A dish by Léonard Limosin on its way to the château d’Écouen?

21/2/26 - Acquisition in progress – Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance - 8 June 2023 proved an eventful day for heritage, as readers of the Journal officiel discovered there a much-awaited triptych: ahead of the Rothschild sales scheduled for the autumn but organised in New York, three masterpieces from the collections assembled by the French branch of the celebrated family of bankers and art lovers were classified as “national treasures” by the Ministry of Culture. While the first was able to join the Musée du Louvre in autumn 2024, news is still awaited of the third [1] while the second has just resurfaced in the Journal officiel, where it is at last the subject of an appeal for corporate patronage.

Kept from view since the late nineteenth century, this dish is nonetheless famous, even mythical: widely published and sometimes even reproduced (ill. 1), it was described with emphasis in 1913 in Léonard Limosin et les émailleurs français, whose author is highly laudatory and concludes his description by asserting that “never has Léonard’s prodigious technical virtuosity been better displayed [2]”. One understands his enthusiasm when observing a more recent photograph (ill. 2) of this masterpiece, where the arms of the Constable Anne de Montmorency dominate the composition and by themselves recount the provenance — indeed the destination — of this prestige object. A ceremonial piece of tableware in enamelled copper, this dish — or basin — moreover has the advantage of being precisely signed and dated (1555) by the greatest enameller of the French Renaissance, Léonard Limosin. The Feast of the Gods is thus identified with the “oval dish, with the arms of the Constable” mentioned in the inventory of Anne de Montmorency’s Parisian hôtel, opportunely drawn up as early as 1556.