Crucified Christ

Carved. Christ’s back and calves are unfinished and display traces of carving implements. The tops of the shoulders are incised with irregular crosshatching. Observable in the square mortise of the left arm stub are remnants of mouldering wood once belonging to the connecting tenon of the left arm. No traces of polychromy can be discerned.

The arms and several sections of the crown of thorns, thorns and locks of hair are missing. The tips of the feet are damaged. The carving of the hair on the back of Christ’s head is porous due to worm infestation and has partly broken off.

…; Sint-Agneskerk, Bunde, date unknown; donated by Father M.H.G. Stassen (1889-1975) to the sculptor/art dealer Gérard Osval (‘Gerard’) Hack (1893-1975), Maastricht, in or shortly before 1941;¹¹In exchange for a cast of the corpus with (reconstructed) arms. Oral communication Alice Athmer-Hack (Gerard Hack’s daughter), 2015. Father Stassen also donated an 18th-century Flemish painting to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, see RKD Explore, <a href="https://rkd.nl/explore/images/35935" target="_blank">no. 35935</a>. his heirs (undivided estate), Maastricht, 1975; from whom, purchased by Alice Josephine Gerarda Athmer-Hack (1931-2019), Breda, 1980; by whom donated to the museum, 17 December 2015

ObjectNumber: BK-2015-57

Credit line: Gift of A. Athmer-Hack, Breda

In or shortly before 1941, the sculptor Gerard Hack²²Gerard Hack-Rutten owned and operated a workshop and gallery specialized in religious articles and works of art, located at Wolfstraat 10 in Maastricht. He had followed in the footsteps of his father, who ran a business on the Jodenstraat specialized in the production of architectural plaster ornamentation. Gerard Hack garnered notable success with his statue of the Sacred Heart, a work stylistically rooted in the Beuroner Kunstschule tradition. The ideology of the German monk Desiderius Lenz – first applied at the monastery of Beuron – made its way into the Netherlands around 1900 via the architects Jan Stuyt and Mathieu Lauweriks; for more on this topic, see K. Veelenturf, ‘Jan Stuyt, Piet Gerrits, Willibrord Verkade en de School van Beuron’, Desipientia: Zin & waan 18 (2011), no. 1, pp. 36-43. For Hack, see ‘Gerard Hack: Religieuze beeldkunst’ in the series ‘Limburgsche kunstenaars’ in the Limburger Koerier 81 (1926), no. 258, p. 2. was given this late medieval Crucified Christ by the pastor of the Sint-Agneskerk in Bunde, a small village north of Maastricht, in exchange for the making of a cast of the wood original, including the figure’s reconstructed arms. A photo of the resultant copy appears in a sales brochure of the company Hack-Rutten, accompanied by a poem written in the local Limburg dialect.³³G. Hack-Rutten, Eenige afbeeldingen van reproducties door ons vervaardigd van zeer mooie antieke beelden, Maastricht 1941-42. The accompanying poem by Harie Loontjens is entitled: Bij ’t Kruus vaan Bun, veur pastoer Stassen van Bun (Maastricht, 20 August 1941). It is not known for how many years the corpus had been in the church’s possession. As it stands today, the Sint-Agneskerk dates from 1714, with later renovations undertaken in 1843, 1905 and 1925. While its early history stems from a medieval chapel dedicated to St Martin – first documented in 1145 – its status as a parish church was granted only in the late sixteenth century.⁴⁴See the article on the history of the parish church of Bunde at bert-bartholomeus.nl (consulted 17 November 2015). Given the high quality of the carving of the corpus, its provenance is far more likely linked to a nearby church of significant size versus the small medieval village chapel of Bunde. Conceivably, at some point it was moved from its original setting to the Sint-Agneskerk. Of potential significance is Timmers’ observation that two gilt-copper angel reliefs from circa 1160-70 were preserved at the church at Bunde in the nineteenth century: originally held in the treasury of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in Maastricht, these reliefs had disappeared during the period of the city’s occupation by the French until being acquired in 1865 by the treasury of the Sint-Servaas, also in Maastricht, where they are preserved today.⁵⁵J.J.M. Timmers, De kunst van het Maasland, Assen s.a., pp. 357-58. If suffering the same fate as the reliefs, perhaps the corpus was also transferred from Maastricht to the smaller church in Bunde, a move that would then have occurred no earlier than the late eighteenth century. An alternative provenance to be considered, however, is the church in nearby Meerssen, under whose deanery the chapel at Bunde fell prior to becoming a parish church. The construction of this large gothic basilica – an important pilgrimage site stemming from a miracle of the sacrament reportedly occurring there in 1222 – was completed by the end of the fourteenth century.

