Details

LOT 0355

Medieval Four Basse-Taille Plaques from a Processional Cross Depicting Four Evangelists

CATALONIA, CIRCA 1400-1420 A.D.

2 in. (26 grams total, 48-50 mm).

Group of four quatrefoil plaques, each with a hole to the end of each arm for attachment and detailed enamelled image of an evangelist's emblem (man, lion, eagle, calf) on a deep blue field. [4, No Reserve]

Provenance

with Galerie Charles Ratton, 2021.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12058-217470.

Literature

Cf. Vinycomb, J., Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art, London, 1909, p.54; De Sanjosé Llongueras, L. & Olucha Montins, F., ’Una aproximacion a la orfebreria de los siglos XIV (segunda mitad), XV y XVI en las tierras de el Maestrat i Els Ports (Castellon)’ in Various, Pulchra Magistri. L’esplendor del Maestrat a Castelló. Culla, Catí, Benicarló, Generalitat Valenciana, 2013, pp.187-219, p.193, a Crucifixion with four quatrefoil plaques of the Evangelists.

Footnotes

From the 4th century A.D., the vision of Ezekiel and John's Apocalypse, assigned the lion, the angel, the eagle, and the ox a place in the iconography of the Tetramorph to represent the four evangelists. Therefore, during the Middles Ages and until today, the evangelists' emblems are: Matthew represented by an angel, Mark by a lion, Luke by a calf and John by an eagle. Strangely, in this set the image of an angel holding a scroll bears the inscription 'Marcus' (St Mark). These quatrefoils were usually decorating caskets keeping relics of saints, holy books or crosses.