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拍品专文
Although the exact birth and death dates of Pierre Courtoys are unknown, a picture of his successful career as an enameller in Limoges can be surmised both from contemporary city records and the high quality of the works attributed to him. His earliest extant piece is an cup depicting The Judgement of Paris and The Triumph of Diana, dated to 1544 (see Caroselli, op. cit. p. 134). His latest known work, five panels depicting an Allegory of Man and the Labours of the Months, is after an engraving of circa 1581, thus providing a terminus post quem for the artist’s death. He signed his works using a variety of spellings and is therefore referred to as Courtoys, Cortoys, Courteys, Corteys, or Courteu interchangeably. He was a contemporary of Pierre Reymond and is sometimes described as having trained in the workshop or been a disciple of the master. While the compositions of both enamellers were inspired by the engravings of Etienne Delaune and Bernard Salomon, Courtoys’ works are distinct from those of Reymond, in particular, due to their more vibrant colour palettes. He worked for both Francois I and Henri II and had three sons who were also enamellers and goldsmiths to the court. The present lot is very close to an enamel plate of the same subject in the Louvre Museum bearing the signature ‘COURTOIS’ to the reverse and attributed to Pierre’s son, Martial (inv. no. MR 2412).
The story of the Niobids has its origins in classical antiquity in several variations, the most famous of which can be found in Homer’s Iliad. Niobe, a mortal woman, boasted of her superiority over the goddess Leto as she had twelve (or sometimes fourteen) children as opposed to Leto’s two. As revenge for Niobe’s hubris, Leto’s son and daughter, Apollo and Artemis, shot Niobe’s children with arrows. The dramatic scene has been a popular motif throughout Western art. The composition of figures in the present lot derives from an engraving by Philippe Galle after Giulio Romano published by Jerome Cock in 1557.
The story of the Niobids has its origins in classical antiquity in several variations, the most famous of which can be found in Homer’s Iliad. Niobe, a mortal woman, boasted of her superiority over the goddess Leto as she had twelve (or sometimes fourteen) children as opposed to Leto’s two. As revenge for Niobe’s hubris, Leto’s son and daughter, Apollo and Artemis, shot Niobe’s children with arrows. The dramatic scene has been a popular motif throughout Western art. The composition of figures in the present lot derives from an engraving by Philippe Galle after Giulio Romano published by Jerome Cock in 1557.