ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN COURT (ACTIVE 1555-65), LIMOGES, THIRD QUARTER 16TH CENTURY

The study of enamels attributed to Jean Court (or de Court, Courteys, Courtois, Curtius) is complicated by the fact that the enamel industry in Limoges was dominated by dynastic workshops, often with different members of the family sharing the same name. This is made more difficult by the contemporary habit of spelling names differently at different times. In her recent study of the enamels in the Louvre, Sophie Baratte divides the enamels which had previously all been attributed to the hand of one man - Jean Court - into at least two separate workshops, which are known to have employed numerous artists thought to sign their names in identical or near-identical fashion (Baratte, op. cit., pp. 317-361). The artist Jean Court or Maitre IC, responsible for the present cup and cover, which is notable for the dense nature of the composition and the technical virtuosity of the painting, is equally recognisable as the author of other major works in public collections such as three other cups and covers with similar Adam and Eve scenes; in the Louvre, in Ecouen and in Dresden (Baratte, op. cit., R 287, pp. 340-1).