Plaque painted in polychrome enamels with an image of the Virgin and Child with a parrot, in an architectural setting, Master of the Baltimore and Orleans Triptychs, Limoges, France, ca.1500-10.

Painted in polychrome enamels and with paillons (translucent enamel backed with foils) with the Virgin and Child with a parrot adapted from The Virgin with the Parrot by Martin Schongauer, 1499 (Bartsch 29) or possibly a reverse version by Wenzel von Olmütz (fl.1475-1500), one by an anonymous master or one by Master F.V.B. (fl.1480-1500). The Virgin is shown half-length, facing three-quarters to her right. She holds a green parrot in her right hand which bites the Christ-child's raised finger. She has jewels (paillons) on the collar of her purple gown and on the nimbus behind her head and her crown which she wears over a coif. She also wears a blue cloak, while the Christ-child wears a green robe. A wooded landscape is seen in the distance behind her, through the arches of a Gothic chapel. The Christ-child stands on part of the Virgin's cloak which rests on a stone ledge. Two columns rise either side of the ledge and support an elaborate carved stone arch. The design source for the chapel is an engraving of the Virgin and Child and St. Anne by Nicolaus Alexander Mair von Landshut, dated 1499. The counter enamel of the plaque is opaque, in colours of pink and greenish-grey, likely leftover enamels.

Bequest of Mrs. George Cowell

Locker-Lampson collection, sold London, 26th February 1909, lot 100a. George Cowell is said to have bought it for £800 from Drey of Munich.

Historical significance: The earliest painted enamels of the sixteenth century, such as this one, bear much similarity to images in contemporary illuminated manuscripts. The subject matter is similar and they employ the same stylistic techniques as illuminations, such as the use of gold highlights, especially for the clothes and drops of enamel to suggest jewels. It is thought that some artists were able to work in both art forms. The Master of the Baltimore and Orleans Triptychs was active about 1475-1510 and may have painted the miniatures in the Book of Hours for the Use of Limoges (Art Institute, Chicago, inv. no. 15.540) associated with the Loire School of Painting. From about 1500 he also seems to have made use, as here, of German prints as a source of design inspiration. Translucent enamels seen here in the arcading and the heavy application of gilding were technical innovations in enamelling at this period.

Limoges, central France, was famous for the production of champleve enamels from the late 12th century until the town was destroyed by the Black Prince in 1370. The enamel industry began to revive about a century later but the technique of painted enamels produced from 1460s/70s was quite different from the earlier medieval work. The copper, probably from Spanish mines, was first of all hammered to thin sheets which were then worked on by the skillful enamellers. It was a long and careful process, with several firings to achieve the finished result.
This small plaque was probably a devotional image displayed by its owner in a private oratory or possibly as an 'image de chevet' hung above the owner's bed. It is a more complex image than it first seems, in that the bird biting Christ's finger hints at Christ's death for humanity. It is thought that the parrot symbolises the human soul, as in Jan van Eyck's Madonna and Child with St. Donatian, St. George and a Donor in the Town Hall Museum, Bruges. A fabulous bird called a Charadrius signified the soul of man in pagan antiquity, a bird which flew away at death. It is found in Bestiaries as a type of Christ as Saviour, and as a parrot, or more often a goldfinch, it was retained as a Christian symbol. The bright plumage of the goldfinch made it a favourite pet with children. It is associated with Christ as it was said to have acquired its red spot when it drew a thorn from Christ's head on His way to Calvary and was splashed with blood.
Similar plaques also attributed to the same Master are known. They fall into two categories in terms of their variation from the original print source. This plaque is included in the category which features a parrot - along with plaques at the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris - and this is thought to be earlier because of the French Gothic architectural features. The other group includes plaques in the Wallace Collection, London, in Troyes Museum, France, and in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection formerly at Rohoncz Castle, Hungary - all these are more faithful to the Schongauer print in that they show the Virgin turning the pages of a devotional book but no parrot. This latter category is said to be slightly later in date owing to the Italian influence seen in the wainscotting. Another Virgin and Child plaque from the Marczell von Nemes collection was sold in Amsterdam 13th/14th November 1928, lot 85 (see Bulletin Limousin LXXIII, 1930, pp.v & xlii).

This small enamelled plaque by the Master of the Baltimore and Orleans Triptychs, whose real name is not known, was probably a devotional image displayed by its owner in a private oratory or possibly above the owner's bed. It is adapted from a print of 1499 by the German Master, Martin Schongauer. The design source for the chapel in which the Virgin and Child appear to stand is a 1499 engraving by Mair von Landshut. The enamel cannot therefore have been made earlier than these print sources and is likely to date from 1500 or shortly thereafter. The bird, here a parrot, but more often shown as a goldfinch, is thought to symbolise the human soul, alluding to Christ's future role as Saviour of humanity.
The earliest painted enamels of the sixteenth century bear much similarity to images in contemporary illuminated manuscripts. The subject matter is similar and they employ the same stylistic techniques as illuminations, such as the use of gold highlights, especially for the clothes and drops of enamel to suggest jewels. It is thought that some artists, such as the painter of this plaque, worked in both art forms.

C.748-1925