A GERMAN CARVED IVORY RELIEF PAINTED WITH FRENCH HISTORICAL SCENES

The central miniature depicts the Sun King, Louis XIV (d. 1715). Immediately above him is Cardinal Jules Mazarin (d. 1661), first minister of France during the King's minority, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert (d. 1683), his Minister of Finance. Louis is flanked by military scenes probably derived from a set of tapestries, Histoire du Roi, woven for the King at the Gobelins Manufactory in France from the 1660s. The tapestries cartoons or templates are by Mathieu and Pierre de Sève, after designs by Charles Le Brun and Adam Frans van der Meulen; one of the scenes is represented in oil, The crossing of the Rhine at Tolhuis on 12 June 1672 by van der Meulen. The carved ivory motifs on this relief are inspired by 16th century Mannerist designs of the first French School of Fontainebleau.