{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O166376"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O166376/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AH2764/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AH2764/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AH2764","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O166376/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O166376","accessionNumber":"8425-1863","objectType":"Plate","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This plate, painted in brightly-coloured enamels towards the end of the sixteenth century, would have been made to be one of a set. Each plate was decorated with a separate scene. Together they illustrated episodes from the story of Joseph as told in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The enamelling workshop, which signed its products 'I.C.' for 'Jean Court', was fairly faithful to the prints it used as design sources. This scene of Joseph instructing his steward to conduct his brothers to his house follows a woodcut by Bernard Salomon from a book called 'Quadrins Historiques de la Bible' first published in 1553. As the book was reprinted several times in subsequent years, the date the enamelled plate was made cannot be precisely established on the grounds of its source design alone. The decorative style and use of translucent enamels over foils suggest a date of 1575-1600 is most likely.\r\n\r\nThis plate was bought from the Soulages Collection, formed in the 1830s and 1840s by Toulouse lawyer, Jules Soulages, a Toulouse lawyer. It was a Collection rich in Renaissance artworks, mainly Italian but including twenty-four Limoges enamels. The Soulages Collection was exhibited in 1856 at Marlborough House, London, and the following year at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition before being purchased by the South Kensington Museum (now V&amp;A) between 1859 and 1865. ","physicalDescription":"Enamelled plate with shallow well painted in colours on a dark ground with an episode from the Biblical account of Joseph as told in the Book of Genesis, chapter 43. The scene shown relates specifically to verses 15 and 16 of the chapter in which Joseph's brothers return to Egypt, this time bringing their youngest brother Benjamin with them. Joseph receives them and instructs his steward to conduct them to his house and make preparations for a meal. The scene derives from a woodcut by Bernard Salomon printed in Claude Paradin's 'Quadrins Historiques de la Bible' first published in Lyons by Jean de Tournes in 1553.\n\nThe action takes place before a backdrop of classical buildings. Joseph receives his brothers (with the exception of Simeon whom he has imprisoned as surety against their return). They are depicted as bearded men, on the right of the scene. Benjamin is presented before them, holding his hat. He is depicted beardless to emphasise his youth. Joseph turns towards his steward on his right (far left of the scene) to ask him to lead his brothers to his house. The well of the plate is edged with gilded interlaced foliate decoration while the border is decorated with grotesques (including faces with turquoise blue headdresses, face masks without eyes and/or with abnormally large ears, and dragons with horned heads) and vases of flowers. The rim is painted white. The back of the plate is decorated with a border of gilded leaves within which, on a ground of gilded interlaced foliate decoration, term figures hold grisaille strapwork. Between the strapwork are grotesque masks. In the centre is a rosette with red middle. The plate is signed '·I·C·' in red on the strapwork. Some features derive from so-called 'Moresque' ornament designed for the use of goldsmiths and embroiderers by artists such as Peter Flötner in Nuremberg and Bathazar van den Bos in Antwerp.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"de Court, Jean","id":"A18331"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":"or workshop"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"copper","id":"AAT11020"}],"techniques":[{"text":"enamelled","id":"x30139"},{"text":"gilded","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Copper, painted in coloured enamels and gilded and with coloured translucent enamels over foils.","categories":[{"text":"Enamels","id":"THES48876"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"CER","id":"THES48594"},"images":["2006AH2764"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"013","id":"THES399701"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Plate","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Limoges","id":"x32604"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1575 - 1600","earliest":"1570-01-01","latest":"1600-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"8424-1863","id":"O166379"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"C.2445-1910","id":"O276612"},"association":"Object"},{"object":{"text":"C.488-1921","id":"O276610"},"association":"Object"}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"20.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Measured"},{"dimension":"Height","value":"2.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'·I·C·', in red ","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"On the grisaille strapwork on the back of the plate. For Jean de Court or his workshop"},{"content":"'·G·XLIII', in gold ","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Top front of the plate over the sky. Reference to Genesis 43."