Christ’s tormented body has been depicted in an impressively stylized manner. Wearing a short, double-pointed beard, his head hangs down with the eyes closed. Visible through the skin of his emaciated upper torso is the outline of Christ’s ribcage, with a tightly contracted waist and sunken abdomen. The apron-like loincloth hangs low over the hips, exposing the top area of the groin. The loincloth itself is composed of horizontal, sickle-shaped folds that fall from the rear right across to the left, descending from the left hip in vertical pipe folds. Christ’s thin legs are slightly bent, with the feet placed one above the other. Striking details are the plastically carved drops of blood that drip from the wounds in Christ’s flank and pierced feet, the surprisingly realistic, almost pictorial detail of the pubic and armpit hair, and the teeth seen through the slightly opened mouth. Such realism is encountered sporadically in other examples of fifteenth-century art, including a Crucifixion miniature by Simon Marmion (c. 1420/25-1489) in the Rijksmuseum (RP-T-1970-46).⁶⁶A.S. Korteweg et al., _Splendour, Gravity and Emotion: French Medieval Manuscripts in Dutch Collections, exh. cat. The Hague (Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum) 2004, no. 71 and fig. 133. Cf. W. van Welie-Vink, Body Language: The Body in Medieval Art, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent) 2020, figs. 3.13, 3.15 and 3.16. Collectively, these subtle details serve to further reinforce the assertion that the corpus was never polychromed, as supported by the complete absence of older painting.

This specific type of corpus, which depicts the crucified figure of Christ as thin and elongated, typically with the same kind of forked beard, is commonly encountered around 1400 in the artistic production of Northern France, the Low Countries and the German border regions, Burgundy and Berry. Particularly instrumental in the development of this type are the workshops of the royal court in Paris engaged by the Valois king, Charles VI. Artistic ties between France, the Southern Netherlands and the Meuse area were exceptionally close, thus partly explaining the rapid dissemination of the formulas of the International Gothic. This complicates, however, a precise determination of the corpus’ provenance and dating.

Evident parallels – for example, in the face – can be observed in works produced in Paris, including the much smaller crucified figure executed in émail en ronde bosse from the treasury of Esztergom (Paris, c. 1400),⁷⁷E. Antoine et al.¸ Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, p. 129, fig. 1. the Crucifixion miniature in the breviary of the Burgundian duke, John the Fearless (Paris, 1413-19),⁸⁸E. Taburet-Delahaye et al., Paris 1400: Les arts sous Charles VI, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) 2004, no. 166 (attributed to an anonymous Netherlandish miniaturist in the circle of the Limburg Brothers). and Crucifixion scenes by the Burgundian court painter Jean de Beaumetz (Dijon, c. 1393).⁹⁹S. Kemperdick and F. Lammertse et al., The Road to Van Eyck, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) 2012, no. 5. The same Christ type, however, is also found in regions more distant from Paris, including works in the oeuvre of the Westphalian painter Conrad von Soest (c. 1370-after 1422) and his immediate followers,¹⁰¹⁰For example on his Niederwildungen Passion Altarpiece (c. 1403), a mural painting depicting the Crucifixion in the Sankt-Petrikirche in Soest (c. 1400), the Darup Altarpiece (c. 1420) and the Isselhorst Altarpiece (c. 1430). See B. Corley, Conrad von Soest: Painter Among Merchant Princes, London 1996, p. 149, nos. 1, 11, 12 and figs. I, XIV. in the miniatures of the anonymous St Veronica Master of Cologne,¹¹¹¹S. Kemperdick and F. Lammertse et al., The Road to Van Eyck, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) 2012, p. 47, fig. 3 and no. 29. and on the wings of the large altar in the Sankt-Reinoldikirche in Dortmund, thought to have been made in Bruges or Brussels (c. 1410-20) and which display a stylistic agreement with the altar in the Sint-Salvatorkerk at Bruges (c. 1420).¹²¹²E. Bertram-Neunzig, Das altarretabel in der Dortmunder St. Reinoldikirche, Bielefeld 2007, pp. 77-80, 90-95. S. Kemperdick and F. Lammertse et al., The Road to Van Eyck, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) 2012, p. 37, fig. 5.

