Triptych: The Way to Calvary; The Crucifixion; Pietà

As per common practice in early sixteenth-century enameling, the artist uses a variety of techniques to convey emotion and realism. For example, to accentuate the lifeless bodies of Christ and the thieves, he uses enlevage, the technique of scraping away layers of white enamel to reveal the dark ground underneath. This effect is enhanced by the pink wash added to the cheeks of the surrounding figures, contrasting their flush with the gray pallor of Christ and the thieves. Their gaunt appearance is also painstakingly rendered, and in both The Crucifixion and The Pietà, tears are visible in the eyes of the mourning women and St. John. Traditionally attributed to Jean Pénicaud I, this triptych could be the work of the enameler known as the Master of the Louis XII Triptych (after the triptych now at the Victoria and Albert Museum) because of the unusual blue-gray enamel on the reverse side of the plaque.

Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.

J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York. Duveen. Frick, 1918.

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