The Saint Elizabeth’s Day Flood

Master of the St Elizabeth Panels, c. 1490 - c. 1495

On the night of 19 November 1421 – the feast day of Saint Elizabeth – much of Holland was flooded. The Dordrecht region was badly hit: 23 villages were submerged and 2,000 people died. The survivors later had an altarpiece made. The outer panels depict the disaster, with the breach of the dike on the right and the undamaged town of Dordrecht on the left.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-3147-B
  • Dimensionssupport: height 127.5 cm x width 110.5 cm x height 126 cm x width 109 cm
  • Physical characteristicsoil on panel

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The Saint Elizabeth’s Day Flood

Master of the St Elizabeth Panels, c. 1490 - c. 1495

The Saint Elizabeth’s Day Flood

Wedding Feast of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and Louis of Thuringia in the Wartburg, inner left wing of an altarpiece made for the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht

Master of the St Elizabeth Panels, c. 1490 - c. 1495

Wedding Feast of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and Louis of Thuringia in the Wartburg, inner left wing of an altarpiece made for the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Tending the Sick in Marburg, Death of St Elizabeth, inner right wing of an altarpiece made for the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht

Master of the St Elizabeth Panels, c. 1490 - c. 1495

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Tending the Sick in Marburg, Death of St Elizabeth, inner right wing of an altarpiece made for the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht

Identification

  • Title(s)

    The Saint Elizabeth’s Day Flood

  • Object type

  • Object number

    SK-A-3147-B

  • Description

    De Sint Elisabethsvloed, watersnood op 18-19 november 1421. Het door de ramp getroffen landschap in vogelvlucht. Rechtsboven de dijkdoorbraak. Op de voorgrond en op het middenplan proberen mensen zichzelf en hun bezittingen in boten te redden, in het water drijven de lichamen van verdronken mensen en vee. Buitenzijde van het rechterpaneel, maakt deel uit van twee panelen, aan weerszijden beschilderd met voorstellingen uit het leven van de heilige Elisabeth van Hongarije (1207-31) en de Sint Elisabethsvloed 18-19 november 1421 (SK-A-3145/46 en SK-A-3147A/B).

  • Inscriptions / marks

    inscription, inscribed throughout the painting: ‘drijmelen (Drimmelen) // int moer[?] // almonde // de swalu (Zwaluwe) // munster kerc // dubbelmond (Dubbelmonde) // wieldrecht // maes (Maas) // almcvoet (Almsvoet) // strien (Strijen) // cillershoec (Cillaarshoek) // de dubbel (the river Dubbel) // alloeissen (Alloysen) // maesdam (Maasdam) // de we (de Wey) // de hoec (Puttershoek) // de mijl (de Mijl) // soeneken…er[?]’

  • Part of catalogue

Creation

  • Creation

    • painter: Master of the St Elizabeth Panels, Northern Netherlands
    • painter: anonymous, Dordrecht (possibly)

  • Dating

    c. 1490 - c. 1495

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Material and technique

  • Physical description

    oil on panel

  • Dimensions

    support: height 127.5 cm x width 110.5 cm x height 126 cm x width 109 cm

This work is about

  • Subject

  • Place

Acquisition and rights

  • Credit line

    Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

  • Acquisition

    purchase 1933-12

  • Copyright

    Public domain

  • Provenance

    See the provenance for SK-A-3145.

  • Remarks

    Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.

Documentation

    • De Elisabethsvloed en het altaar van de Wieldrechtenaren in de Grote Kerk van Dordrecht / Liesbeth M. Helmus - In: Kwartaal & Teken 18/1992 (verkorte en aangepaste versie van 1991-nr. 2).
    • Strijd tegen het water / In: 20 Eeuwen Nederland en de Nederlanders - Waanders Uitgevers 1998, afl. 1, pag. 12.
    • Inzoomer object op zaal, 2013 (Nederlands/English).
    • G. Simpson, The Pine Standard Chest in St Margaret's Church, King's Lynn, and the Social and Economic Significance of the Type, in: King's Lynn and the Fens: medieval art, architecture and archaeology, British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions XXXI (2008), p. 60, fig. 5
    • De watersnood van 1421 / Jean Baptist Bedaux - In: Vitrine: museummagazine 3/95, pag. 13.
    • De waterstaat/ Tom van der Meer - In: Rijksmuseum Kunstkrant, jrg. 25, maart-april 1999, nr. 2, pag.4-10.
    • "’So grot overvlot der watere’. Een bijdrage in het moderne multidisciplinaire onderzoek naar de St. Elisabethsvloed en de periode die daaraan vooraf ging”/ P. Cleveringa e.a. - In: Holland 36/3 (2004), pp. 162-180.
    • Liesbeth M. Helmus, Het altaarstuk met de Sint Elisabethsvloed uit de Grote Kerk van Dordrecht. De oorspronkelijke plaats en de opdrachtgevers, uit: Oud Holland, 105, 1991, 2, pagina pp. 127-139(zie: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42711319)

