Carved and polychromed. The reverse is flat.

The right hand is missing. Remnants of the original polychromy and gilding can be discerned in areas. The face is overpainted.

…; first recorded in the museum in 1965

Object number: BK-18356

This figure comes from the scene with Christ Carrying the Cross of a Passion altarpiece. Depicted is the foremost soldier who pulls Christ forward in the direction of Golgotha. He has just turned around to mock and kick the Saviour. Especially in Antwerp, retable groups were often composed of a number of separately carved pieces in the first half of the sixteenth century. It was a method that reduced the cost price and boosted the rate of production. On the sloping ground on which this figure stands, a branded mark of a hand with fingers spread wide can be discerned. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, this quality mark was applied to woodcarvings by the inspectors of the St Luke’s Guild in Antwerp, as verification of the wood’s fine quality.

The soldier’s supple, dynamic pose, the caricatural features of his ruthless, toothless face, and the sculpture’s flowing, finished surface find their equivalent in Antwerp woodcarving of circa 1530, a time when retable production was already on the decline. Most similar to the present work are various retables attributed (most likely erroneously)¹¹Cf. opposing views about this woodcarver, who is known only from archival sources, in H. Nieuwdorp (ed.), Antwerp Altarpieces 15th-16th centuries, 2 vols., exh. cat. Antwerp (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) 1993, vol. 1, pp. 102, 113 and R. de Boodt, ‘De beeldsnijder Robert Moreau en het Retabel van Oplinter’, Bulletin van de Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis Brussel 65 (1994), pp. 111-19. to Robert Moreau (documented 1532-37), an Antwerp sculptor known only from archival sources: the altarpieces of Oplinter,²²Brussels, Art and History Museum, inv. no. 3196, see KIK-IRPA, object no. 20008844 and A. Huysmans et al., Beeldhouwkunst van de Zuidelijke Nederlanden en het Prinsbisdom Luik, coll. cat. Brussels (Royal Museums for Art and History) 1999, fig. 5. Opitter,³³Opitter-Bree, Sint-Trudokerk, see KIK-IRPA, object no. 91065 and H. Nieuwdorp (ed.), Antwerp Altarpieces 15th-16th centuries, 2 vols., exh. cat. Antwerp (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) 1993, vol. 1, no. 15. Enghien,⁴⁴See KIK-IRPA, object no. 10020085 and H. Nieuwdorp (ed.), Antwerp Altarpieces 15th-16th centuries, 2 vols., exh. cat. Antwerp (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) 1993, vol. 1, no. 14. Ricey-Bas,⁵⁵See KIK-IRPA, object no. 20008618. Herbais-sous-Piétrain,⁶⁶See KIK-IRPA, object no. 11038742. and Pagny.⁷⁷Philadelphia Museum of Art, inv. no. 1945-25-117,a-s.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 156J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 156

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Roman Soldier, from a Christ Carrying the Cross, Antwerp, c. 1530', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20015013