Formed in a mould and fired.

…; excavated, with BK-1966-22 to -41, on the site of the former Augustinian monastery Eemstein, Zwijndrecht, 1951;¹¹Note RMA. donated to the museum by H.J.E. van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1966

Object number: BK-1966-35

Credit line: Gift of H.J.E. van Beuningen, Rotterdam

The Augustinian monastery Eemstein near Zwijndrecht, founded in 1430, was one of the largest monasteries in the Northern Netherlands.²²For this monastery, see G. Vermeer, Het klooster Eemstein bij Zwijndrecht, Zutphen 1986. It was an austere community that thrived primarily on agriculture. During the Reformation, the complex was entirely destroyed after being set on fire by the Geuzen. In the period 1940-70, excavations were carried out on the south side of the monastery’s premises under the direction of A. de Vries and H.J.E. van Beuningen. In the area of what was once the Devel River, used by the monks as a cesspit, numerous items were unearthed, including fragments of pipeclay (and several terracotta) devotional objects that were likely figurines broken or damaged and subsequently discarded by the monks. The best pipeclay fragments were acquired by the Museum Catharijneconvent (Utrecht) in 1949.³³Inv. nos. ABM bs00712a to -m, see G. Vermeer, Het klooster Eemstein bij Zwijndrecht, Zutphen 1986, p. 25 and D.P.R.A. Bouvy, Beeldhouwkunst van de Middeleeuwen tot heden: Uit het Aartsbisschoppelijk Museum te Utrecht, coll. cat. Utrecht 1962, no. 86. In 1966, Van Beuningen presented this group of twenty fragments to the Rijksmuseum,⁴⁴Inv. nos. BK-1966-22 to -41. including this Figurine, Fragment of the Garment. Other excavated items discovered at Eemstein are still held in private collections.⁵⁵For a pipeclay Virgin and Child excavated at Eemstein and still held in the collection of the Van Beuningen family, see M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 93/a.

Simple sculptures of this kind are representative of the late medieval mass production of figurines in terracotta, but more commonly in a white clay known as pipeclay, an inexpensive material used to serially reproduce sculptural ‘squeezes’ in a fairly easy manner via moulds. Typically, pipeclay figures of saints functioned as objects of private devotion.⁶⁶J.W.M. de Jong, Thuis in de late middeleeuwen. Het Nederlands burgerinterieur 1400-1535, exh. cat. Zwolle (Provinciaal Overijssels Museum) 1980, p. 77. The archaeological find of a very large group of moulds, misfires and (remnants of) pipeclay sculptures in Utrecht, excavated during the demolition of the city’s ramparts, offered a strong indication that pipeclay figurines and reliefs were produced in the city on a major scale. For this reason, and also on stylistic grounds, pipeclay figures of saints excavated elsewhere have long been assigned a Utrecht provenance almost as a matter of course. More recent archaeological evidence, however, shows that the mass production of pipeclay sculpture also occurred in other cities, including Amsterdam, Leiden, Deventer, Kampen, Antwerp, Liège and Cologne.⁷⁷S. Ostkamp, ‘Productie en gebruik van pijpaarden en terracotta devotionalia in de Nederlanden (ca. 1350-ca. 1550)’, in A. Böing, G. Inhester and T. Sodmann (ed.), Judocus Vredis: Kunst aus der Stille: eine Klosterwerkstatt der Dürerzeit/Judocus Vredis: Kunst uit de stilte: Een kloosterwerkplaats uit de tijd van Dürer, exh. cat. Münster (Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte)/Vreden (Hamaland-Museum)/Borken (Kreismuseum)/Deventer (Historisch Museum de Waag) 2001, pp. 189-257, esp. pp. 206-07. These were often based on Utrecht prototypes or moulds.⁸⁸Cf. S. Ostkamp, ‘Productie en gebruik van pijpaarden en terracotta devotionalia in de Nederlanden (ca. 1350-ca. 1550)’, in A. Böing, G. Inhester and T. Sodmann (ed.), Judocus Vredis: Kunst aus der Stille: eine Klosterwerkstatt der Dürerzeit/Judocus Vredis: Kunst uit de stilte: Een kloosterwerkplaats uit de tijd van Dürer, exh. cat. Münster (Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte)/Vreden (Hamaland-Museum)/Borken (Kreismuseum)/Deventer (Historisch Museum de Waag) 2001, pp. 189-257, esp. p. 209. One fragment unearthed at Eemstein (BK-1966-23) is highly similar to the fragment of a mould of a Pietà excavated in Utrecht.⁹⁹Utrecht, Centraal Museum, inv. no. 1998, see J. Klinckaert, De verzamelingen van het Centraal Museum Utrecht, vol. 3, Beeldhouwkunst tot 1850, coll. cat. Utrecht 1997, no. 241.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 895

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous and anonymous, Figurine, Fragment of the Garment, , c. 1425 - c. 1550', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20036325