Vatican Museums

The squares, which have no signature or other identifying mark, are among the highest achievements of the Mannerism of Limoges and remarkable evidence of the degree of perfection attained by painting on enamel in France in the mid-sixteenth century. Attributed in the past to Robert Vauquer (or Vauquier) of Blois (1625-1670), peinteur-émailleur working in the Haute-Vienne, and more recently, to an unknown monogrammist, ‘MD’, a painter and glazer of French education and analogous narrative style, they are now associated with Couly (Nicolas) II, known as Colin Nouailher (Limoges, 1514-1588 c.), responsible for a monumental altar in painted enamel, covered with 36 panels depicting Stories of the Passion of Christ (c. 1588) from the South Tyrolean residence of Zimmerlehen at Völs am Schlern (Fié allo Sciliar), Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum. The eighteen compositions explicitly recall the prints of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas van Leyden.