Asset number
675694001
Description
Rectangular champlevé enamel plaque depicting the apostle St James. Originally from a shrine or portable altar. Stratford 1993 Back: Gilding along the left edge. Mounting-mark III; III repeated near top edge. Horizontal line to form a border near top and bottom edge, apparently recent. Deposit of discoloured varnish over the whole surface. Front: On the left and right sides there is a recessed beaded border made by a tool with a hollow tip of approx. 2.5 mm width; four original angle pinholes for attachment to a wooden core. The top and bottom are chamfered (the chamfer has been cut off at bottom right), and do not have the beading. A reserved edge within the beaded borders and chamfer is 2 mm wide and surrounds an enamelled frame of mid-blue within off-white, which is 3 mm wide; the enamelled frame is broken into by the halo, the ground and the feet of the figure. The young Apostle is identified in vertical letters of deep blue to his left as + IACOBVS. He is standing looking to the right, gesturing with his right hand and holding a book in his covered left hand; he has long hair falling on to his right shoulder. The drawing of the head and feet is filled with blue enamel (which has now gained red tints in the head, because the walls of the champlevé fields have thrown oxidized copper). The Apostle's long tunic is of turquoise/ yellow/ green; over this he wears a second tunic, where deep blue sometimes replaces the green in the turquoise/ yellow fields, whereas above the waist the tunic reverts to the turquoise/ yellow/ green combination. A long mantle of deep blue/ pale blue/ off-white falls from his shoulders. The halo is of turquoise within green within yellow, like much of the tunic. The ground on which the Apostle stands is of turquoise/ off-white. Opaque red studded with yellow and white dots decorates the collar and cuff, opaque red studded with white and turquoise the book-cover, whereas the edge of the book is of pale green/ yellow. There has been some loss of glass in the enamelled frame, apart from which enamel and gilding are in near-perfect condition.
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