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The Lord's Prayer VII: the Temptation of Job
Maker:
Nouailher, Colin
(Probably)
Designer:
Holbein, Hans, the younger
(After)
Printmaker:
Monogrammist C. V.
(After)
Copper enamelled en grisaille with pink and red, and gilded. Job admonished by his wife and tempted by Satan with the inscription ‘ET NOVS INDVIS POINT/EN TENTATION’ (And lead us not into temptation). One of a set of plaques with M.49A-D & F-1904.
Rectangular convex copper plaque with a hole in each corner, enamelled en grisaille with a little pink, and red, on a black ground, and gilded. Clear, uneven counter-enamel with several blobs on the right side. Job sits on ashes, menaced from behind by Satan, and admonished by his wife who stands in front of him on the right. Job faces to his left with his head turned to his right, He is bearded, and naked apart from a white cloth over his knees. His body is covered with red boils.. Satan holds a blazing red switch, and behind him is a furnace spouting flames. Job’s wife wears sixteenth-century costume and has her back to the vewer. God appears in a semi-circle of clouds in the top right corner. Gold lines run round the edges of the garments. Running across the bottom of the plaque is a white panel inscribed in black with gold over it, ‘ET NOVS INDVIS POINT/EN TENTATION’ (And lead us not into temptation) followed by two curved gold lines. A gold line runs round the edge of scene and the inscription. The reverse is inscribed in black with the number ‘VII’. The plaque is set in an ill-fitting, rectangular, gilt-metal frame with repeating formal leaf border. The plaque is held into the frame by four bent over pins attached to the cardinal points on the reverse.
History note: Uncertain; possibly Robert Napier, West Shandon, Dunbartonshire by 1865; sold Christie’s, 5 June, 1877, one of six plaques in lot 2594; sold to Stettiner. Or, although smaller, G.H. Morland; sold Christie's, 10 May 1866, one of six plaques in gilt-metal frames in lot 437. An unidentified French sale in which the six plaques formed lot 289. An unidentified Italian owner or dealer before or after the sale. Frank McClean, MA, FRS (1837-1904), Rusthall House, near Tunbridge Wells
Frank McClean Bequest
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1904) by McClean, Frank
16th Century, Mid
Circa
1540
CE
-
1550
CE
This plaque was originally the seventh in a series of eight panels illustrating the Lord's Prayer, of which six are in the Fitzwilliam (M.49A-F-1904). The first plaque shows 'Christ instructing the Disciples how to pray', the others have scenes associated with the Lord's Prayer which follows. The words are written in French below each scene. This plaque illustrates ‘ Lead us not into temptation’ (Matthew VI, 13). It shows a Job sitting in despair among ashes after Satan has afflicted him with boils from top to toe in order to tempt him to speak ungratefully of God. (Job, 2, 7-8).There are at least three other recorded plaques of this subject, see Documentation Two plaques from the series decorated in the same style in the Louvre were attributed to Colin Nouailher by Alfred Darcel (1867) and this was upheld by J.J. Marquet de Vasselot (1919-20) and Sophie Baratte (2000). This attribution was confirmed by the presence of the initials CN below the title on a plaque from the Lord’s Prayer decorated with the 'Deliver us from Evil' scene, acquired by the Musée de l’Évêché, Limoges, in 2007 (2007.5.2) with another plaque of the 'Give us our daily bread' scene (2007.5.1). The scenes illustrating the lines of the prayer were inspired by a set of metalcuts by the Basel monogrammist C.V. after Holbein which appeared in Desiderio Erasmus's 'Precatio dominica in septem portiones', published by both Johann Froben and Johannes Bebel successively in Basle in 1524. The work was first published without illustrations in 1523, and was rapidly translated into modern languages. The illustrations in the Froben and Bebel editions have the inscriptions in Latin, but a set of eight prints issued separately probably a little later with inscriptions in French, signed CV, is in the British Museum (1904.0206, 64,1-8;) and seven of the set (no. 4 is missing) are in the Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque nationale, Paris (EA 25c in fol., p. 57). While the iconography of all the plaques was derived from these prints, the details differ considerably, in some scenes more than others. Lord's Prayer plaques were also executed probably by Jean II or III Pénicaud, and an enameller who signed 'KIP' or' KI'. These are in very different styles from the Nouailher plaques and include some scenes which were not based on the Holbein/CV illustrations.
Decoration
composed of
enamel
( white, pink, red, and black)
gold
Plaque
composed of
copper
Height 12 cm
Width 9.5 cm
Frame
Height 13 cm
Width 10.5 cm
Inscription present: Roman seven
Inscription present: almost square label with a serrated edge and blue printed beaded border; underlined as far as 401
Inscription present: a strip cut out of a sale catalogue
Accession number: M.49E-1904
Primary reference Number: 156439
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
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The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "The Lord's Prayer VII: the Temptation of Job" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/156439 Accessed: 2024-12-26 12:18:42
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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/156439
|title=The Lord's Prayer VII: the Temptation of Job
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-26 12:18:42|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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