Casket: Old Testament Subjects

This casket is composed of fourteen enameled plaques painted in grisaille and lightly tinted with rose, yellow, blues, and purples. The Old Testament scenes depicted include on the front the stories of Tubal-cain and his half-brother Jubal working at an anvil while their sister Naamah strums a gittern (see detail); three angels comforting Daniel in the lions’ den as the prophet Habakkuk brings him food; Moses’ spies carrying grapes from the Promised Land; and Lot plied with wine by his daughters. These plaques, and those on the sides and top of the casket, were almost certainly painted in Pierre Reymond’s workshop in the 1540s; however, a different enam­eler made the four plaques on the back. The fourteen plaques were most likely mounted together on this casket in the nineteenth century.

Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.