Carved, composed of three main elements: 1: Sebastian and the framework directly above and below him; 2/3: the left and right framing elements. Several details were separately carved and attached, including the flower-bud-shaped crowning element, the rows of ‘beads’ , the upwards pointing terminations of the acanthus leaves at either side, the V-shaped projections on the left and right framing elements, and the arrow quivers.

Two arrows are missing: one in Sebastian’s right flank and the other in his upper left leg. Also missing is the little finger of his right hand. A V-shaped corner element and the end of an acanthus leaf in right framing element are broken off. The top of the right-hand crossbow has also broken off (since restored), as have the curl and the acanthus leaf at the level of Sebastian’s left knee. On the reverse, four screw holes can be seen. In front, woodworm holes are discernible at the top.

? Commissioned by the Sint Sebastiaansgilde, Berchem (Antwerp), c. 1760-70; …; collection F. Mortelmans, Antwerp, by 1930;¹¹Exposition internationale, coloniale, maritime et d’art flamand: Section d’art flamand, exh. cat. Antwerp 1930, vol. 3, p. 103, no. D 778.…; collection Ch. Michiels, Antwerp, by 1961-until at least 1967;²²Kunstvoorwerpen uit verzamelingen in de Provincie Antwerpen, exh. cat. Deurne (Museum Het Sterckshof) 1961, p. 7, no. 54; Schatten der Vlaamse Schuttersgilden, exh. cat. Antwerp (Museum Vleeshuis) and Brussels (Royal Museums for Art and History) 1966-67, p. 12, no. 50. …; from the dealer C.J.J. Weegenaar, The Hague, fl. 6,750, to the museum, 1979

Object number: BK-1979-96

This figure of St Sebastian formed the crowning element of a torch carried during church processions by members of an archery or ‘shooters’ guild under the saint’s patronage. In this specific case, the focus lies on the patron saint himself with references to the specific trade of its guild members limited to attributes adorning the outer edge. This is contrary to many of the surviving artisanal guild torches, which typically feature a small scene of working artisans, the products they manufacture or their implemented tools, all enclosed within an elaborate lantern-shaped, multisided frame. Most are often accompanied by a framework with an excess of period ornamentation and surmounted by a candleholder.³³A large number of 18th-century torch crowning elements are preserved at the Bijloke Museum in Ghent, see for example E. Haarsma, ‘De bekroningen van processietoortsen van een Zuidnederlands Sebastiaansgilde’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 39 (1991), pp. 291-97. By comparison flatter and less ornate in execution, the Amsterdam torch is masterfully carved.

The style and the provenance of the present guild torch point to woodcarving production in Antwerp: the figure of Sebastian is strikingly similar to a statue of the same saint, measuring 150 cm in height, carved by Artus Quellinus II in 1661 for the Antwerp archery guild. This statue was originally made to adorn the ‘altar garden’ of the Jonge Handboog (Young Archer) in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal.⁴⁴E. Dhanens (ed.), De beeldhouwkunst in de eeuw van Rubens in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden en het prinsbisdom Luik, exh. cat. Brussels (Museum voor Oude Kunst) 1977, no. 119; P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 886-87. Numerous eighteenth-century replicas and variants, made by sculptors such as Walter Pompe (1703-1777) and others, suggest that the Antwerp statue enjoyed a degree of notoriety and popularity.⁵⁵E. Dhanens (ed.), De beeldhouwkunst in de eeuw van Rubens in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden en het prinsbisdom Luik, exh. cat. Brussels (Museum voor Oude Kunst) 1977, p. 159; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen et al., Walter Pompe, beeldhouwer: 1703-1777, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1979, nos. 7 (fig. 47), 64 (fig. 101) and p. 58, fig. 34,

The positioning of the present Sebastian’s legs differs from its seventeenth-century model, the overall pose, the loincloth and facial type with moustache are essentially the same. Despite the similarly elegant air, the statuette more closely approaches Pompe’s variants of Quellinus’s invention, and specifically his Sebastian statue carved in 1763 for the Anthoniuskerk in Brecht (Belgium).⁶⁶L.C.B.M. van Liebergen et al., Walter Pompe, beeldhouwer: 1703-1777, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1979, p. 65 (no. 157) and fig. 34. Here too, the saint’s left arm stretches outward at the side instead of being bound to the tree trunk behind his back. The static quality of Quellinus’s statue is moreover altered by the modification of the (left) Spielbein, placed further back with no more than a toe touching the ground. On the present Sebastian, the non-weight-bearing leg (in this case the right leg) has been carved entirely free from the base, undoubtedly with the aim to enhance the visual harmony of the figure’s silhouette and the branches of the tree.