Parallels in sculpture, however, are far fewer in number. The style of the drapery folds of Christ’s loincloth follow the standard formulas of the International Gothic. Such formulas are found, for instance, in the work of one of the leading Brabantine woodcarvers from this period, the Master of Hakendover (active c. 1395-1430).¹³¹³See for this master J.W. Steyaert et al., Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands, exh. cat. Ghent (Museum of Fine Arts) 1994, p. 70, no. 23 and cover ill.; K.W. Woods, ‘Newly Discovered Work in England by the Master of Hakendover’, Oud Holland 113 (1999), pp. 93-106, esp. pp. 100, 102; M. van Vlierden, ‘Enkele retabelfragmenten uit het atelier van de Meester van het retabel van Hakendover: Een eerste verkenning’, in C. Van de Velde et al., Constructing Wooden Images: Proceedings of the Symposium on the Organization of Labour and Working Practices of Late Gothic Carved Altarpieces in the Low Countries, Brussels 25-26 October 2002, Brussels 2005, pp. 181-205; K.W. Woods, Imported Images: Netherlandish Late Gothic Sculpture in England c. 1400-c. 1550, Donington 2007. At first glance, the corpus from Bunde appears to display some similarity to this master’s elegant and often elongated figures – a majority of which are also carved in walnut – but a closer examination nevertheless reveals notable differences. The crucified Christ figure on the altarpiece in the Goddelijke Zaligmakerkerk at Hakendover (Belgium) of circa 1405, the Master of Hakendover’s principal work, is significantly broader and executed in a more ‘modern’ style.¹⁴¹⁴K.W. Woods, ‘Newly Discovered Work in England by the Master of Hakendover’, Oud Holland 113 (1999), pp. 93-106, esp. fig. 8. A majority of the figures from this large retable were unfortunately stolen, known today only through photos. Unfortunately, the crucifix in the retable of the Sankt-Reinoldikirche in Dortmund, a work produced around the middle of the master’s career (c. 1415), offers little material for comparison: it dates from around 1455 and is non-original.¹⁵¹⁵E. Bertram-Neunzig, Das Altarretabel in der Dortmunder St. Reinoldikirche, Bielefeld 2007, p. 21. A corpus from Borth, dating from around 1410-20 and possibly originating from Wesel, provides only a general agreement in scale, pose and the scheme of the loincloth’s drapery.¹⁶¹⁶R. Dückers and P. Roelofs (eds.), De gebroeders van Limburg: Nijmeegse meesters aan het Franse hof 1400-1416, exh. cat. Nijmegen (Museum Het Valkhof) 2005, no. 62. One example sharing the elongated body is the corpus of a silver Calvary in the treasury of the Sankt-Martinikirche in Emmerich (Germany), though there are no further observable parallels.¹⁷¹⁷R. Dückers and P. Roelofs (eds.), De gebroeders van Limburg: Nijmeegse meesters aan het Franse hof 1400-1416, exh. cat. Nijmegen (Museum Het Valkhof) 2005, no. 58. Most striking is the similarity between the face of the Amsterdam Christ – especially in the wide mouth and the forked beard – and the face of the stone corpus discovered in the 1950s at Dijon Cathedral, attributed to the Haarlem sculptor Claus de Werve (c. 1380-1439) and dated to the first quarter of the fifteenth century (fig. a).¹⁸¹⁸P. Quarré, ‘Le Christ en Croix de Saint-Bénigne de Dijon’, La Revue du Louvre 16 (1966), pp. 5-12; E. Antoine et al.¸ Art from the Court of Burgundy, 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, no. 123; S. Nash, ‘Claus Sluter’s “Well of Moses” for the Chartreuse de Champmol Reconsidered: Part II’, The Burlington Magazine 148 (2006), pp. 456-67, esp. figs. 13, 14. My thanks to Bieke van der Mark for this observation. The agreement nevertheless stops at the face: nowhere is De Werve’s somewhat saccharine style discernible in the Amsterdam corpus, which was therefore likely produced somewhat earlier than the Burgundian crucifix. In light of the numerous imitations found in Burgundy, the stone corpus is certain to have been influential in this region.

Acknowledging a provenance in the vicinity of Maastricht, perhaps it behoves us to consider the corpus as a work originating from the Meuse area. This artistically highly fertile area was, after all, the cradle of the Limburg Brothers. As miniaturists employed at the courts in Paris, Dijon and Bourges, these Netherlandish artists were highly influential in shaping the International Gothic. Tellingly, their father, Arnold, was a sculptor working in the city of Nijmegen.

Frits Scholten, 2024

F. Scholten in ‘Recent Acquisitions’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 64 (2016), no. 3, pp. 278-301, esp. pp. 279-81 (no. 1); Scholten in P. Roelofs et al., Johan Maelwael: Nijmegen, Paris, Dijon: Art Around 1400, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2017, no. 32; W. van Welie-Vink, Body Language: The Body in Medieval Art, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent) 2020, pp. 81-85

F. Scholten, 2024, 'anonymous, Crucified Christ, Meuse area, c. 1400 - c. 1425', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.595312