Pair of Renaissance style votive shields; XIX century.

Pair of Renaissance style votive shields; XIX century.
Silver.
Attached iron base.
Measurements: 70 x 43 cm (x2).
Pair of votive shields made in silver, ascribed to a Renaissance style of historicist recreation, mounted on modern iron bases. The pieces, conceived as a unitary set, typologically reproduce the form of large ceremonial shields, although their function is eminently symbolic and devotional, closer to the field of votive offerings and cultured ornamentation than to military use.
From the formal point of view, the shields present a cut and sinuous contour, with profiles of scrolls and volutes that frame an axial and balanced composition. The surface is densely worked in high relief, articulated by a system of oval medallions and cartouches that organize a complex iconographic program of classical inspiration. In the central field there are narrative scenes populated by numerous human figures in dynamic attitudes, while the peripheral registers incorporate isolated figures, putti, masks and vegetal elements, creating an effect of horror vacui characteristic of Renaissance language reinterpreted from a modern sensibility.
Stylistically, the works are in the tradition of the Italian Renaissance, especially in the late Renaissance, marked by a taste for classical mythology, the anatomical study of the human body and narrative composition with sculptural roots. However, their chronology in the 19th century clearly places them within a neo-Renaissance or historicist context, in which the conscious reference to the past acts as an exercise in artistic erudition and cultural affirmation. The idealized musculature, the contrasting postures and the internal rhythm of the scenes refer to Cinquecento models, reinterpreted with a refined technique and a clearly decorative intention.

The design of both pieces follows a similar model to the coat of arms in the collection of the National Museum of Sculpture (Inv. No. CER03324). It is a copy of the original kept in the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, and is the work of Eliseus Libaerts, a goldsmith specialized in embossed arms, active in Antwerp and Paris between 1560 and 1569. The elaborate relief decoration clearly illustrates the close relationship between armorers and other artistic fields, from whose repertoires they took models for the creation of high quality pieces. In this regard, Libaerts drew on the designs of the French artist Étienne Delaune, a medalist, draughtsman and engraver linked to the court of Henry II of France. Although it has not been possible to precisely identify the specific source,