St Sebastian’s pose can be compared to that of the figure of the martyr St Lawrence lying recumbent on an iron grill found on a signed relief inscribed with the date 1764.⁷⁷Uden, Museum Krona, inv. no. MRK 3587, see L.C.B.M. van Liebergen (ed.), Modeste Barok: Beeldwerk in Brabant in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1994, p. 23 (fig. 23) and no. 48. The correspondence between the two figures lies above all in the placement of the arms and the rigid corporeal form. Lastly, the rendering of the leaves on Sebastian’s tree match those of a group of Adam and Eve from 1744, likewise also possibly from a processional torch as suggested by the remnants of a volute-shaped framework on the underside.⁸⁸Bruges, Private collection, see L.C.B.M. van Liebergen (ed.), Modeste Barok: Beeldwerk in Brabant in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1994, p. 23 (fig. 22).

The ornamental framework accompanying the crowning element also has parallels in Pompe’s oeuvre, e.g. his drawn designs for a memento-mori tablet (1762) and an exhibition throne, on the frame for the relief of the Martyrdom of St Laurence (1764),⁹⁹L.C.B.M. van Liebergen (ed.), Modeste Barok: Beeldwerk in Brabant in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1994, p. 23 (fig. 23) and no. 48. My thanks to Leon van Liebergen, who drew my attention to this parallel (written correspondence, 13 July 2010). the pulpit for the Servatiuskerk in Ravels (1760) and a marble holy water font (1774).¹⁰¹⁰L.C.B.M. van Liebergen et al., Walter Pompe, beeldhouwer: 1703-1777, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1979, figs. 83, 96. Also to be noted is the total absence or highly restrained (and if so, relatively late) application of rococo ornamentation. Instead, Pompe chiefly relies on symmetrical schemes from the late Flemish Baroque, with the most common decorative ingredients being C-shaped volutes and acanthus leaves, like those adorning the framework of the present crowning element. Such conservatism characterizes Antwerp sculptural production in general during this period. Based on the above-cited examples, the Amsterdam torch element can also plausibly be deemed a work belonging to Pompe’s oeuvre, with a probable dating in the 1760s.

A virtually identical, albeit heavily damaged crowning element of a torch forms an integral part of the south aisle altar of the Sint-Willibrorduskerk in Antwerp-Berchem.¹¹¹¹Antwerp-Berchem, Sint-Willibrorduskerk, see KIK-IRPA object no. 38945; Schatten der Vlaamse Schuttersgilden, exh. cat. Antwerp (Museum Vleeshuis) and Brussels (Royal Museums of Art and History) 1966-67, p. 12, no. 49. The framework is precisely the same as that of the Amsterdam piece, with the sole difference being that the Antwerp Sebastian appears in mirror image. The two crowning elements would therefore have been conceived and used as a pair, in line with the custom of carrying torches in pairs during church processions.¹²¹²F. de Potter, Schets eener geschiedenis van de Gemeentefeesten in Vlaanderen, Ghent 1870, pp. 26-27; E. Haarsma, ‘De bekroningen van processietoortsen van een Zuidnederlands Sebastiaansgilde’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 39 (1991), pp. 291-97, esp. p. 291. From this it may be deemed highly probable that the Amsterdam Sebastian torch was made for the shooter’s guild of Berchem. The guild had its own altar dedicated to St Sebastian in the south aisle of the Sint-Willibrorduskerk, built by the sculptor Peter Scheemaeckers in 1692.¹³¹³As conveyed by Dr Helena Bussers, Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels (written correspondence to Willy Halsema-Kubes, 27 August 1990). The altar was likely dedicated to the Holy Cross in the late 18th century. See also Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis en Folklore 21 (1958), Antwerp, p. 53. A. Jansen and C. van Herck, ‘Peeter Scheemaeckers, Antwerpsch beeldhouwer 1652-1714’, Jaarboek van de Koninklijke Oudheidkundige Kring van Antwerpen 17 (1941), pp. 129-88, esp. pp. 143-44, no. 20. As a consequence of the nationalization of guilds in the Southern Netherlands in 1796, all of the guild’s possessions were publicly sold, at which time the two torches were likely separated.¹⁴¹⁴E. Haarsma, ‘De bekroningen van processietoortsen van een Zuidnederlands Sebastiaansgilde’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 39 (1991), pp. 291-97, esp. p. 295.

Frits Scholten, 2026

Exposition internationale, coloniale, maritime et d’art flamand: Section d’art flamand, exh. cat. Antwerp 1930, vol. 3, p. 103, no. D 778; Kunstvoorwerpen uit verzamelingen in de Provincie Antwerpen, exh. cat. Deurne (Museum Het Sterckshof) 1961, p. 7, no. 54; Schatten der Vlaamse Schuttersgilden, exh. cat. Antwerp (Museum Vleeshuis) and Brussels (Royal Museums of Art and History) 1966-67, p. 12, no. 50; Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 28 (1980), p. 17, fig. 2; E. Haarsma, ‘De bekroningen van processietoortsen van een Zuidnederlands Sebastiaansgilde’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 39 (1991), pp. 291-97

F. Scholten, 2026, 'attributed to workshop of Walter Pompe, Crowning Element of a Guild Torch with St Sebastian _, Antwerp, c. 1760 - c. 1770', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), _European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20046929