}],"objectHistory":"Bought for £24 from the Soulages Collection. The plate was one of twenty-four Limoges enamels from the spectacular collection of mainly Italian Renaissance works of art formed during the 1830s and 1840s by Jules Soulages, a Toulouse lawyer. After exhibition first at Marlborough House, London, in 1856 and then at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857, the Soulages Collection was purchased in several tranches by the South Kensington Museum (now V&A) between 1859 and 1865. The plate was later displayed again at the Special Loan Exhibition of Enamels on Metal, held in the Museum in 1874.\r\n\r\nThe identity of the master enameller variously signing his work 'Jean Court', 'Jean de Court', 'Jean Court dit Vigier', or by the initials 'I.C.', 'IDC' and 'ICDV' has caused confusion for many years. Some hold him to be one and the same man while archival sources indicate that there may have been two or even three separate enamellers working in Limoges with variations of this name during the second half of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Whether they all collaborated in one single workshop founded by Jean Court dit Vigier is unclear. This enameller, active ca. 1555-85, carried out technically proficient work which was aesthetically precise and attractive and included polychrome portrait masterpieces for the court in Paris. The name Vigier indicates that he was a magistrate representing the  viscount of Limousin in Limoges. He has been equated with the artist who became court painter to Charles IX, the painter to Charles Bourbon, Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon in 1553 and to the widowed Mary, Queen of Scots, 1562-67. The poet Jacques Blanchon praised this painter in an ode of 1583. While at court in Paris, other work could have been produced by his workshop such as the body of accomplished grisaille work in a highly decorative Mannerist style. His workshop could also have been continued after his death. Polychrome plates usually signed 'I.C.'  such as those from the Joseph series are thought to have been produced towards the end of the sixteenth century on stylistic  grounds. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Plate, painted in enamels on copper and gilded with a scene from the Biblical story of Joseph, Jean de Court or workshop, Limoges, France, ca. 1575-1600.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"J. C. Robinson, Catalogue of the Soulages Collection, 1856"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Catalogue of the art treasures of the United Kingdom collected at Manchester in 1857, London, Bradbury and Evans, (1857)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Catalogue of the Special Loan Exhibition of Enamels on Metal held at the South Kensington Museum in 1874, London: Chiswick Press, 1875"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Sophie Baratte, Les Emaux peints de Limoges, Paris, Musee du Louvre, 2000"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Suzanne Higgott, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Glass and Limoges Painted Enamels, 2011"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Clare Vincent, Painted Enamels, in 'The Robert Lehman Collection: XV Decorative Arts', The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2012"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Maryvonne Beyssi-Cassan, Le métier d’émailleur à Limoges, XVIe-XVIIe siècle, Limoges, 2006 \r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Bernard Descheemaeker, 'Emaux de Limoges de la Renaissance provenant de la collection de M. Hubert de Givenchy', Galerie J. Kugel, Paris, 1994"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Neumann, Nicolas eds.<u> Lyon Renaissance: Arts et Humanisme</u>. Somogy éditions d’art: Paris, 2015. ISBN 9782757209912."}],"production":"Salomon's print series telling the story of Joseph lent itself well to translating into decoration for individual enamelled plates. These plates could then be sold as a set, most likely of twelve. At least sixteen possible scenes were used implying that each set would include the standard key episodes but that there was some latitude in making up the remainder of the set from a choice of supplementary scenes. No complete set is known to be extant but there are examples of Joseph plates from the Jean de Court workshop in many public collections such as the Waddesdon Bequest at the British Museum; the Wallace Collection; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Louvre Museum, Paris; The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig; the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; the St. Louis Art Museum; and a grisaille version in the Taft Museum, Cincinnati. The Salomon woodcuts also inspired Joseph scenes used on other object types such as enamelled caskets.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"Benjamin returns to Egypt with his brothers. Joseph receives them and asks his steward to conduct them to his house.","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Egypt","id":"x29512"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Joseph the Patriarch","id":"N616"},{"text":"Benjamin","id":"N5247"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["8425-1863"],"accessionNumberNum":"8425","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1863,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2016JE5693"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-09","recordCreationDate":"2008-08-28","availableToBook":true}}