Pair of Bellows with the Flight into Egypt

The relief on the decorative face is carved and was originally polychromed. The pair of bellows consists of a front and back board, leather sides, a brass nozzle and mouthpiece and a wooden valve on the reverse.

Part of the reins and the donkey’s tail are missing. The leather is dried out, torn in places or lost. The polychromy has been removed with a caustic; traces remain in a few areas.

...; collection David van der Kellen Jr (1804-1879), Amsterdam;¹¹Note RMA. by whom sent to Paris (Drouot) for auction with the entire collection but purchased en bloc before the sale by the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, 1873;²²Note RMA. transferred to The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885

ObjectNumber: BK-NM-66

This pair of bellows consists of two heart-shaped oak boards with handles, a leather windbag and a simply turned brass nozzle. The reverse is flat and has a round opening with gothic tracery that acts as a valve. The front board, or decorative face, has a delicately carved Flight into Egypt which was originally fully polychromed. The composition of the Virgin and Child on the donkey is loosely based on a print by Martin Schongauer (1430/50-1491) (see RP-P-OB-998),⁹⁹J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Een nieuw facet aan een Utrechtse beeldhouwkunst 2’, Oud Holland 72 (1957), pp. 56-58, esp. p. 58. but the figure of Joseph is different. The central scene is flanked by two miracles that took place, according to apocryphal stories, during the journey to Egypt.¹⁰¹⁰For a discussion of the iconography see W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Een gebeeldhouwde blaasbalg in het Rijksmuseum’, Antiek 3 (1968), pp. 253-57, esp. p. 253. In the hilly landscape upper left, on a tall plinth, is one of the many images of heathen gods which, according to legend, toppled of their own accord as the travellers passed by. The farmer reaping upper right is an allusion to the miracle of the grain.

Leeuwenberg’s attribution of the relief on bellows to the workshop of the Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head (active c. 1490-1530) is generally accepted.¹¹¹¹J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Die heilige Dorothea und der Meister des Utrechter steinernen Frauenkopfs’, Aachener Kunstblätter 34 (1967), pp. 175-93, esp. p. 108. It was prompted by the parallels with the Maria Lactans on the Crescent Moon Surrounded by an Aureole from his workshop in the collection of Museum Catharijneconvent.¹²¹²Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. ABM bh318, see M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, p. 191. The Virgin’s face, with the high, protuberant forehead and tip-tilted nose, and the shape of the infant Christ’s head are very similar. The front board of a second pair of bellows attributed to the same woodcarver is held in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg.¹³¹³W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Een gebeeldhouwde blaasbalg in het Rijksmuseum’, Antiek 3 (1968), pp. 253-57, esp. pp. 256-57; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Die heilige Dorothea und der Meister des Utrechter steinernen Frauenkopfs’, Aachener Kunstblätter 34 (1967), pp. 175-93, esp. p. 180; M. Leeflang et al. (eds.), Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, p. 285 (ill.). By around 1500 decorated sandstone chimney-piece friezes had become a speciality in Utrecht (cf. BK-NM-11962). The Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head also won his spurs in this category. For instance, there is a chimney-piece frieze in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht attributed to his workshop.¹⁴¹⁴M. Leeflang et al. (eds.), Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 72. It is quite conceivable that when a costly frieze of this kind was ordered, his workshop would also supply a pair of carved bellows as a fitting accessory for the hearth.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a bellows with the same image as the Rijksmuseum’s (fig. a).¹⁵¹⁵New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 53.207, see J. Hayward et al., The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages, exh. cat. New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) 1975, p. 29, no. 15. In this example, which was in the Figdor and Mannheimer collections in the past, the polychromy is still largely intact. Compared with the Amsterdam piece, however, the carving of the decorative face is of markedly inferior quality, and certain elements of the scene have been simplified. The omission of the falling statue of a heathen god above the column upper left moreover betrays ignorance of this legend, which was well-known in the Middle Ages.

It were these aspects that led Leeuwenberg to rightfully dismiss the New York bellows as a nineteenth-century copy.¹⁶¹⁶J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Een nieuw facet aan een Utrechtse beeldhouwkunst 2’, Oud Holland 72 (1957), pp. 56-58, esp. p. 58, note 2. The inscription in the polychromy on Joseph’s sleeve, under the inscription IOSEP(/F) MARIA was recently misinterpreted by me as the date ‘1723’, but it is actually the Latin word FILI, painted upside down. Van der Mark in M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht: 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht: 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 55. The coats of arms painted on the escutcheons below – the double-headed eagle (possibly to be interpreted as the Reichsadler of the Holy Roman Empire) and the arms of the City of Amsterdam – were probably added by the copyist to increase the historical cachet.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024
This entry is an updated version of Van der Mark in M. Leeflang et al. (eds.), Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 55

J.J.M. Timmers, ‘Achtenveertig eeuwen beeldhouwkunst in hout’, in W. Boerhave Beekman, Hout in alle tijden, vol. 2, Deventer 1949, pp. 597-772, esp. p. 684; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 37, with earlier literature; A.M. Janssens, Het leven in de late middeleeuwen, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1974, no. 25; F. Scholten in H. van Os et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1400-1600, Amsterdam/Zwolle 2000, no. 25; B. Kruijsen, Verzamelen van middeleeuwse kunst in Nederland 1830-1903, Nijmegen 2002, p. 106; M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, p. 191; M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht: 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht: 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 55

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'attributed to workshop of Meester van de Utrechtse Stenen Vrouwenkop, Pair of Bellows with the Flight into Egypt, Utrecht, c. 1510', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.246921