Exceptional bronze lion-shaped aquamanile with dark and ligh - Lot 262

Exceptional bronze lion-shaped aquamanile with dark and light blue enamel inlays, gilding remains and red pâte de verre eyes. Stubby feline, standing on short legs with stylized claws at the ends; spherical head with slightly protruding eyes and hemmed eyelids, crushed snout with open mouth and pouring spout, small round ears, tail passing under the belly and up the left flank; The mane is treated in small, juxtaposed curls with hooked ends, each inlaid with two-tone enamel; the animal's neck and back are highlighted by a welded metal band with scalloped edges, flaring out to the hindquarters and then becoming narrower to the start of the tail; this band is adorned with a braid whose strands are enameled in the same way as the mane and the tail brush. The filling opening is located on the head, closed by a flap. Lotharingia, second half of the 12th century Height: 17.3 cm - Length: 21.5 cm (wear to gilding, very slight lack of enamel) Provenance: former Charles Boucaud collection Private collection RARE AQUAMANILE FROM THE 11th CENTURY This aquamanile is one of the earliest known made in Europe. Its typology is far removed from the lion-shaped aquamaniles, standing on their paws with a haughty head, produced later by workshops in northern Germany, particularly Lower Saxony, and also further south in Bavaria, notably Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries. This one, with its rounded body, broad head and short snout, still evokes Romanesque art and its bestiary inherited from the Middle East. Few works from this period can be compared. The closest, though not an aquamanile, is a candlestick base in the shape of a figure riding a lion, formerly known as "Samson and the Lion", which is kept at the Musée du Louvre (inv. OA 9104, fig. a and b). It is indicated as being from Lotharingia (a region stretching from the Netherlands to the Duchy of Burgundy, including present-day Lorraine) and from the second half of the 12th century. Although seated, the feline has a similar morphology, notably its head with round ears and a wide mouth with a crushed muzzle, as well as its compact body, its tail raised against its flank, the locks of its mane forming commas. Made in gilded bronze, it is not enamelled. The particularly remarkable feature of this aquamanile is its inlaid decoration in two-tone enamel, dark blue and light blue, and the addition of a welded plate on the spine, in the same colors, highlighting its back and accentuating the object's precious character. No other aquamanile known to date features polychrome enamel decoration. Only two other pieces, probably produced by the same workshop, can be compared in terms of technique and quality of execution. One is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. Kunstkammer, 83, fig.c), the other in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv.1471-1870, fig.d). After being catalogued in Falke and Mayer's reference work as Lotharingie, Verdun school, second half of the 12th century, they are now presented in museum records as Mosan, circa 1120. Without establishing the slightest relationship of quality with these masterpieces of medieval goldsmithery, we must emphasize the originality of this aquamanile with its enamelled mane, which constitutes an example of particular refinement in the production of these emblematic objects of the Middle Ages. This one, which has no handle and is therefore particularly easy to handle, seems to have been frequently used, its gilding now showing a bronze patina of great depth. Works consulted: - O. von Falke and E. Meyer, Romanische Leuchter und Gefässe Giessgafässe der Gotik, Berlin, 1935-1983, Abb. 216a and b, 229, 230a and b. - P. Bloch, Aquamaniles - Objets sacrés et profanes du Moyen Age, Milan, 1982. - P. Barnet and P. Dandridge, Lions, Dragons, & other Beasts, London, 2006. - M. Brandt, Bild und Beste - Hildesheimer Bronzen der Stauferzeit, Hildesheim, 2008.