An exceptional enamel plaque on copper depicting Saint Michael slaying the demon, known as “The Great Saint Michael,” based on Raphael’s 1518 painting and housed in the Louvre Museum.
The archangel, balancing on one leg, subdues the demon, who is depicted with horns and wings. The background features a landscape rendered in grisaille and gold; the flames rising from the ground are highlighted by silver filigree and enamel work. The plaque is set within an ornate Renaissance-style frame and bordered by four enamel plaques decorated with white grotesques on a blue background.
The enamel is signed Mansuy-Dotin for Marie Lucie Mansuy-Dotin, a Parisian miniaturist from a long line of enamel artists.
Marie Lucie Mansuy Dotin (1846, Paris–1916, Neuilly) was the daughter of Frédéric Alphonse Dotin and Amélie Henriette Lemaire, both enamel artists. In 1866, she married the engraver Jules Mansuy (1838–1902). Marie Lucie Mansuy Dotin was a student of the painter Pierre Emile Metzmacher and of Claudius Popelin, an enamel artist, painter, and poet on Rue Saint Sauveur in Paris. Marie Lucie Mansuy Dotin exhibited at the Salon held at the Palais des Champs-Élysées from 1875 to 1877. There she exhibited, in particular, enamel works depicting Diane de Poitiers, Perseus rescuing Andromeda… Marie Lucie had a daughter, the painter Lucie Mansuy (1874–1938), who took the first name Suzanne Lucie to distinguish herself from her mother.
Marie Lucie Mansuy Dotin’s works were also exhibited at the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876. At the 1905 exhibition of the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors, she won the prize for decorative art.
Work from the late 19th century. Circa 1875–1880.
Frame: 58 x 42 cm. Enamel: 34.5 x 26 cm
Price: €2,750