Object details
Object number
S31e6
Creator(s)
French, Provence
Title
Retable
Date
about 1507
Medium
Limestone
Dimensions
80 x 169 x 25.5 cm (31 1/2 x 66 9/16 x 10 1/16 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed (base): Lasi este pfartte et mise le cinquiesne Jour daoust Lan mil cinq Cens et Sept Noblies pas les trespasses (The first three words and several individual letters are unclear. The probable translation: This is completed and placed on the fifth day of August in the year 1507. Do not forget the dead)
Coat of arms (base, beneath each of the four pilasters): Arnal de Serres
Provenance
Completed and installed into the wall of an unknown church as a memorial for the Arnal family on 5 August 1507. The arms are those of Arnal de Serres, Languedoc, the captain of a frigate at Toulon.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the collection of Emile Peyre (1828-1904), Paris for about 42,800 francs (or $4,260) on about 17 November 1899, through Fernand Robert, her regular agent in Paris.
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 280. (as French (Burgundian?), dated 1507; the arms as unidentified)
Naomi Miller. "A French Limestone Retable of the Early Sixteenth Century." Fenway Court (1973), pp. 9-15, fig. 1. (as French, 1507; likely the work of Italian artisans who migrated France; the arms as those of Arnal de Serres of Languedoc)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 145, no. 178. (as Provençal, dated 1507)
Gallery
Third Floor Stairhall And Stairway
Rights and reproductions
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