Adriaen van Wesel

The Death of the Virgin

Utrecht, c. 1475 - c. 1477

Technical notes

Carved and originally polychromed, composed of a number of parts, including two horizontal and two narrow vertical elements. The reverse has been hollowed out. Dendrochronological analysis has not provided a conclusive dating, but the wood does appear to have come from the same oak tree as Adriaen van Wesel’s Joseph with Three Musician Angels (BK-NM-11647). It was also possible to establish that the wood has very similar growth characteristics to that in other parts of the Marian altar that Van Wesel made for the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in Den Bosch between 1475 and 1477.

Scientific examination and reports

  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, University of Hamburg, 1980

Literature scientific examination and reports

P. Klein, ‘Hout en kunst. Houtanalytisch onderzoek van beeldhouwwerken’, in W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, pp. 45-53, esp. pp. 47-48 and figs. 7a-b

Condition

Part of the right foot of the seated apostle in the foreground and some of the fingers of the apostle holding the candle are missing. The top part of the candle, St Peter’s hand raised in blessing, almost the whole of the chain of the censer, the hands of the apostle holding it, parts of the ground, the blanket hanging at the foot of the bed and St John’s elbow were replaced in the nineteenth century. The polychromy has been removed with a caustic.

Provenance

? Commissioned by the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady [Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap], Den Bosch, 1475;1Archive Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, Den Bosch, Accounts 1475-76, fols. 207v to 208v. See P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1420-(na) 1489’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 149-64, esp. pp. 150-51; W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, suppl. 1, 1475. installed in the Sint-Janskathedraal, Den Bosch, 1477;2Archive Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, Den Bosch, Accounts 1477, fol. 265v. See P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1420-(na) 1489’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 149-64, esp. p. 152; W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, suppl. 1, 1477. ? dismantled during the iconoclastic revolt, transferred to a safer, unknown location, 1566;3Archive Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, Den Bosch, Accounts 1566-67. See W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, suppl. 2, 1566-67. ? reinstalled in the Sint-Janskathedraal, Den Bosch, 1567;4Archive Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, Den Bosch, Accounts 1566-67. See W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, suppl. 2, 1566-67. ? transferred to the Confraternity House, Hinthamerstraat, Den Bosch, 1629;5W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, p. 36 (note 1). ...; ? the butcher J.F.C. van Weert, Hinthamerstraat, Den Bosch, first recorded in 1881;6In the register of the former Bisschoppelijk Museum Haarlem there is an annotation besides a record of a plaster cast of the Death of the Virgin (Sterfbed der Allerh. Maagd) donated to that museum on 12 September 1881 by Mr F. Stracké of Haarlem (den Heer F. Stracké te Haarlem) (inv. no. 944), which states that it was cast from the original in wood in Den Bosch (naar het oorspronkelijk in hout te ’s Hertogenbosch) and that it was then with a butcher living next door to Goossens the sculptor (‘bij eenen slager wonende naast Goossens den beeldhouwer’). There is a note in the margin to the effect that this plaster cast was removed (afgevoerd) on 28 April 1962. With thanks to Jan Klinckaert for this reference. In an annotated copy of J.J. Graaf and H.A.T. van Dam, Gids van het Bisschoppelijk Museum, coll. cat. Haarlem (Bisschoppelijk Museum) 1913 (Museum Catharijneconvent library, Utrecht) there is a note in the margin next to the description of this group (no. 310) stating that the original oak group from Den Bosch was in Leeuwen later on and was currently in the Rijksmuseum (‘later in Leeuwen en thans in het Rijksmuseum’). With thanks to Annabel Dijkema for this reference. In 1881 a butcher named J.F.C. van Weert lived at 118 Hinthamerstraat, next door to the famous Den Bosch sculptor Johannes Goossens (of the firm of Joh. Goossens & zoon) at 116 Hinthamerstraat; it is possible that he can be identified as the butcher in the register of the Bisschoppelijk Museum, see the online Den Bosch encyclopaediae. ...; from the collection of an unknown pastor, Leeuwen, near Tiel, fl. 572, to the museum, 1904

ObjectNumber: BK-NM-11859

The artist

Biography

Adriaen van Wesel (Utrecht c. 1417 - Utrecht in or after 1490)

Adriaen van Wesel was the leading sculptor of the Northern Netherlands during the second half of the fifteenth century. The majority of his surviving oeuvre is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Van Wesel’s name and city of origin were discovered by Swillens in 1948 in the city archives of Den Bosch while researching two pieces from an altarpiece by Van Wesel formerly in the chapel of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in the Sint-Janskathedraal of that city.7Den Bosch, Museum Het Zwanenbroedershuis, inv. nos. B7 and B8. Before his identification he was known as the ‘Master of the Singing Angels’ and the ‘Master of the Death of Mary’, names of convenience derived from two altar groups in the Rijksmuseum.

