One of the distinctive art forms of the French Renaissance, enamel painting flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the city of Limoges, in southwest-central France. The production of enamel—essentially powdered glass on a metal substrate—required highly specialized skills, with artists of the Limoges workshops marshaling a variety of materials and techniques to achieve the desired colors, opacities, and other effects. The objects displayed in these cases represent the handful of dominant workshops that operated over generations to satisfy the demand for Limoges enamels across Europe. This includes the workshop of Suzanne de Court, who is the only known female head of a workshop active in Limoges.
Like all of these objects, the saltcellars indicate the wealth and status of their owners. Technical analysis of the Orpheus saltcellars, signed by Suzanne de Court, suggests that they were rarely, if ever, used to hold salt, then a very costly luxury. They were perhaps used primarily for display.
The subjects depicted on the objects displayed here represent the interests of their patrons: chiefly religious and mythological subjects as well as portraits, which were typically made at a small scale. The ambitious plaque of the Triumph of the Eucharist and the Catholic Faith, by Léonard Limousin, combines religious subject matter with a rare group portrait of the powerful Guise family.
Pair of Saltcellars: Scenes from the Story of Orpheus
This saltcellar and its pair, 1916.4.44, are marked with the initials SC for Suzanne de Court, the only known female enameler in sixteenth-century Limoges. The decoration is after woodcuts attributed to Bernard Salomon that were first published in Lyon in 1557 to illustrate Ovid’s Metamorphoses. On one saltcellar, the furious women of Cicones attack Orpheus because he has decided to avoid mortal women after the loss of his beloved wife, Eurydice. But their spears are stopped by the magic of his music and fall harmlessly at his feet. The story continues on the second saltcellar, with Orpheus slain and his head thrown into the River Hebrus while three women mourn his death. In the final scene, Apollo turns the dragon that sought to devour Orpheus’s head into stone. Saltcellars like these were likely not intended to hold salt but were instead displayed on tables and sideboards during banquets.
Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.
No. 1916.4.44 was recorded in 1898 in the Mannheim collection, Paris. Both saltcellars were acquired by 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.
