Electrotype Silvered Copper Plaque - Last Supper after Leonardo &

Western Europe, probably France or Belgium. An electrotyped devotional plaque in silvered copper on a lead backing, its central panel depicting Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper in low relief. Christ sits at the vanishing point beneath a coffered ceiling, the apostles ranged in agitated groups along the table exactly as in the Milan refectory. Fourteen roundels, each numbered in Roman numerals, frame the scene with the Stations of the Cross, running from Christ condemned by Pilate to the Crucifixion, the Deposition, and the Entombment. Copper rims outline each quatrefoil roundel against a silvered ground worked with Gothic Revival tracery and trefoils, and the crenellated outline with its pointed cresting suggests a miniature altarpiece. The relief is signed "J.P. edit." between Stations IX and X. It was perhaps sold as a pilgrimage souvenir or meant for household devotion. Electrotyping, or electroforming, was developed independently around 1838 by Moritz Hermann von Jacobi in St. Petersburg and Thomas Spencer in Liverpool. Metal, usually copper, is deposited by electric current into a mould taken from a master relief, producing a copy that holds every engraved line and hatch of the original. Firms such as Elkington in Birmingham and Christofle in Paris turned the process to industrial use. By the later 19th century it allowed fine devotional reliefs to be made in large numbers and sold cheaply. Surface silvering, with the underlying copper left showing as a contrasting color, was a common finish. A cast lead backing gave the thin shell weight and strength. The abbreviation "edit." most likely stands for the French éditeur, the publisher or issuing house rather than the hand that modeled the relief. That fits production in a French-speaking market, either France or Belgium. Leonardo painted the Last Supper between about 1495 and 1498 for the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Because the original was badly deteriorated, the 19th-century public knew it mostly through engravings, above all Raphael Morghen's influential print of 1800. Reproductions like this one follow that engraved tradition. The fourteen Stations of the Cross, a devotion spread by the Franciscans, were fixed at that number when Pope Clement XII regulated them in 1731. Pairing the institution of the Eucharist with the full Way of the Cross brings the Passion narrative together on a single devotional object. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 206471

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