Van Wesel is certain to have been born in Utrecht, as his name appears nowhere in the listings of new citizens after 1400. He is first mentioned in 1447, when elected alderman of the saddler’s guild, to which painters and sculptors also belonged. Since this important position could only be attained by men of at least thirty years of age, he was probably born in or slightly prior to 1417. Van Wesel was elected to this post nine times: four times serving as a member of the city council while holding several other public offices, thus affirming his status as an influential and highly respected figure.

A document from 1468 involving a life annuity indicates that Adriaen van Wesel had a wife named Margriet and a daughter named Belyen. Both probably died before 1491, as their names no longer appear in the life annuity records from this year. Adriaen himself must have died in or shortly after 1490, as this is the last time he appears in any documents. The year of Van Wesel’s death has been subject to some confusion stemming from the existence of a second ‘Adriaen van Wesel’ residing in Utrecht whose death is documented in 1500. This individual, though perhaps a family member, was a butter merchant not known to have held any public position.

Van Wesel’s first documented work is the aforementioned altarpiece for the Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in Den Bosch commissioned in 1475. By this time, however, he was already a sculptor of renown. Unfortunately, this altarpiece was dismantled and dispersed in the nineteenth century. Only two groups from this altarpiece have remained in Den Bosch, together with their original caisses. Another five groups from this altarpiece are today preserved in the Rijksmuseum.8Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. nos. BK-NM-11647, BK-NM-11713, BK-NM-11394, BK-NM-11859, and BK-1977-134-A. An additional seven have tenably been linked to these works, including a seated Virgin from an Annunciation in Bruges.9Bruges, Gruuthuusemuseum, inv. no. V.O. 0154. On a final note, several hypothetical reconstructions of the original retable have also been devised (for the most recent, see fig. c in the entry BK-NM-11647).10W. Halsema-Kubes, G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Adriaen van Wesel: Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, pp. 34-44; W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Der Altar Adriaen van Wesels aus ’s-Hertogenbosch’, in H. Krohm and E. Oellermann (eds.), Flügelaltäre des späten Mittelalters, Berlin 1992, pp. 144-56; F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 30 (and fig. 30a).

Adriaen van Wesel produced two other Marian altars: the first in 1470 for the Mariakerk in Utrecht, a work that fell victim to one of the city’s iconoclastic outbreaks in 1584; the second for the high altar of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, probably destroyed in a fire in 1528 (with BK-1979-94 possibly a fragment). Another altar, commissioned in 1487 for the monastery Sint-Agnietenberg in Zwolle, is likewise lost. Several surviving sculptures may originate from these altarpieces, e.g. a Descent from the Cross in Berlin, and a Holy Family in Utrecht.11Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung, inv. no. 2396 and Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. ABM bh471.

Van Wesel’s last documented works were made for churches in his hometown of Utrecht: three sculptures for the high altar of the Buurkerk in 1487 and seven groups for the predella of the high altar of Utrecht Cathedral in 1489.12W. Halsema-Kubes, G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Adriaen van Wesel: Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, pp. 11-12.

Marie Mundigler, 2024

References
W. Halsema-Kubes, G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Adriaen van Wesel: Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81; M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 227-31; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, pp. 48-54; Scholten and Van der Mark in F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 30 (and fig. 30a); P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1420-(na) 1489’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 149-64; P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel. Enige aanvullende mededelingen’, Oud Holland 66 (1951), pp. 228-33; W. Vogelsang in F.W.S. van Thienen (ed.), Algemene Kunstgeschiedenis, vol. 4, Utrecht/Antwerp 1949, p. 28

