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Limoges became a centre for enamelling as early as the twelfth century, when the art flourished in monastic workshops. In the late fifteenth century, this city in central France emerged as a centre of secular as well as ecclesiastical enamel work, and the school flourished throughout the sixteenth century. Among the most famous and prolific of the enamel painters practicing in sixteenth-century Limoges was Pierre Reymond.
The earliest examples of Limoges painted enamel show religious scenes in the late Gothic style. About 1520, Italian Renaissance motifs appeared and became especially characteristic of the work of Léonard Limosin and Pierre Reymond. Painting in grisaille, or monochromatic painting intended to look like sculpture, was introduced at Limoges and became a speciality of Jean Pénicaud III (active mid-16th century).
The present Limoges grisaille painted enamel ewer is painted with Gideon and his army as they attack the Midianites, blowing trumpets and carrying ewers. The composition is after an engraving by Bernard Salomon from his series of Biblical illustrations for the Biblia Sacra. Salomon executed a set of 198 woodcuts illustrating the Old and New Testaments, first published in 1553.
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