Carved and originally polychromed. The working block is composed of different, obliquely aligned pieces of oak, some of which have been replaced.

Sections of the cross have been renewed, along with the entire plinth, the forearm of the soldier behind the cross and part of his beret. The arm, right hand, and most of the shield of the foremost soldier have also been replaced. The polychromy has been removed with a caustic.

? Commissioned by or for the Bridgettine abbey Mariënwater, Koudewater, near Rosmalen, c. 1540;¹¹For the history of this abbey 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, 97. ? transferred to the Bridgettine convent Maria Refugie, Uden, 1713-24;²²Ibid. from where, with numerous other objects (BK-NM-1195 to -1243), fl. 2,000 for all, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Museum Krona (formerly known as the Museum voor Religieuze Kunst), Uden, inv. no. 0029, since 1973

Object number: BK-NM-1230

This rather battered Christ Carrying the Cross is a late product of the Antwerp retable industry. It can be dated to the final phase of Antwerp mannerism, circa 1540, based on the elongated figures, the dynamic poses of Christ and Simon of Cyrene – both bent at the knees – and the brute, almost caricatural faces of the soldiers. Comparable stylistic characteristics can also be observed in works such as a Crowning with Thorns in the Rijksmuseum collection (BK-NM-12226) – previously attributed to ‘entirely the same hand’³³M. van Notten, ‘Aanwinsten voor het Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst in 1910’, Bulletin van den Nederlandschen Oudheidkundigen Bond 4 (1911), p. 26. – and a Christ Carrying the Cross in the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) linked to the workshop of Robert Moreau (Moau), an Antwerp woodcarver known only from archival sources.⁴⁴London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. 651-1902, see P. Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550, coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2002, no. 28. For issues surrounding the identification of Moreau, see H. Nieuwdorp (ed.), Antwerp Altarpieces 15th-16th centuries, 2 vols., exh. cat. Antwerp (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) 1993, vol. 1, p. 113. Contrary to the present retable fragment, the London group has survived completely intact, together with its separately carved background. Notably, the working blocks of the two sculptures are composed of separate oak pieces (wainscots?) which are aligned sideways. In the case of the Amsterdam group, several missing pieces have been replaced.

The Rijksmuseum acquired this retable group, together with a large number of other sculptures, from the Bridgettine convent of Maria Refugie in Uden in 1875. This convent was the direct continuation of the double abbey of Mariënwater in Koudewater, which was dissolved in 1713. The retable itself probably fell victim to iconoclasts who plundered this institution in 1566. Mariënwater likely had two Passion altarpieces in its possession: one for the prayer hall of the priests and monks, the other for that of the nuns. This explains the existence of a second retable group with Christ Carrying the Cross, which remains in the possession of the Bridgettine nuns at Uden to this day.⁵⁵The nuns of this convent view the group as an independent sculpture, see G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Beelden uit Brabant: Laatgotische kunst uit het oude hertogdom 1400-1520, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1971, p. 166 (under no. 83). Presumably, this latter group comes from the same altarpiece as a Swoon of the Virgin (BK-NM-1231), as well purchased by the Rijksmuseum from the Maria Refugie nuns in 1875.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

T. Demmler, _Die Bildwerke in Holz, Stein und Ton, Grossplastik _(Deutsche Skulpturen des Deutschen Museum, 3), coll. cat. Berlin (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) 1930, p. 343 (under no. 7059); J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 160, 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. 91; 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. 83

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Christ Carrying the Cross, Antwerp, c. 1540', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20015017