- Title:
- The Agony in the Garden
- Object name(s):
- Plaque
- Brief description:
- Rectangular plaque of copper painted in polychrome enamels with a depiction of The Agony in the Garden, as described in the New Testament. In this striking composition, Jesus’ disciples, the apostles Peter, James and John are shown sleeping in the Garden of Gethsemane, east of Jerusalem. They occupy the lower half of the plaque and entire foreground of the scene. In the background, Christ is shown on his knees in agonised prayer to God the Father. An angel bearing a chalice appears in a nimbus in the top left corner of the plaque. This refers to the 'cup' which Jesus prayed might pass from him. In the upper right corner, Judas approaches from a distance, leading a crowd armed with swords and clubs to whom he intends to betray Jesus. This is recounted in the Gospels of Matthew, chapter 26, verses 36-50 and Mark ch.14, vv.32-46. For the design of the scene and its individual characters, the enameller has drawn on elements of engraved work by Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer and other northern European artists.
- Collection:
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Associated concept:
- Enamels
- Associated concept:
- Christianity
- Content - event name:
- The Agony in the Garden
- Content - person:
- Jesus Christ
- Content - person:
- St. Peter
- Content - person:
- St. James
- Content - person:
- St. John
- Content - place:
- Gethsemane
- Credit line:
- Bequeathed by George Salting, Esq.
- Current reproduction location:
- https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AH3175/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg
- Location type:
- Thumbnail
- Dimension:
- Height
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 22.7
- Dimension:
- Width
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 20
- Material:
- copper
- Material:
- enamel
- Object history note:
- Formerly in the Salting Collection, bequeathed to the V&A in 1910. The large and extremely generous bequest of George Salting included both eastern and western ceramics as well as works of art in other materials. He was born in 1836 in Australia where his father was a wealthy sugar producer. A prolific but very careful collector, he drove a hard bargain over prices. He lent objects to the South Kensington Museum, as the V&A was then called, from 1874, when his collection had outgrown his residence in St James’ Street. Salting died in 1909, and the majority of his collection came to the Museum in 1910 to be displayed in its own galleries in the Museum. The ‘Aeneid Master’ is an unidentified enameller named for an impressive series of plaques after woodcut illustrations published in Sébastien Brant’s edition of Virgil’s ‘Opera’, printed by Jean Grüninger in Strasburg in 1502. Of the 136 woodcuts illustrating the Aeneid, 82 extant enamel plaques follow many of the designs appearing in the first nine books of the Aeneid, while no enamels have yet emerged which follow the woodcuts in the remaining three books. They were a prestigious commission, probably for setting into the panelling of a cabinet or other royal or aristocratic chamber. Few other enamels have been attributed to the Aeneid Master. Roger Pinkham, former curator of Limoges enamels at the V&A, reattributed the Agony in the Garden to him (previously attributed by Jean-Joseph Marquet de Vasselot to Jean I Pénicaud). This reattribution does not preclude the Aeneid Master from having come from the Pénicaud workshop. A characteristic of the Aeneid Master’s accomplished work is the use of a clear, colourless flux directly over the copper substrate.
- Object name:
- Plaque
- Object number:
- C.2386-1910
- Object production date:
- ca.1525 - 1535
- Date - association:
- made
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1525-01-01
- Date - latest:
- 1535-12-31
- Object production person:
- Aeneid Master
- Person's association:
- maker
- Person's biographical note:
- Attributed
- Object production place:
- Limoges
- Place association:
- made
- Physical description:
- Rectangular plaque of copper painted in polychrome enamels with a depiction of The Agony in the Garden, as described in the New Testament. In this striking composition, Jesus’ disciples, the apostles Peter, James and John are shown sleeping in the Garden of Gethsemane, east of Jerusalem. They occupy the lower half of the plaque and entire foreground of the scene. In the background, Christ is shown on his knees in agonised prayer to God the Father. An angel bearing a chalice appears in a nimbus in the top left corner of the plaque. This refers to the 'cup' which Jesus prayed might pass from him. In the upper right corner, Judas approaches from a distance, leading a crowd armed with swords and clubs to whom he intends to betray Jesus. This is recounted in the Gospels of Matthew, chapter 26, verses 36-50 and Mark ch.14, vv.32-46. For the design of the scene and its individual characters, the enameller has drawn on elements of engraved work by Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer and other northern European artists.
- Reproduction number:
- 2006AH3175
- Responsible department/section:
- CER
- Technique:
- painted
- Technique:
- enamelled
- Technique:
- gilded
- Technique:
- Painted polychrome enamels on copper, with gilding.
- Text reason:
- Collections online record
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- Jean-Marc Ferrer, Véronique Notin, 'L’art de l’émail à Limoges', Limoges, 2005
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- Susan L. Caroselli, The Painted Enamels of Limoges’, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1993
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- Roger Pinkham,' Attributions to the Aeneid Master’, in Apollo 95, May 1972
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- J.-J. Marquet de Vasselot, ‘Une Suite d’émaux limousins à sujets tires de l’Énéide’, in Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de l’art français, 1912
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- Sophie Baratte, ‘Les Emaux peints de Limoges’, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2000
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- Veronique Notin, ‘Limoges - Les Premiers Emaux peints’, in L’Estampille – L’Object d’Art
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- Philippe Verdier, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Catalogue of the Painted Enamels of the Renaissance, 1967
- User's reference:
- Reference:
- Françoise Barbe, 'Enée. La Légende à l’origine de Rome', in La Rencontre des Héros, Limoges, 2002
Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/1e84349c-11c4-3876-b4fa-469a016c6a38
Use licence for this record: CC BY-NC
Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/1e84349c-11c4-3876-b4fa-469a016c6a38, Victoria and Albert Museum, CC BY-NC
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