Apostle

anonymous, c. 1500

Hij heeft een hoekige baard en is gekleed in toog en mantel, die over rechterschouder en rechterarm omlaag valt,.

  • Artwork typesculpture
  • Object numberBK-NM-8533
  • Dimensionsheight 95.5 cm x width 26 cm x depth 19.5 cm
  • Physical characteristicsoak with traces of polychromy

anonymous,

Apostle

Northern Brabant, Upper Guelders, c. 1500

Technical notes

Carved and originally polychromed. The (missing) hand was possibly attached to the left forearm by means of a tenon inserted into the mortise below the sleeve. The reverse side of the sculpture has been slightly worked and consists of separate (broken?) components held together with large nails. It also has a wrought-iron eye for securing purposes.

Condition

Both hands are missing, as are the toes of the left foot. The surface of the sculpture has discoloured due to the removal of the polychromy with a caustic.

Provenance

…; from an anonymous owner, The Hague, with a ship model (NG-NM-8532), fl. 12 for both, to the museum, 1888

Object number: BK-NM-8533

Entry

Considerations of style offer little insight into the origin of this sculpture of an apostle. Several similarities can be observed in the way in which the folds of the cloak drape over the arm and body and in the figure’s slender proportions, when comparing this work to another apostle preserved in the Rijksmuseum, attributed to a follower of the northern Brabantine Master of Koudewater (active c. 1460-c. 1480) and dating from the late fifteenth century (BK-NM-1198). The raw physiognomic type, encircled by hair that fans out with long, spiralling curls and the angular, double-pointed beard, nevertheless recalls characteristics of the early sixteenth-century sculptures of male saints associated with the Master(s) of Elsloo, active in Upper Guelders in the Meuse-Rhine area.1Cf. W.T.M. Hendriks et al., De Meester van Elsloo, Oppergelders beeldsnijder XVIe eeuw, exh. cat. Horst (Gemeentekantoor) 1974, figs. 5, 6, 12-14 and 21. For the latest research on the Master of Elsloo, see F. Peters (ed.), A Masterly Hand: Interdisciplinary Research on the Late-Medieval Sculptor(s) Master of Elsloo in an International Perspective: Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels, 20-21 October 2011, Brussels 2013 and L. Hendrikman et al., De Meester van Elsloo: Van eenling tot verzameling, exh. cat. Maastricht (Bonnefantenmuseum) 2019.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

Literature

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 87

Citation

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous or , Apostle, or Upper Guelders, c. 1500', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035575

(accessed 8 December 2025 21:48:27).

Footnotes

  • 1Cf. W.T.M. Hendriks et al., De Meester van Elsloo, Oppergelders beeldsnijder XVIe eeuw, exh. cat. Horst (Gemeentekantoor) 1974, figs. 5, 6, 12-14 and 21. For the latest research on the Master of Elsloo, see F. Peters (ed.), A Masterly Hand: Interdisciplinary Research on the Late-Medieval Sculptor(s) Master of Elsloo in an International Perspective: Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels, 20-21 October 2011, Brussels 2013 and L. Hendrikman et al., De Meester van Elsloo: Van eenling tot verzameling, exh. cat. Maastricht (Bonnefantenmuseum) 2019.