Carved and originally polychromed. Three wooden pieces have been inserted into the sculpture’s reverse side, attached with wooden dowels and nails, as well as a wrought-iron eye for securing purposes.

A section of the crown of the head is missing, as are the attribute once held in the right hand or supported with his right arm and the book satchel in the left hand. The right arm has been replaced from the upper-arm down and attached to the body with wooden dowels and a metal plate on the back. The polychromy has been removed.

…; ? Bridgettine abbey Mariënwater, Koudewater (near Rosmalen), date unknown; ? transferred to the Bridgettine convent Maria Refugie, Uden, 1713-24;¹¹For the history of these abbeys and the transitional period and transfer of the art patrimony, see 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, pp. 39-57, 62-64. 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. 0016, since 1973

Object number: BK-NM-1202

This Apostle was added to the Rijksmuseum’s collection in 1875 along with numerous other sculptures acquired from the convent of Maria Refugie in Uden, which was financially destitute at the time. In all probability, this piece was transferred there in 1713 by the Bridgettine nuns who were obliged to relinquish their former abbey, the Bridgettine double abbey Mariënwater in Koudewater, near Rosmalen. As Van Liebergen previously suggested,²²L.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, p. 114. the statue was possibly part of an apostle beam. If so, it seems somewhat remarkable that no other sculptures from the same series would have survived. Two apostles (or evangelists) in the Rijksmuseum, both originating from Uden (BK-NM-1199 and -1200), are dressed in similar toga-like cloaks worn over a tunic buttoned at the top. Both have been carved with the reverse sides hollowed out, unlike the reverse of the sculpture in question, which was left solid. Accordingly, these sculptures could not possibly have come from the same series.

Stylistically, the present sculpture corresponds to woodcarving produced in the northern part of the Duchy of Brabant. A St Anthony Abbott and a second sculpture, at some point remodelled as a St Joseph with the Christ Child, both originate from the priory of Soeterbeeck in Deursen in northern Brabant.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, nos. 53, 54, respectively. These early sixteenth-century sculptures possess comparable, crude physiognomic features with high jawbones and long, spiralling curls. Other similarities to the Anthony include the execution of the folds of the cloak, which drapes widely around the figure’s body. The positioning of the legs, with the knee bent forward, is similar to that of Joseph. Woods linked the sculpture to an apostle preserved in the Oscott College Museum in Sutton Coldfield, which on the basis of these similarities she catalogued as ‘Northern Netherlandish, early sixteenth century’.⁴⁴K.W. Woods, Imported Images: Netherlandish Late Gothic Sculpture in England c. 1400-c. 1550, Donington 2007, p. 254.

On the basis of his short beard, the position of his elevated right arm (although not original), and the missing attribute once held in the left hand – which, judging by the saw kerf on the hip and the fragment sticking out above his hand, was very likely a book satchel – the depicted figure can tenably be identified as St Andrew.⁵⁵Cf. for example the St Andrew in the collection of the Art and History Museum in Brussels, inv. no. VDP 26 (on loan to the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Ter Kamerenkerk, Elsene), see KIK-IRPA, object no. 20006469.

This apostle met his martyr’s death on a cross with arms that crossed diagonally. If the identification is correct, the saint would have supported this cross with his – replaced – right arm. Andrew was a popular saint in the Low Countries and specifically Brabant. The Burgundian Duke Philip the Good (1396-1467) managed to acquire a significant number of the apostle’s relics and made Andrew the patron saint of the Knight’s Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by him in 1430. Andrew’s cross was also emblazoned on the banners of numerous guilds in Brabant.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, p. 148.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 98, 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. 78; 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. 61

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Apostle (St Andrew?), Northern Brabant, c. 1500 - c. 1525', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200115861