A & A spacer courtauld institute of art
login
quick search advanced search browse temp folder

Pax (baiser de paix) (Front)

Pax (baiser de paix) (Front)
enlarge image zoom image

Front

Side

Detail

Front

Back

Subject
Religious. Saints.

To purchase an image
www.mediatheque-patrimoine.culture.gouv.fr


Noirétable, parish church

S/n

Ivory;silver (mount;coat of arms)

Height: 250mm
Width: 160mm or 220mm (?)
Depth: 90mm

Virgin of the Rosary; standing Virgin and Child in a garland of roses; five roses with the five wounds of Christ (heart, hands, feet); Christ holding a rosary (chaplet); Virgin in the sun; crescent moon; Virgin as the Apocalyptic woman; angels holding Instruments of the Passion (cross; spear and sponge; column; spear; whip); saint Dominic kneeling with a Dominican friar; saint Dominic with rosary, cross, book, and a dog holding a flaming torch at his feet (pun on the Dominicans' name: Domini canes); saint Francis with his stigmata, kneeling with a Franciscan friar; angel holding a shield with a metal coat of arms engraved with the monogram 'IHS' (for Ihesu) and 'M' (for Mary), and a heart pierced with three nails, traditional representation of the Holy Heart.
Border of thorny interlaced rosebush branches evoking the crown of thorns; foliated decoration; twisted columns.

Vivet-Peclet 2007: German (Rhenish; North Westphalia) or Netherlandish (Utrecht), c. 1500.


Attribution
Unknown

Reverse
Curved; ivory handle.

Object Condition
Crown of the Virgin partly broken.
Missing: shield originally held by the central angel (replaced with a later one).

Comments
The metal shield may have been added at a later date, as such a representation of the Holy Heart is rare in the early 16th century and much more common from the late 16th century onwards. The original shield probably featured Christ's heart (Vivet Peclet 2007). C. Vivet Peclet argued that the composition was based on an engraving of the Virgin of the Rosary dating from the late 15th or early 16th century by Israel van Meckenem (b. c. 1445, d. 1503).

Provenance
Possibly bought by Pierre d'Urfé (b. 1430, d. 1508), bailiff of the Forez area, counsellor and chambellan of king Charles VIII, for the Cordelier convent he had founded in 1490 at the Bastie d'Urfé, summer residence of the d'Urfé family (hypothesis put forward by Vivet Peclet). Collection of Jean-Marie de la Mure, Montbrison canon and historian of the Forez region (b. 1616, d. 1675)(mentioned in his 1670 publication as: 'une figure d'une Nostre Dame du rosaire relevée en basse taille sur une dent d'Eléfant avec tant d'ornements antiques et tant d'autres figures de dévotion, que cette pièce est recognüe pour être un des plus beaux chefs d'oeuvre qui puissent être faits en cette matière'; also mentioned in his will: 'Item, donne et lègue ledit sieur testateur à ladite esglise collégiale Nostre Dame une ancienne paix d'esglise, curieusement travaillée sur une dent d'Elefant garnye d'argent, ayant la principale représentation d'une Nostre Dame du rosaire en basse taille, pour estre portée aux messes solennelles seulement, et réservée le reste du temps comme une pièce estimée au trésor de la sacristie de ladite église[...]'); bequeathed at his death in 1675 to the collégiale of Notre-Dame in Montbrison where it probably remained until the Revolution; sold after the confiscation of the clergy properties. Collection of Antoine Barge (in 1820), doctor in Noirétable and rector of the Penitents confraternity of Noirétable, who may have been given it by his brother, lawyer in Montbrison: given by Antoine Barge to the Penitents confraternity of Noirétable.

Bibliography
J.-M. de La Mure, Description, sommaire du rare cabinet d'estude et de piété, orné de curiositez, de Messire Iean Marie de La Mure (Lyon, 1670), p. lxii.
A. Chaverondier, Notes pour servir à la biographie de Jean-Marie de La Mure, historien du Forez, suivies de son testament et de deux lettres à sa famille (Roanne, 1861), pp. 161ff.
F. Vallas, 'L'inventaire du mobilier et des collections de Jean-Marie de La Mure', in Le Roannais illustré (1888), III, pp. 161ff.
F. Thiollier, '[Le] Forez pittoresque et monumental, histoire et description du département de la Loire et de ses confins...' (Lyon, 1889), pl. CXLIV.
Art religieux, exhibition catalogue, Lyon, Musée liturgique, 1936, no. 169, pl. XVIII.
J. Baudoin, La Sculpture flamboyante en Auvergne, Bourbonnais, Forez: sculptures et imagiers (Nonette, 1998), ill.
C. Vivet-Peclet, 'Le Baiser de paix de Noirétable', in Bulletin de la Diana LXVI-no. 1 (2007), pp. 67-92.
Palissy database: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/dapapal_fr [accessed September 2009].


Image

© Christine Vivet-Peclet. All rights reserved.

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.

spacer
spacer spacer spacer spacer
Please remember to acknowledge any use of the site in publications and lectures as: 'Gothic Ivories Project at The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, www.gothicivories.courtauld.ac.uk', followed by the date you accessed the site.