The Painted Enamels of Limoges

Experimenting with a new technique of painting with enamel on copper, the artists of Limoges in central France founded an industry in the late 15th-century that continues to this day. For nearly 200 years they produced plaques and display pieces that were prized throughout Europe and inspired a full-scale revival of the art in the later 19th-century. Among their masterpieces were colourful devotional polyptychs, portrait series or scenes from literature, painted vessels and sets of calendar...