Entry

The death of the Virgin is not mentioned in the Bible, but there is a detailed account of this apocryphal story in the Golden Legend (CXVII). It recounts how an angel miraculously conveys the apostles, who are scattered to the four winds, through the clouds to the Virgin. Arrived at the house, the apostles gather around her deathbed. Adriaen van Wesel pictured the moment when Mary takes her last breath. Despite the modest depth of the altar fragment, the carver suggested a great sense of space by ingeniously distributing the twelve apostles around the bed. In the foreground, on the dais on which the Virgin’s bed stands, an apostle sits silently reading a book. The beardless St John, who stands at the head of the bed, is visibly affected: he holds his hand to his face in a gesture of despair. The apostle to his right supports the Virgin’s pillow. St Peter stands at the centre of the long side of the bed. He is dressed as a priest, clasps an open prayer book to his chest and leads the service. With his right hand, which has been replaced, he now makes a gesture of blessing, but he probably originally held a aspergillum in this hand; this is a more customary element in the rite of the last sacrament.13W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, p. 92. The apostle on Peter’s left places the candle of the dying in the Virgin’s hands, its light symbolising the Christian faith. In the right foreground, in front of the foot of the bed, St Andrew (?) swings a censer. The aspergillum, the candle, the censer and the sorrowing or reading apostles are familiar motifs in the iconography of the death of the Virgin.14For the iconography, see E. Kirschbaum (ed.), Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, vol. 4, Freiburg 1972, cols. 334-36; S. Koslow, ‘The Impact of Hugo van der Goes’s Mental Illness and Late-Medieval Religious Attitudes on the Death of the Virgin’, in C.E. Rosenberg (ed.), Healing and History: Essays for George Rosen, Dawson 1979, pp. 27-50; B. Ridderbos, ‘Hugo van der Goes’s Death of the Virgin and the modern devotion: an analysis of a creative process’, Oud Holland 120 (2007), pp. 1-30, esp. pp. 6-7. They are also found, for instance, on a contemporaneous painted panel by an anonymous Amsterdam or Utrecht master (SK-A-3467) and an ivory pax from the Northern Netherlands (BK-2003-6).

The museum bought The Death of the Virgin at the sale of the estate of the pastor of the village of Leeuwen, near Tiel, in 1904. According to tradition it had come from Den Bosch.15J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 5, no. 11. This is confirmed by a note in the register of the former Bisschoppelijk Museum Haarlem concerning a (lost) plaster cast of the group, with thanks to Jan Klinckaert (see provenance). This is an important piece of information, since it makes it likely that the group was a fragment that had originally been part of the large Marian altar that Adriaen van Wesel made between 1475 and 1477 for the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in Den Bosch. In that case the scene was probably placed in one of the compartments to the far right (fig. a). This origin is supported by the fact that The Death of the Virgin was carved from the same tree trunk as the fragment with Joseph with Three Musician Angels (BK-NM-11647),16Dendochronological analysis carried out by P. Klein, see W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, pp. 45-50, esp. p. 49. which surfaced shortly before in the vicinity of Den Bosch and is likewise regarded as a fragment of the Marian altar.17See the entry for BK-NM-11647 for more on this altar. Only Swillens (P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1420-(na) 1489’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 149-64, esp. p. 160) had reservations about the attribution of The Death of the Virgin and The Visitation to the altar because of their larger dimensions.

The figures in the group have a great variety of facial types, expressions and gestures. Peter’s wrinkled face is reminiscent of Joseph’s in the fragment with the angel musicians (BK-NM-11647). John’s youthful face with its mop of curly hair is akin to the angel in the St John on Patmos group which, along with Emperor Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl, is still in the possession of the Brotherhood in Den Bosch (fig. b). The way that the Virgin is depicted with a cap and chin-band is also found in the figure of St Elizabeth in The Visitation (BK-NM-11394). The overall arrangement of the restless little group is very reminiscent of the altar group with The Last Supper that is attributed to Van Wesel.18Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inv. no. 1054/St. 20, see W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, no. 22.

There is a virtually identical, albeit more crudely finished version of The Death of the Virgin (fig. c) in Louvain-la-Neuve Museum in Belgium. It comes from the estate of Adolphe Mignot (1903-2001), who during his lifetime had placed it in the Sint-Annakapel in Oudergem near Brussels, where he was the pastor.19A. Mignot, Val-Duchesse à l’époque du Marché commun 1956-1972, Brussels 1972, p. 155. Recent research has revealed that it is a modern copy, carved from a block of old wood after a plaster cast of The Death of the Virgin in the Art and History Museum in Brussels.20Brussels, Art and History Museum, inv. no. 3027. Written communication, Dr Emmanuelle Mercier, IRPA, Brussels, 29-30 October 2015. This cast shows the condition of the Amsterdam altar fragment prior to an undocumented restoration in which some missing elements, such as part of the ground, the chain of the censer and the hand of the apostle holding it, have been replaced. These replacements were already present when the museum purchased the piece, which means that the restoration (and hence the cast, too) must date from before 1904. Recently, another modern copy surfaced the art market.21Oak, 74 x 54 cm. Leuven, Belgian Art Gallery, Cor Engelen, 2022.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

