Enamel on copper painted with the Harrowing of Hell, North Italian, 15th century.

Trapezoid copper plaque painted with enamels and gilding on copper. The figures are painted in white camaieu with gold highlights on a translucent blue ground. Some details are painted in opaque red enamel. The scene is hardly legible due to the deterioration of the enamel, notably with the central part missing, however it represents Christ's harrowing of hell.

According to early Church tradition, Christ descended into hell following his Crucifixion. This is expressed in the Apostles' Creed and Athanasian Creed. Christ is here seen pierced with the stigmata of the Crucifixion but holding the triumphal banner of Resurrection iconography. In the background are the rocks forming the gates of hell and the flames inside. The account was expanded with detail in the non-Canonical Gospel of Nicodemus which was in turn popularised by Jacobus de Voragine's 13th century Golden Legend. Christ is shown in the act of reaching towards a bearded, sleeping man with the intention of pulling him out of Hell. The bearded man is probably Adam, though may be Abraham.

This plaque is one of a set of ten (8517 to 8526-1863) painted with scenes from the Life of Christ. These form part of a particular class of enamels made in the second half of the 15th century which are attributed to Northern Italy. Their characteristics are a translucent blue ground, figures painted in white and opaque red and gold highlights. Quite a substantial number exist, leading scholars such as Maria Accascina and Paola Venturelli to ascribe them to a 'Lombardic School'. Venturelli emphasises the obvious link between miniatures and painted enamels, such that miniaturists might well have painted the enamels. The iconography of some enamels may have been influenced by Leonardo Da Vinci or his followers. Venturelli believes that there is also a link between some of the Lombardic painted enamels and the work of Mantegna.

Made in the 15th and 16th centuries, the enamels became popular in the Duchy of Milan and were not limited to religious themes. Numerous Lombardic workshops mass-produced objects, especially plaques and plaquettes, for an expanding clientele. In liturgical goldsmithery, where aesthetics and sacred meaning are closely related, the use of enamel was valued for its colour and its ability to reflect light.

All the plaques in the V&A's set of ten either have holes for fixing the plaques by nails or rivets to a metal object or to a metal or wooden mount, or have glue marks on the reverse. This plaque is pierced by four holes. This suggests the plaques were used to decorate devotional objects used by priests in the liturgy or by wealthy lay people for private devotion. It is likely this set might have decorated either a reliquary or an altarpiece, though some Lombardic plaques were used to ornament bookbindings, as can be seen in the case of the binding of the Torriani Hours (Musée Condé, Chantilly). Other examples of the use of this class of enamels can be seen on a chalice in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, inv. no. 44.463 and on a plaque framed as a pax in the Museo dell’Incoronata, Lodi. The iconography (episodes from Christ's life) encouraged believers to meditate on the life and suffering of Christ.

8524-1863