Carved and polychromed. The reverse has been hollowed out.

The right hand, part of the fingers on the left hand, a section of the book, the toes on both feet and part of the cloak are missing. Several breakages can be discerned. The polychromy is not original.

…; ? Bridgettine abbey Mariënwater, Koudewater (near Rosmalen), until 1713; ? Bridgettine abbey Marienbaum (near Xanten), until 1802; transferred to the Bridgettine convent Maria Refugie, Uden, date unknown; from which to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, with numerous other sculptures (BK-NM-1195 to -1243), fl. 2,000 for all, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Museum Krona (formerly known as the Museum voor Religieuze Kunst), Uden, inv. no. 0014, since 1973

Object number: BK-NM-1199

The identity of this barefoot evangelist or apostle is unclear.¹¹The sculpture was initially thought to be an evangelist. As Woods has clearly demonstrated, however, it could also be the depiction of an apostle, see K.W. Woods, Imported Images: Netherlandish Late Gothic Sculpture in England c. 1400-c. 1550, Donington 2007, p. 254. In 1971, De Werd linked this piece to a second sculpture in the Rijksmuseum that bears numerous similarities (BK-NM-1200).²²G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Beelden uit Brabant: Laatgotische kunst uit het oude hertogdom 1400-1520, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1971, nos. 110, 111. Both oak sculptures are hollowed out on the reverse, have virtually the same dimensions, and stand on similar polygonal grounds. Both as well originated from the Bridgettine convent of Maria Refugie in Uden. Since De Werd’s assertion, they have generally been viewed as pendants or works belonging to the same series. When observing the marked stylistic differences between the two, however, this conclusion at first seems unlikely.³³L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, p. 161. Van Liebergen convincingly linked the present figure to the rather reserved sculpture of the Rhine region, specifically, production in the north of the Duchy of Brabant, while placing the more expressive, almost mannerist Evangelist in the vicinity of Kalkar.⁴⁴L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, nos. 78, 77, respectively.

The fanning, sweeping arrangement of the drapery folds on this latter work are highly reminiscent of those found on several sculptures produced by Henrik Douverman (c. 1490-1543/44), including the St John the Evangelist of circa 1510 in the Sankt-Mariä Himmelfährt in Cleves, and especially his St John the Baptist of shortly after 1530 in the Sankt-Nicolaïkirche in Kalkar,⁵⁵B. Rommé et al., Gegen den Strom: Meisterwerke niederrheinischer Skulptur in Zeiten der Reformation 1500-1550, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 1996, nos. 22, 28. which indeed lends support to a Lower Rhenish origin. While stating that the two sculptures could not have come from the same workshop, Van Liebergen believed they may very well have belonged to the same series. The history of the Bridgettine monastic community in Uden, housed until 1713 in the abbey Mariënwater near Koudewater, offers one possible explanation for this circumstance: this northern Brabantine abbey was in direct contact with its daughter monastic community Marienbaum near Xanten, itself dissolved in 1802.⁶⁶L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, pp. 62, 161. An exchange of sculptures or a collaboration between sculptors might have led to a situation in which two components of the same group were executed in disparate regional styles.

In addition to these two sculptures, Koldeweij introduced a third figure that he believed was part of the same series.⁷⁷A.M. Koldeweij, In Buscoducis 1450-1629: Kunst uit de Bourgondische tijd te ’s-Hertogenbosch: De cultuur van de late Middeleeuwen en Renaissance, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1990, p. 170. The similarity was first noticed by Leeuwenberg, see J. De Coo (ed.), Catalogus 2: Beeldhouwkunst, plaketten, antiek, coll. cat. Antwerp (Museum Mayer van den Bergh) 1969, no. 2278. Preserved in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, this sculpture is of Netherlandish origin and has been tentatively identified as St Luke (fig. a). While the execution of the garment folds also differs here, several noticeable parallels can be observed in the furrowed face, the high jawline, the form of the robe with the belt worn high above the waist, as well as the figure’s pose, with the forward-bent knee. Such similarities, however, are generic in nature and fail to adequately convey a shared destination or purpose.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 96, with earlier literature; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Birgitta van Zweden, 1303-1373: 600 jaar kunst en cultuur van haar kloosterorde, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1986, no. 79; A.M. Koldeweij, In Buscoducis 1450-1629: _Kunst uit de Bourgondische tijd te ’s-Hertogenbosch: De cultuur van de late Middeleeuwen en Renaissance_, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1990, no. 101a; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, no. 78; K.W. Woods, Imported Images: Netherlandish Late Gothic Sculpture in England c. 1400-c. 1550, Donington 2007, p. 254

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous or , Evangelist or Apostle, , c. 1520', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200115859