Literature

C.M.A.A. Lindeman, ‘Sint Agnes door Jacob van der Borch’, Jaarverslag K.O.G. 81 (1938-39), pp. 52-54, esp. p. 52; P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1420-(na) 1489’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 149-64, esp. p. 160; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Het werk van den Meester der Muscieerende Engelen en het vraagstuk van Jacob van der Borch opnieuw beschouwd’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 164-79, esp. p. 169; J.J.M. Timmers, ‘Achtenveertig eeuwen beeldhouwkunst in hout’, in W. Boerhave Beekman, Hout in alle Tijden, vol. 2, Deventer 1949, pp. 597-772, pp. 678-80; W. Vogelsang in F.W.S. van Thienen (ed.), Algemene Kunstgeschiedenis, vol. 4, Utrecht/Antwerp 1949, p. 28; P.T.A. Swillens, ‘Beeldhouwers en beeldhouwkunst’, in J. Romijn (ed.), Hart van Nederland, Utrecht 1950, pp. 209-37, esp. pp. 217-18; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Beeldhouwkunst I’, Facetten der Verzameling 8 (1967; 1st ed. 1957), pp. 1-2; 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. 55; D.P.R.A. Bouvy, Kerkelijke Kunst, vol. 2, Bussum 1966, p. 48; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 16b, with earlier literature; W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, no. 8; W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Twee onbekende retabelfragmenten van Adriaen van Wesel’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 28 (1980), pp. 155-66, esp. pp. 155-57; W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Ontmoeting der drie koningen 1475-1477’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 37 (1989), pp. 163-65; A.M. Koldeweij (ed.), In Buscoducis 1450-1629. Kunst uit de Bourgondische tijd te ’s-Hertogenbosch. De cultuur van de late middeleeuwen en renaissance, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1990, p. 223, no. 135; W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Der Altar Adriaen van Wesels aus ’s-Hertogenbosch’, in H. Krohm and E. Oellermann (eds.), Flügelaltäre des späten Mittelalters, Berlin 1992, pp. 144-56, esp. pp. 149-50; H.L.M. Defoer, ‘Een laat-middeleeuws schoorsteenfries uit Utrecht met de bekoring van Antonius’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 45 (1994), pp. 300-23, esp. p. 311; Scholten in H. van Os (ed.), Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1400-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2000, p. 60; Scholten in F. Houben et al., Deftige Devotie, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 2003, pp. 109-11; M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 130, 195; F. Scholten, ‘Een Nederlandse ivoren pax uit de Late Middeleeuwen’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 52 (2004), pp. 2-23, p. 7; E. den Hartog, ‘Van ons slag zijn er nog veel in de wereld gebleven’, in P.C. van der Eerden and M.A. van der Eerden-Vonk (eds.), De Wijkse toren. Geschiedenis van de toren van de Grote Kerk in Wijk bij Duurstede (1486-2008), Hilversum 2008, p. 113; M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 236-37; F. Scholten and B. van der Mark in F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 30c

Citation

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'Adriaen van Wesel, The Death of the Virgin, Utrecht, c. 1475 - c. 1477', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24258

(accessed 6 June 2025 01:58:37).

Figures

  • fig. a Reconstruction of Adriaen van Wesel’s Marian altar with the probable position of the five pieces in the Rijksmuseum – The Nativity, Joseph with Three Musician Angels, The Meeting of the Magi, The Visitation and The Death of the Virgin – and the two small compartments that are still with the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in Den Bosch containing Emperor Augsutus and the Tiburtine Sibyl and St John on Patmos. Visualisation by Ineke de Graaff

  • fig. b Adriaen van Wesel, St John on Patmos, 1475-77. Oak with polychromy, 47.4 x 33.9 x c. 17 cm (without caisse). Den Bosch, Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, Museum Het Zwanenbroederhuis

