Carved and polychromed. The figure has three main components (the Virgin, the croup of the donkey and its head and neck) put together with dowels, and at least five smaller separate pieces that have been attached. The reverse has been hollowed out with a coarse chisel.

The base has suffered an infestation by woodworm and mould; some crumbled parts have been reattached. There are several splits on the base and a long one on the Virgin’s body, which has been mended with canvas on the reverse. The Christ child’s nose is damaged. There was probably a figure of Joseph, now missing. The Virgin’s left hand and the index finger of her right hand are missing, too. The toe of the Virgin’s left shoe and the donkey’s ears have been replaced. The original polychromy layer, of which very little appears to be left, was applied on a thick layer of chalk and covered at a later date with at least two different layers of modern oil-based polychromy. No layer of chalk can be seen between these layers. Varnish has been applied on the flesh tones. The presence of varnish on the rest of the object could not be confirmed.

…; found in the attic of the town hall of Wijk bij Duurstede, 1903;¹¹Note RMA. from the municipality of Wijk bij Duurstede, fl. 250, to the museum, 1903

Object number: BK-NM-11769

St Matthew (2:13-14) describes how the Holy Family fled Bethlehem and went into Egypt to escape King Herod, who was determined to kill the newborn Christ child. In accordance with the traditional iconography, Mary is depicted here with her son as an infant, riding on the back of a donkey. The animal appears to be sighing under its divine burden. Although we cannot rule out the possibility that Joseph was omitted in order to focus the attention of the faithful on the Virgin and Child on the donkey, the group probably originally included a figure of Joseph, carved separately, who either held the donkey’s reins (cf. BK-1955-18) or was picking fruit from a palm tree in the background, an allusioin to the apocryphal micracle of the palm tree (cf. fig. a).

The statue was found in 1903 in the attic of the town hall in Wijk bij Duurstede, which had been built in 1660-62 to replace the early sixteenth-century town hall. Regrettably there is no information about the background to this find. In 1951 the municipal historian, Hendrik Hijmans, asserted that the statue came from the estate of the bishop of Utrecht, Philip of Burgundy (1465-1524), who resided at Duurstede Castle.²²H. Hijmans, Wijk bij Duurstede, Rotterdam/The Hague 1951, pp. 100-01. Further enquiry revealed that this was just an unfounded assumption.³³B. van Nimwegen, ‘Onze Lieve Vrouw op zolder in Wijk’, Het K-Rijngebied. Tijdschrift van de historische kring ‘Tussen Rijn en Lek’ 33 (1999), no. 3, pp. 57-61, esp. pp. 59-60. The sculpture is not mentioned in the comprehensive inventory of Philip’s estate drawn up in February 1529, see J. Sterk, Philips van Bourgondië (1465-1524). Bisschop van Utrecht als protagonist van de Renaissance. Zijn leven en mecenaat, Zutphen 1980, suppl. 9, nor in other of Philip of Burgundy’s inventories, see ibid., suppls. 6-8. Instead, it would seem more likely that this really rather naïve and somewhat clumsy group did duty in the Grote Kerk in Wijk bij Duurstede. If this is the case, the statue must have been removed at the time of the Iconoclasm and, as often happened, taken to the town hall for safekeeping.⁴⁴J. Leeuwenberg, ‘De vlucht naar Egypte’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 4 (1956), pp. 16-21, esp. pp. 16-17. It would then have been moved in the seventeenth century to the new town hall, where it languished in the attic over the centuries.

