Ninus, King of Nineveh

This concave oval plaque represents Ninus, the legendary founder of Nineveh and King of Assyria. The conquerors of the four great empires of the ancient world—Ninus, Cyrus, Alexander, and Julius Caesar—were popular in the Renaissance, and illustrations of them based on designs by Marten de Vos (1532–1603), such as this example, circulated through engravings. Although the mottled pink and gray flesh tones defined by hatch marks are very similar to those on the salt by Jean Limousin II (1916.4.23), the plaque’s unusual opaque blue counter-enamel raises doubts about its dating and authorship.

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

Eugen Gutmann, Berlin. 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.