Getting started with the collection:
The Saint Elizabeth’s Day Flood
Master of the St Elizabeth Panels, c. 1490 - c. 1495
On the night of 19 November 1421 – the feast day of Saint Elizabeth – much of Holland was flooded. The Dordrecht region was badly hit: 23 villages were submerged and 2,000 people died. The survivors later had an altarpiece made. The outer panels depict the disaster, with the breach of the dike on the right and the undamaged town of Dordrecht on the left.
- Artwork typepainting
- Object numberSK-A-3147-A
- Dimensionssupport: height 127.3 cm x width 109.5 cm x height 125.4 cm x width 108.6 cm
- Physical characteristicsoil on panel
Discover more
Identification
Title(s)
The Saint Elizabeth’s Day Flood
Object type
Object number
SK-A-3147-A
Description
De Sint Elisabethsvloed, watersnood op 18-19 november 1421. In het midden de stad Dordrecht met links de Vuilpoort. Op de voorgrond laden drie mannen goederen uit een boot op een wagen. Rechts koeien in de weide bij een molen. Op de achtergrond het land tussen Maas en Waal met verschillende dorpen die met naam worden aangeduid. Buitenzijde van het linkerpaneel, maakt deel uit van twee panelen, aan weerszijden beschilderd met voorstellingen uit het leven van de heilige Elisabeth van Hongarije (1207-31) en de Sint Elisabethsvloed 18-19 november 1421 (SK-A-3145/46 en SK-A-3147A/B).
Inscriptions / marks
inscription, throughout the painting: ‘gorcum// wo[a?]ricum (Workum) // almskerc (Almkerk) // [illegible] // cappel (Capelle) // waspic (Waspik) // [onleesbaar] // raemsdo. (Raamsdonk) // gheertrud de[n] berch (Geertruidenberg) // herdicvelt (Hardinxveld) // giesse[n]?da[m] // wercke[n] da[m] (Werkendam) // slierecht (Sliedrecht) // craeistein (Crayesteyn) // houwenig[en?] (Houweningen) // herdzwerd (Harradeswerde) // heisterbac (heysterbach) // pape[n]drecht // merwen (Huis te Merwede) // huesde[n] (Heusden)’
Part of catalogue
Creation
Creation
- painter: Master of the St Elizabeth Panels, Northern Netherlands
- painter: anonymous, Dordrecht (possibly)
Dating
c. 1490 - c. 1495
Search further with
Material and technique
Physical description
oil on panel
Dimensions
support: height 127.3 cm x width 109.5 cm x height 125.4 cm x width 108.6 cm
This work is about
Subject
Place
Acquisition and rights
Credit line
Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
Acquisition
purchase 1933-12
Copyright
Provenance
See the provenance for SK-A-3145.
Remarks
Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
Documentation
- Liesbeth M. Helmus, Het altaarstuk met de Sint Elisabethsvloed uit de Grote Kerk van Dordrecht. De oorspronkelijke plaats en de opdrachtgevers, uit: Oud Holland, 105, 1991, 2, pagina pp. 127-139(zie: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42711319)
- Inzoomer object op zaal, 2013 (Nederlands/English).
- Jean Baptist Bedaux, 'De watersnood van 1421', Vitrine: museummagazine 3/95, p. 13.
- Liesbeth M. Helmus, 'De Elisabethsvloed en het altaar van de Wieldrechtenaren in de Grote Kerk van Dordrecht', Kwartaal & Teken (1992) nr. 18 (verkorte en aangepaste versie van 1991-nr. 2).
- Documentatiemap: aantekeningen R. van Luttervelt (voor 1963).
- P. Cleveringa e.a, "’So grot overvlot der watere’. Een bijdrage in het moderne multidisciplinaire onderzoek naar de St. Elisabethsvloed en de periode die daaraan vooraf ging”, Holland 36 (2004) nr. 3, p. 162-180.
- 'Strijd tegen het water', 20 Eeuwen Nederland en de Nederlanders (1998), afl. 1, p. 12.