The piece was initially thought to originate from the Lower Rhine region,⁵⁵W. Vogelsang and M. van Notten, Die Holzskulptur in den Niederlanden, vol. 2, Berlin/Utrecht 1912, no. 47. but the sober realism of the group, the Virgin’s stocky build, her sweet, doll-like face with its high, protuberant forehead, and her thick cloak with irregular folds, pushed back on her head, are more akin to the Northern Netherlandish sculpture of around 1500. The fact that it was found in Wijk bij Duurstede suggests that it was most likely made in Utrecht, the nearby centre of woodcarving. Although there are no directly related pieces, Defoer places the Amsterdam Flight into Egypt in a group of probably Utrecht carvings of a rather conservative style, made up of a small devotional relief of the Nativity, an altarpiece group of the Adoration and two versions of a St Anne Trinity.⁶⁶H.L.M. Defoer in M. Leeflang et al. (eds.), Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, p. 75, nos. 43-45, fig. on p. 263. A smaller Flight into Egypt (fig. b) that can be dated slightly later, which is now in the treasury of the Sankt-Martinikirche in Emmerich, Germany, and comes from the Catholic orphanage there, is regarded as a Utrecht import piece.⁷⁷A. Kamphausen, Die niederrheinische Plastik im 16. Jahrhundert und die Bildwerke des Xantener Doms. Ein entwicklungsgeschichtlicher Versuch, Düsseldorf 1931, p. 11; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘De vlucht naar Egypte’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 4 (1956), pp. 16-21, esp. p. 18; E.G. Grimme, ‘Neuerwerbungen, Stiftungen und Dauerleihgaben für das Suermondt-Museum’, Aachener Kunstblätter 45 (1974), pp. 7-16, esp. p. 12; G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Kunstschätze aus dem St.-Martini-Münster zu Emmerich, exh. cat. Emmerich am Rhein 1977, no. 24. The carving of this little group is finer, however, and the detailing of the figures – particularly the donkey – is more realistic than in the Rijksmuseum’s work.

The large size of the sculpture is reminiscent of the Palm Sunday donkeys that were carried or pulled along in processions. It is evident that this group was not made for such a purpose, since the reverse is flat and hollowed out, as in a contemporaneous Flight into Egypt of similar dimensions from Normandy.⁸⁸W. Beeh et al., Bildwerke des Mittelalters 1200-1530 aus einer Privatsammlung, exh. cat. Darmstadt (Hessischen Landesmuseum), 1968, no. 44. These ensembles would originally have been displayed in a caisse or against a wall, probably as the main scene in an altar.⁹⁹J. Leeuwenberg, ‘De vlucht naar Egypte’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 4 (1956), pp. 16-21, esp. p. 18. Another late fifteenth-century Netherlandish group of the Flight into Egypt, sold at auction in London, is finished completely in the round and may well have been used in processions.¹⁰¹⁰Sale, London (Sotheby’s), 4 December 2013, no. 23. Interestingly, as in the group from Normandy and the Amsterdam and Emmerich examples, the figure of Joseph is also missing here or never existed.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024
An earlier version of this entry was published in M. Leeflang et al. (eds.), Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 46

H. Hijmans, Wijk bij Duurstede, Rotterdam/The Hague 1951, pp. 100-01; D.P.R.A. Bouvy, 'Nederlandse beeldhouwkunst', in T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Sprekend verleden. Wegwijzer voor de verzamelaar van oude kunst en antiek, Amsterdam 1959, p. 58; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 36, with earlier literature; E.G. Grimme, 'Neuerwerbungen, Stiftungen und Dauerleihgaben für das Suermondt-Museum', Aachener Kunstblätter 45 (1974), pp. 7-16, esp. p. 12; G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Kunstschätze aus dem St.-Martini-Münster zu Emmerich, exh. cat. Emmerich am Rhein 1977, pp. 42-43; B. van Nimwegen, 'Onze Lieve Vrouw op zolder in Wijk', Het K-Rijngebied. Tijdschrift van de historische kring 'Tussen Rijn en Lek' 33 (1999), no. 3, pp. 57-61; B. van der Mark in M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht: 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht: 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 46; Sale, London (Sotheby’s), 4 December 2013, under no. 23

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Flight into Egypt, Northern Netherlands, c. 1500', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035546