Guy Chabot, Baron de Jarnac

A prolific enamel portraitist, Limousin was famous for small plaques but also worked in larger formats, such as this. Even at this scale, his exacting manner of stippling can be seen along the nose and right side of the face, as well as in the careful lines of white, brown, and black for the beard. The embroidered black jacket and matching cap with gold tassels and hat badge would date the portrait to the 1540s, the decade when Chabot (d. 1584) married Louise de Pisseleu and was named seneschal of Périgord.

Source: Wardropper, Ian and Julia Day. Limoges Enamels at The Frick Collection. New York: The Frick Collection/D Giles Limited, 2015.

Roullet family, Château de Jarnac, Angoumois. Charles Stein, Paris. His sale, June 8–10, 1899, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Lots 18, 19. J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York. Duveen. Frick 1916.

Source: Enamels, Rugs and Silver in The Frick Collection. Volume VIII. New York: The Frick Collection, 1977.