![Front View of Thorn Reliquary](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Front_View_of_Thorn_Reliquary.jpg)
''Ronde-bosse'', ''en ronde bosse'' or encrusted enamel is an
enamelling
Vitreous enamel, also called porcelain enamel, is a material made by melting, fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between . The powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitrification, vitreous coating. The wo ...
technique developed in France in the late 14th century that produces small three-dimensional figures, or
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
s, largely or entirely covered in enamel. The new method involved the partial concealment of the underlying gold, or sometimes silver, from which the figure was formed. It differs from older techniques which all produced only enamel on a flat or curved surface, and mostly, like
champlevé
Champlevé is an enamelling technique in the decorative arts, or an object made by that process, in which troughs or cells are carved, etched, die struck, or Casting (metalworking), cast into the surface of a metal object, and filled with vitre ...
, normally used non-precious metals, such as
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
, which were
gilded
Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...
to look like gold. In the technique of enamel ''en ronde-bosse'' small figures are created in gold or silver and their surfaces lightly roughened to provide a key for the enamel, which is applied as a paste and fired. In places the framework may only be wire.
The term derives from the French term ''émail en ronde bosse'' ("enamel in the round"); however in French ''en ronde bosse'' merely means "in the round" and is used of any sculpture; in English ''ronde bosse'' or ''en ronde bosse'', though usually treated as foreign terms and italicised, are specifically used of the enamel technique, and in recent decades have largely replaced the older English term "encrusted enamel".
The technique rapidly reached maturity and produced a group of "exceptionally grand French and Burgundian court commissions, chiefly made c. 1400 but apparently continuing into the second quarter of the fifteenth century". These include the
Goldenes Rössl ("Golden Pony") in
Altötting
Altötting (, Bavarian: ; ''Oidäding'') is a town in Bavaria, capital of the district Altötting of Germany. For 500 years it has been the scene of religious pilgrimages by Catholics in honor of Mary, including a visit by Pope John Paul II i ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
, the most famous of the group, the
Holy Thorn Reliquary
The Holy Thorn Reliquary was probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The reliquary was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898 by Ferdinand de Rothschild as part of the Waddesd ...
in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, the "Tableau of the Trinity" in the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
(possibly made in London), and a handful of other religious works, but the great majority of pieces recorded in princely inventories have been destroyed to recover their gold. After this period smaller works continued to be produced, and there was a revival of larger works c. 1500-1520, although it is not clear where these were made. The technique was used on parts of a relatively large sculpture in
Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...
's famous
Salt Cellar
A salt cellar (also called a salt, salt-box and a salt pig) is an article of tableware for holding and dispensing salt. In British English, the term is normally used for what in North American English are called salt shakers. Salt cellars can be ...
(1543, Vienna) and remained common through to the
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
, usually in small works and jewellery. The Russian
House of Fabergé
The House of Fabergé (; Russian: Дом Фаберже) was a jewellery firm founded in 1842 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, by Gustav Faberge, using the accented name ''Fabergé''. Gustav's sons – Peter Carl and Agathon – and grandsons follo ...
made much use of the technique from the 19th century until the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
.
The technique can be used with both translucent and opaque enamel, but more commonly the later; translucent enamel is mostly found on reliefs using ''ronde bosse'', such as a plaque with the ''
Entombment of Christ
The burial of Jesus refers to the entombment of the body of Jesus after crucifixion, before the eve of the sabbath described in the New Testament. According to the canonical gospel narratives, he was placed in a tomb by a councillor of the san ...
'' in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, New York.
Relief plaque using translucent and opaque enamels
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
: "Entombment of Christ rench (Paris)(1982.60.398)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. In the works from around 1400, the recently developed white enamel usually predominates.
Notes
References
*Campbell, Marian. ''An Introduction to Medieval Enamels'', 1983, HMSO
The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is the body responsible for the operation of His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) and of other public information services of the United Kingdom. The OPSI is part of the National Archives of the Un ...
for V&A Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
,
*
*
* Osborne, Harold (ed), ''The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts'', 1975, OUP,
*Stratford, Jenny, and others
''Richard II's Treasure; the Riches of a Medieval King''
from The Institute of Historical Research and Royal Holloway, University of London. Images of several pieces in ''ronde-bosse'' on these pages under "Items": "Image of St Michael", "The swan badge and the Dunstable Swan", "Brooches"
* {{citation , last=Tait , first=Hugh , year=1986 , title=Catalogue of the Waddesdon Bequest in the British Museum , publisher=British Museum Press, isbn=978-0-7141-0525-3
External links
Morse with the Trinity
c. 1400, National Gallery of Art, Washington
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
in ''ronde-bosse''; an
The Dead Christ with the Virgin, Saint John, and Angels, ca. 1390–1405
both from the Metropolitan Museum of Arts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 F ...
,
Vitreous enamel