Related objects
Related
Persistent URL
To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:
Questions?
Do you spot a mistake? Or do you have information about the object? Let us know!
Master of the St Elizabeth Panels
Outer Left Wing of an Altarpiece with the St Elizabeth’s Day flood, 18-19 November 1421, with the City of Dordrecht in the Background
Northern Netherlands, ? Dordrecht, c. 1490 - c. 1495
Inscriptions
- inscription, throughout the painting:gorcum// wo[a?]ricum (Workum) // almskerc (Almkerk) // [illegible] // cappel (Capelle) // waspic (Waspik) // [onleesbaar] // raemsdo. (Raamsdonk) // gheertrud de[n] berch (Geertruidenberg) // herdicvelt (Hardinxveld) // giesse[n]?da[m] // wercke[n] da[m] (Werkendam) // slierecht (Sliedrecht) // craeistein (Crayesteyn) // houwenig[en?] (Houweningen) // herdzwerd (Harradeswerde) // heisterbac (heysterbach) // pape[n]drecht // merwen (Huis te Merwede) // huesde[n] (Heusden)
Technical notes
The original support, which has been sawn through crosswise, consists of four vertically grained oak planks (29, 30.7, 25.1 and 31 cm). It has been planed down to approx. 0.1-0.2 cm and transferred to a new panel, which is covered by a zinc plate. The white ground must have been applied in the frame. There are unpainted edges approx. 0.5-1 cm wide and remains of a barbe on all sides (painted surface: 125.4 x 108.6 cm). The underdrawing was made with a brush. It is a line drawing only, and some of the lines are remarkably thick. There is no hatching. The underdrawing was made rapidly, but not all the forms were prepared. There are considerable departures from the underdrawing in the painted landscape. The positions of towns and clumps of trees were often altered, and the shapes of church towers were changed. The roof of Dordrecht church was altered and the flèche moved. The paint layers were applied rather thickly. Most of the figures were not reserved, but were painted on top of the underlying paint layers. The rather rough painting technique can be described as primitive.
Scientific examination and reports
- infrared reflectography: J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, RKD, nos. AB 1167:3-1170:18, 18 juni 1990
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG369, 10 april 2006
- condition report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 19 april 2006
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 27 september 2006
Literature scientific examination and reports
Helmus 1991, pp. 133-34
Condition
Poor. There is discoloured retouching along the joins and a heavily discoloured varnish, which is matte in the retouchings.
Conservation
- See SK-A-3145.
Provenance
See the provenance for SK-A-3145.
Object number: SK-A-3147-A
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
The artist
Biography
Master of the St Elizabeth Panels (active 1490-1510)
The Master of the St Elizabeth Panels is an anonymous artist who owes his name to four panels in the Rijksmuseum, including scenes of the St Elizabeth’s Day flood of 18-19 November 1421 (SK-A-3145, SK-A-3146, SK-A-3147-A, SK-A-3147-B). Although they were once attributed to the Master of Rhenen, so called after The Conquest of Rhenen by John II of Cleves in 1499 (SK-A-1727), Buijsen convincingly demonstrated in 1988 that there were in fact two separate artists at work. Since the flood panels were made for the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht, this painter may have lived there. Nothing is known about the St Elizabeth Master, and no other paintings can be attributed to him.
References
Hoogewerff I, 1936, pp. 498-509, V, 1947, p. 116; Buijsen 1988; Helmus 1991; Van der Sterre in Turner 1996, XX, pp. 754-55, 760
(M. Wolters)
Entry
See SK-A-3145.
Collection catalogues
See SK-A-3145.
Citation
M. Wolters, 2010, 'Meester van de Heilige Elisabeth-Panelen, Outer Left Wing of an Altarpiece with the St Elizabeth’s Day flood, 18-19 November 1421, with the City of Dordrecht in the Background, Northern Netherlands, c. 1490 - c. 1495', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200109490
(accessed 1 February 2026 19:11:32).