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Master of the St Elizabeth Panels

Outer Right Wing of an Altarpiece with the St Elizabeth’s Day Flood, 18-19 November 1421, with the Broken Dike at Wieldrecht

Northern Netherlands, ? Dordrecht, c. 1490 - c. 1495

Inscriptions

  • inscription, inscribed throughout the painting:drijmelen (Drimmelen) // int moer[?] // almonde // de swalu (Zwaluwe) // munster kerc // dubbelmond (Dubbelmonde) // wieldrecht // maes (Maas) // almcvoet (Almsvoet) // strien (Strijen) // cillershoec (Cillaarshoek) // de dubbel (the river Dubbel) // alloeissen (Alloysen) // maesdam (Maasdam) // de we (de Wey) // de hoec (Puttershoek) // de mijl (de Mijl) // soeneken…er[?]

Technical notes

The original support, which has been sawn through crosswise, consists of four vertically grained oak planks (29, 24.5, 29.4 and 27.5 cm). It has been planed down to approx. 0.1-0.2 cm and transferred to a new panel, which is covered by a zinc plate. The white ground must have been applied in the frame. There are unpainted edges approx. 0.5-1 cm wide and remains of a barbe on all sides (painted surface: 126 x 109 cm). The underdrawing was made with a brush. It is a line drawing only, and some of the lines are remarkably thick. There is no hatching. The underdrawing was made rapidly, but not all the forms were prepared. There are considerable departures from the underdrawing in the painted landscape. The positions of towns and clumps of trees were often altered, and the shapes of church towers were changed. It can clearly be seen in the foreground that the figures and animals were only added later, for they were not prepared in the underdrawing and the landscape runs beneath them. The breached dike at top right was originally planned differently, being underdrawn further to the right. The paint layers were applied rather thickly. Most of the figures were not reserved, but were painted on top of the underlying paint layers. The rather rough painting technique can be described as primitive.

Scientific examination and reports

  • infrared reflectography: J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, RKD, nos. AB 1167:3-1170:18, 18 juni 1990
  • infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG369, 10 april 2006
  • condition report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 19 april 2006
  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 27 september 2006

Literature scientific examination and reports

Helmus 1991, pp. 133-34

Condition

Poor. There are discoloured retouchings along the joins and a heavily discoloured varnish, which is matte in the retouchings

Conservation

  • See SK-A-3145.

Provenance

See the provenance for SK-A-3145.

Object number: SK-A-3147-B

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Biography

Master of the St Elizabeth Panels (active 1490-1510)

The Master of the St Elizabeth Panels is an anonymous artist who owes his name to four panels in the Rijksmuseum, including scenes of the St Elizabeth’s Day flood of 18-19 November 1421 (SK-A-3145, SK-A-3146, SK-A-3147-A, SK-A-3147-B). Although they were once attributed to the Master of Rhenen, so called after The Conquest of Rhenen by John II of Cleves in 1499 (SK-A-1727), Buijsen convincingly demonstrated in 1988 that there were in fact two separate artists at work. Since the flood panels were made for the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht, this painter may have lived there. Nothing is known about the St Elizabeth Master, and no other paintings can be attributed to him.

References
Hoogewerff I, 1936, pp. 498-509, V, 1947, p. 116; Buijsen 1988; Helmus 1991; Van der Sterre in Turner 1996, XX, pp. 754-55, 760

(M. Wolters)

Entry

See SK-A-3145.

Literature

See SK-A-3145.

Download Bibliography (PDF)

Collection catalogues

See SK-A-3145.

Citation

M. Wolters, 2010, 'Meester van de Heilige Elisabeth-Panelen, Outer Right Wing of an Altarpiece with the St Elizabeth’s Day Flood, 18-19 November 1421, with the Broken Dike at Wieldrecht, Northern Netherlands, c. 1490 - c. 1495', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200109491

(accessed 1 February 2026 20:27:37).