A post-Palissean cot for the Louvre Museum

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1. French workshop of the first half of the 17th century
Creche in the Form of an Open Thatched Cottage
Terracotta with lead glaze - 24 x 33.5 x 21.8 cm
Paris, Louvre Museum
Photo: Coutau-Bégarie & Associés
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14/3/23 - Acquisitions - Paris, Musée du Louvre - The sale organized by Coutau-Bégarie & Associés at the Hôtel Drouot on February 23 was not only scrutinized by the Crozatier Museum, which took away an important Auvergne Mirgin and Child (see the news item of 6/3/23): a few lots later, another interesting object was also preempted by the Department of Works of Art of the Louvre Museum! Sold for 9,789 € with expenses, this cot (ill. 1) could not escape the attention of a seasoned curator nor of a "proactive patron":it is indeed the La Marck Foundation which ensured the financing of this acquisition of a more than reasonable amount. While it will certainly be necessary to make some space in the display cabinets in order to accommodate this cot, as Françoise Barbe told us, the object will first be taken to a restoration workshop: at first glance, one can see the old repairs, carried out by powerful iron staples that will have to be removed. Broken in various places, the cot has also lost one of its main protagonists: the ox, which was the counterpart of the donkey, is unfortunately missing.

2. French workshop of the first half of the 17th century
Creche in the Form of an Open Thatched Cottage
Terracotta with lead glaze - 24 x 33.5 x 21.8 cm
Paris, Louvre Museum
Photo: Coutau-Bégarie & Associés
See the image in its page

These accidents undoubtedly explain the modest price of this acquisition, which is nevertheless justified in more than one respect since this type of object is rare: the notice of the catalogue, entrusted to the expert Benoît Bertrand, thus specified that nothing similar was known until now. Could the cot (ill. 2) be a unicum? Perhaps not, since the number on the label affixed to the object mentions a lot number that does not correspond to that of the probable provenance mentioned in the notice: if a cot "from the suite of Bernard Palissy" did indeed appear under number 207 in the sale of the Mordret collection in April 1881 at the Hôtel Drouot, another one was found in the Planquart sale in Lille in October 1888, this time under number 195, which is well inscribed on the famous label. On the other hand, the identification was correct: here we are indeed in front of a post-Palissean ceramic, an unattractive but understandable terminology that designates these French productions of the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, unfortunately little studied until now.

3. French workshop of the first half of the 17th century
Creche in the Form of an Open Thatched Cottage (detail)
Terracotta with lead glaze - 24 x 33.5 x 21.8 cm
Paris, Louvre Museum
Photo: Coutau-Bégarie & Associés
See the image in its page

Post-Palissean ceramics are currently at the heart of the scientific work of the Objets d’art department, which now has a wonderful opportunity to conduct new analyses on these objects since the necessary restoration of the recently preempted cot (ill. 3) will make it possible to take a small amount of clay that will be studied at the C2RMF (Research and restoration center of the museums of France). For several years, the institutional actors - the Louvre Museum and the National Museum of the Renaissance - have been interested in these productions, which are the subject of an exciting research project supported by the Île-de-France region and by the Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine. Once generously regarded as by Bernard Palissy himself, these Parisian or Ile-de-France productions have fed into Jessica Dupuis’ thesis, defended in June 2018 and entitled La céramique à Paris après Bernard Palissy (1590-1650) : œuvres, fabricants, collections. In 2019, a special issue of the C2RMF’s excellent journal Technè - entirely available online - came to summarise all recent research on post-Palissy ceramics.

4. French workshop of the first half of the 17th century
Creche in the Form of an Open Thatched Cottage (detail)
Terracotta with lead glaze - 24 x 33.5 x 21.8 cm
Paris, Louvre Museum
Photo: Coutau-Bégarie & Associés
See the image in its page

If the reading of this rich specialized issue can discourage neophytes, we can on the other hand advise them the fascinating episode of L’œuvre en scène available on the site of the Louvre Museum and devoted to the "rustic figulines" of Bernard Palissy. These may seem far removed from this representation of the Nativity dominated by the figures of the angel, Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary watching over the Child Jesus in his cradle. However, the foliage and shells that line the interior (ill. 4) of this object can be clearly seen, and only the exterior (ill. 2) suggests a thatched barn on a multicoloured base, although the first thing that comes to mind is a pie or a kind of pie. Where did this object come from? Its arrival in the national collections can only trigger further research, and we are already looking forward to seeing it published in a scientific article, our skills reaching their limits here. The catalogue entry, due to Benoît Bertrand, cautiously put forward the hypothesis of an attribution to the workshop of Antoine Clarissy, who was the head of a Parisian ceramics factory: let us see if this will be retained or invalidated by Mrs Françoise Barbe, chief heritage curator in the department of Objets d’art at the Louvre Museum, where she has been overseeing the collections of Renaissance ceramics, glass and enamels as well as the first half of the 17th century since 2008.

5. Announcement of the future exhibition-dossier of the Department of Works of Art of the Louvre Museum
See the image in its page

Readers of La Tribune de l’Art will certainly remember that these were recently enriched with another piece of post-Palissean ceramics, an interesting moulded-decorated handled pot acquired from the London gallery E&H Manners (see news item of 10/4/21). In a little over a month, another art of fire will be in the spotlight at the Louvre: the great enameller Jean Limosin will have an exhibition-file (ill. 5) in the current affairs room of the Objets d’art department, where one can admire the magnificent plate representing the emperor Vitellius on horseback, preempted for €88,000 by Coutau-Bégarie & Associés in October 2020, already with the support of the La Marck Foundation (see the news item of 8/10/20). This one will be presented among a small group of works attributed to Jean Limosin, including the other plate - sold the same day at the Hôtel Drouot for €110,000 by the hammer - and the two plates kept at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, published in colour for the first time in our article at the time [1]. While we must obviously be delighted with the acquisition of the Duke of Choiseul’s wonderful snuff box (see the news items of 3/11/22 and 13/3/23), this alone cannot sum up the wealth of news in the department.

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