Carved polychromed. A (workbench?) hole can be discerned in the top of the stone wall at the level of the thief in the centre.

The group has been given a modern overpainting that continues onto the flat surface of the right side. On the left side, a (broken-off?) section has been (re-)attached with two old nails.

…; from the collection A.P. Hermans-Smits (1822-1897), Eindhoven, with numerous other objects (BK-NM-2001 to -2800), fl. 14,000 for all, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-2480

This simply carved retable fragment shows a soldier driving the two thieves, Dismas and Gestas, in front of him in the direction of Mount Golgotha, where they are to be crucified together with Christ. Just as with the Antwerp altarpieces at Waase-auf-Ummanz (Germany) and Zukowo (Poland), these figures would have been positioned higher up, though still partly concealed behind the scene of Christ Carrying the Cross in the foreground, in such a manner that the abrupt termination of the figures’ legs was blocked from sight.¹¹H. Nieuwdorp (ed.), Antwerp Altarpieces 15th-16th centuries, 2 vols., exh. cat. Antwerp (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) 1993, vol. 1, nos. 9 and 10.

The relief is highly similar to a retable fragment preserved in the Louvre that features three soldiers and two Jewish witnesses of the Crucifixion. It is branded with the Antwerp hand and dated around 1510-15.²²Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. OA 291, see S. Guillot de Suduiraut, Sculptures brabançonnes du musée du Louvre: Bruxelles, Malines, Anvers XVe-XVIe siècles¸ coll. cat. Paris 2001, no. 29. Like the present fragment, this work is also a background relief. All of the figures have the same, somewhat ludicrous facial type, with angular, jutting chins. Furthermore, the rock formations are composed of similarly shaped stones, in both cases covered by a grassy mound accented with Tremolierung (wiggle-work). Given the equal dimensions, the two fragments may actually have belonged to the same Passion retable, or if not, to two highly similar altarpieces. Their overall style and unexceptional quality concurs with the serial production of the Antwerp workshops, a method above all employed with the many altarpieces destined for sale on the open market. Representative examples include the two aforementioned Passion altars in Waase-auf-Ummanz and Zukowo, as well as the retable in Elmpt (Germany).³³H. Nieuwdorp (ed.), Antwerp Altarpieces 15th-16th centuries, 2 vols., exh. cat. Antwerp (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) 1993, vol. 1, no. 6.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 150

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, A Soldier with the Two Thieves, from a Christ Carrying the Cross, Antwerp, c. 1510 - c. 1515', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20015005