The Circumcision

Carved in relief and polychromed, partly with sgraffito.

Some woodworm damage on the underside. Mary’s left index finger and a fingertip on the woman behind the altar are missing. A section of Joseph’s cane has been replaced. The polychromy is original, though numerous retouches have been made. A semi-transparent layer (animal glue?) has been applied to the gilded sections. A modern wood plank has been attached to the reverse.

…; acquired in Paris by the dealer Jan Dirven, Eindhoven;¹¹Note RMA. from whom acquired by Louis Planchar, Liège;²²Note RMA. from whom, fl. 7,000, to the museum, 1959

ObjectNumber: BK-1960-2

This wood-carved relief shows Christ’s circumcision taking place before a richly ornamented, classicist architecture. At the middle of the scene, one sees the high priest carrying out this sacred act, while another man holds the Christ Child in place. The child extends his arm in the direction of his mother on his left; her husband, Joseph, stands opposite on the far left, supporting himself with a cane. A woman standing behind the high priest holds her right index finger to her left thumb, a rhetorical gesture used to firmly emphasize a certain argumentation.³³See John Bulwer, Chironomia, or, The Art of Manual Rhetoricke, Consisting of the Naturall Expressions, Digested by Art in the Hand, London 1644, p. 95, chirogram W: Arguebit. She turns her head towards a youth who holds a swinging candle with both hands. Various anonymous figures complete the scene, including an old man entering through a door far right, accompanied by a woman.

The style of the relief, which probably functioned as a predella or antependium, is characterized by the figures’ lively poses and the theatricality of their gestures.⁴⁴Verslagen der Rijksverzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst, Amsterdam 1960, p 16 and J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 161. Leeuwenberg tentatively linked the panel to French Flanders, arguing that the style reminded him of paintings by the Lambert Lombard (1505/6-1561), a court painter in Liège. Indeed, excellent parallels in Lambert’s work can be observed in virtually all of the poses and facial types found in the relief.⁵⁵Cf. for example G. Denhaene, Lambert Lombard: Renaissance en humanisme te Luik, Antwerp 1990, figs. 133, 141, 242 and 268. A localization in this city is further supported by the sculptor’s evident familiarity with the style of the Ulm sculptor Daniel Mauch (1477-1540), who also worked in Liège from approximately 1530 on. The Christ Child of the Amsterdam relief, specifically with respect to his valiant, plump body and twisting torso, recalls the child figure cradled in the arms of Mauch’s Berselius Madonna in the Museum Grand Curtius (Liège), while the facial type of the woman standing behind the altar in the relief is comparable to that of Mauch’s Enthroned Virgin with Child in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh (Antwerp).⁶⁶B. Reinhardt and E. Leistenschneider, Daniel Mauch: Bildhauer im Zeitalter der Reformation, exh. cat. Ulm (Ulmer Museum) 2009, nos. 39 and 40. Other similarities to the above-cited Madonnas include the rather voluminous treatment of the legs of some of the figures in the relief, clearly defined beneath their robes.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 192, with earlier literature

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, The Circumcision, Liège, c. 1540 - c. 1560', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24476