  • fig. c The Death of the Virgin, 19th century copy. Louvain-la-Neuve, Musée L

Footnotes

  • 1Archive Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, Den Bosch, Accounts 1475-76, fols. 207v to 208v. See P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1420-(na) 1489’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 149-64, esp. pp. 150-51; W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, suppl. 1, 1475.
  • 2Archive Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, Den Bosch, Accounts 1477, fol. 265v. See P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1420-(na) 1489’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 149-64, esp. p. 152; W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, suppl. 1, 1477.
  • 3Archive Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, Den Bosch, Accounts 1566-67. See W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, suppl. 2, 1566-67.
  • 4Archive Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, Den Bosch, Accounts 1566-67. See W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, suppl. 2, 1566-67.
  • 5W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, p. 36 (note 1).
  • 6In the register of the former Bisschoppelijk Museum Haarlem there is an annotation besides a record of a plaster cast of the Death of the Virgin (Sterfbed der Allerh. Maagd) donated to that museum on 12 September 1881 by Mr F. Stracké of Haarlem (den Heer F. Stracké te Haarlem) (inv. no. 944), which states that it was cast from the original in wood in Den Bosch (naar het oorspronkelijk in hout te ’s Hertogenbosch) and that it was then with a butcher living next door to Goossens the sculptor (‘bij eenen slager wonende naast Goossens den beeldhouwer’). There is a note in the margin to the effect that this plaster cast was removed (afgevoerd) on 28 April 1962. With thanks to Jan Klinckaert for this reference. In an annotated copy of J.J. Graaf and H.A.T. van Dam, Gids van het Bisschoppelijk Museum, coll. cat. Haarlem (Bisschoppelijk Museum) 1913 (Museum Catharijneconvent library, Utrecht) there is a note in the margin next to the description of this group (no. 310) stating that the original oak group from Den Bosch was in Leeuwen later on and was currently in the Rijksmuseum (‘later in Leeuwen en thans in het Rijksmuseum’). With thanks to Annabel Dijkema for this reference. In 1881 a butcher named J.F.C. van Weert lived at 118 Hinthamerstraat, next door to the famous Den Bosch sculptor Johannes Goossens (of the firm of Joh. Goossens & zoon) at 116 Hinthamerstraat; it is possible that he can be identified as the butcher in the register of the Bisschoppelijk Museum, see the online Den Bosch encyclopaediae.
  • 7Den Bosch, Museum Het Zwanenbroedershuis, inv. nos. B7 and B8.
  • 8Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. nos. BK-NM-11647, BK-NM-11713, BK-NM-11394, BK-NM-11859, and BK-1977-134-A.
  • 9Bruges, Gruuthuusemuseum, inv. no. V.O. 0154.
  • 10W. Halsema-Kubes, G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Adriaen van Wesel: Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, pp. 34-44; W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Der Altar Adriaen van Wesels aus ’s-Hertogenbosch’, in H. Krohm and E. Oellermann (eds.), Flügelaltäre des späten Mittelalters, Berlin 1992, pp. 144-56; F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 30 (and fig. 30a).
  • 11Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung, inv. no. 2396 and Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. ABM bh471.
  • 12W. Halsema-Kubes, G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Adriaen van Wesel: Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, pp. 11-12.
  • 13W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, p. 92.
  • 14For the iconography, see E. Kirschbaum (ed.), Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, vol. 4, Freiburg 1972, cols. 334-36; S. Koslow, ‘The Impact of Hugo van der Goes’s Mental Illness and Late-Medieval Religious Attitudes on the Death of the Virgin’, in C.E. Rosenberg (ed.), Healing and History: Essays for George Rosen, Dawson 1979, pp. 27-50; B. Ridderbos, ‘Hugo van der Goes’s Death of the Virgin and the modern devotion: an analysis of a creative process’, Oud Holland 120 (2007), pp. 1-30, esp. pp. 6-7.
  • 15J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 5, no. 11. This is confirmed by a note in the register of the former Bisschoppelijk Museum Haarlem concerning a (lost) plaster cast of the group, with thanks to Jan Klinckaert (see provenance).
  • 16Dendochronological analysis carried out by P. Klein, see W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, pp. 45-50, esp. p. 49.
  • 17See the entry for BK-NM-11647 for more on this altar. Only Swillens (P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1420-(na) 1489’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 149-64, esp. p. 160) had reservations about the attribution of The Death of the Virgin and The Visitation to the altar because of their larger dimensions.
  • 18Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inv. no. 1054/St. 20, see W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, no. 22.
  • 19A. Mignot, Val-Duchesse à l’époque du Marché commun 1956-1972, Brussels 1972, p. 155.
  • 20Brussels, Art and History Museum, inv. no. 3027. Written communication, Dr Emmanuelle Mercier, IRPA, Brussels, 29-30 October 2015.
  • 21Oak, 74 x 54 cm. Leuven, Belgian Art Gallery, Cor Engelen, 2022.