preserved from the Treasury of the abbey of Grandmont, just outside Limoges, is due chiefly to the Plantagenet patronage of Henry II and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Enamels created during their reign resonate with the elegant style of the court, and the dramatic history of Henry's monarchy is evoked by such works as the reliquary of Saint Thomas Becket. Ecclesiastical patrons such as Archbishop Absalon of Lund, Cardinal Guala Bicchieri, and, above all, Pope Innocent III were key to the dissemination of Limoges work throughout the churches of Europe.

While few of the artists who created the enamels that have come down to us are known by name, the works of several—Master Alpais, Garnerius, and Aymeric Chretien—are here juxtaposed with related pieces, some of them demonstrably from the same atelier. Clearly, the ability of the goldsmiths of Limoges to adapt their work to meet the demands of a varied clientele was an essential element in their success. Victorines and Franciscans joined Benedictines among the patrons of Limoges. Before the middle of the thirteenth century, the goldsmiths of Limoges began to create tomb sculptures of gilt copper with enameled surrounds, the most famous being the paired images of John and Blanche of France, children of Saint Louis. Objects decorated with enameled coats of arms came into prominence at about the same time.

Table of contents

Director's Foreword
Curators and Contributors to the Catalogue
Lenders to the Exhibition
Acknowledgments

Transatlantic Crossings of the Art of Limoges
Marie-Madeleine Gauthier

The Limousin and Limoges in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Bernadette Barrière

Religious Life in the Limousin in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Dom Jean Becquet, O.S.B.

Beginnings and Evolution of the "Oeuvre de Limoges"
Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye

"Opus Lemovicense": The Taste for and Diffusion of Limousin Enamels
Barbara Drake Boehm

Techniques and Materials in Limoges Enamels
Isabelle Biron, Pete Dandridge, Mark T. Wypyski

Catalogue
I. The Birth of Enameling in Aquitaine (1100–1160)

II. "Opus Lemovicense" and the Creation of a European Taste (1160–1190)

1. The first Patrons and the vermicule style
2. Secular ornament and imagination
3. Innovation and diversification

III. The Abbey of Grandmont (12th–13th century)

Introduction by Jean-Rene Gaborit
1. The Treasury of Grandmont
2. The Grandmontian style

IV. Limoges in Transition (1190–1230)

1. Master Alpais and the classic Limousin style
2. The emergence of the Gothic style in Limoges
3. Animation and tradition

V. The Last Flowering (1240–1320)

"Heraldry and Limoges" by Michel Pastoureau
1. The taste for sculpture
2. The realm of chivalry
3. The strength of tradition

VI. Gilded Images: Sacred and Funerary Sculpture (13th-14th century)

"Introduction" by Beatrice de Chancel-Bardelot

Appendices

Tombs of Limoges Work
Beatrice de Chancel-Bardelot

Techniques and Materials in Limoges Enamels
Isabelle Biron, Pete Dandridge, Mark T. Wypyski

Bibliography

Index

Photograph Credits

About the authors

Marie-Madeleine Gauthier, the preeminent scholar in the field for more than forty years, provides important information on the state of research.

Bernadette Barriere, historian at the University of Limoges, discusses the history of Limoges and the Limousin, with particular attention to the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Dom Jean Becquet, the distinguished Benedictine historian, treats of religious life in the Limousin in the age of monasticism and of the cult of saints.

Michel Pastoureau, internationally esteemed heraldist, discusses the use of armorial bearings on Limoges work.

Beatrice de Chancel-Bardelot of the Musée du Louvre provides an encyclopedic analysis of tombs of Limoges work, which, because of wide destruction, have been largely overlooked.

Pete Dandridge and Mark Wypyski of the Department of Objects Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum and Isabelle Biron of the Laboratoire de Recherche des Musées de France, in a pioneering collaborative study, provide important new insights into the techniques and materials used by the goldsmiths of Limoges.

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"... sumptuously illustrated ... Highly recommended ..."

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