Carved, polychromed and partly gilded. The surface has been scratched in a lozenge pattern to apply the chalk ground beneath the polychromy. The reverse has been hollowed out, with therein at the top a wrought-iron eye for securing purposes.

The top of the head and the crown are missing. This part of the sculpture was modified with a gouge to accommodate a modern metal crown, now non-extant but with a metal fragment still nailed to the base of the original, integrally carved wooden crown above the king’s left eye. Also missing are the left forearm, a section of the fingers on the right hand, and the attribute, supported on the right arm. This attribute was likely resting against the king’s chest, as indicated by the stub of a broken peg in this location. The suggestion of ermine on the sleeves’ inner lining is modern.

…; from the dealer J.J.T.M. Bless, Lent, fl. 9,500, to the museum, 1965

Object number: BK-1965-1

This saint can be identified as one of the three kings from an Adoration of the Magi not only on the basis of the (now missing) crown and precious, fur-lined robes, but also the positioning of the arms and the downward gaze. The group to which this king (possibly Balthasar) belonged comprised at least four separate elements: the Virgin with the Child, the three kings, and possibly a figure of Joseph. The present king would originally have held a golden chalice or chest filled with precious items, to be presented to the Christ Child. Judging by the direction of his gaze, in this case the child was probably positioned sitting on his mother’s lap.

Small-scale groups of the Adoration of the Magi occur in large numbers. In most cases, these works belong to a wood-carved altarpiece comprising multiple scenes from the Childhood of Christ or the Life of the Virgin (cf. BK-NM-1281-A, -B and BK-16120). Examples on a larger scale such as this figure are far less common. Today preserved in New York (The Cloisters) are the kings from an Adoration group originating from Lichtenthal Abbey in the Duchy of Swabia and dating from before 1489.¹¹New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, inv. nos. 52.83.1 to -3, see G. de Werd, ‘Henrik Douverman: Die Heiligen Drie Könige’, Schriftenreihe Museum Kurhaus Kleve 34 (2006), p. 26 (ills.). Another example of a large scale Adoration group, presently in the Museum Kurhaus in Cleves, is by the Lower Rhenish woodcarver Henrik Douverman (c. 1490-1543/44) and dated circa 1530-35.²²G. de Werd, ‘Henrik Douverman: Die Heiligen Drie Könige’, Schriftenreihe Museum Kurhaus Kleve 34 (2006), pp. 1-28. The statue of the Virgin and Child is missing. Also on a large scale is a life-size column statue in Xanten Cathedral of a standing Virgin and Child carved in Baumberger sandstone by the Cleves sculptor Dries Holthuys (active c. 1480-c. 1510) in 1496. With the addition of sculptures of the Three Magi executed in 1551 by the Kalkar sculptor Arnt van Tricht to three adjacent pillars, the initial group was transformed into an Adoration of the Magi.³³R. Klapheck, Der Dom zu Xanten und seine Kunstschätze, Berlin 1930, (ill.) p. 99; G. de Werd, ‘De Kalkarse beeldhouwer Arnt van Tricht’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 21 (1973) pp. 63-90, esp. p. 82 and fig. 31. Last to be mentioned are two early-fifteenth century Adoration groups in polychromed oak by the Cologne woodcarver Master Tilman (active 1487-d. 1515), today preserved respectively in the Museum Schnütgen (Cologne) and the Liebfrauenkirche in Duisburg.⁴⁴Cologne, Museum Schnütgen, inv. nos. A 861 a-c, see R. Karrenbrock et al., Die Holzskulpturen des Mittelalters II: 1400 bis 1540. Teil 1: Köln, Westfalen, Norddeutschland, coll. cat. Cologne (Museum Schnütgen) 2001, nos. 39-41; E. Verheyen (ed.), Duisburg, Düsseldorf 1966 (Die Denkmäler des Rheinlandes), p. 27 and figs. 43-45. The Virgin and Child are missing from both groups. Technical analysis indicates that the group in the Museum Schnütgen once stood in a large retable caisse.⁵⁵R. Karrenbrock et al., Die Holzskulpturen des Mittelalters II: 1400 bis 1540. Teil 1: Köln, Westfalen, Norddeutschland, coll. cat. Cologne (Museum Schnütgen) 2001, p. 268. On the same page, reference is also made to a number of Adoration groups in Germany and Sweden that have remained completely intact, including their respective altarpiece caisses. In all probability, the same applies to the present figure, which, like the aforementioned Adoration groups in Cologne and Duisburg, is also hollowed out on the reverse.

Leeuwenberg situated the present figure in the Southern Netherlands, circa 1515, without further elaboration. Stylistically, however, this work is far more akin to examples of Lower Rhenish sculpture dating from the late Middle Ages. Similarly elongated facial types, along with the angular jawline, high cheekbones and somewhat affected facial expressions, are found in the oeuvres of Dries Holthuys (active c. 1480-c. 1510), Henrick van Holt (c. 1480/90-1545/46), Arnt van Tricht (active c. 1530-d. 1570) and others.⁶⁶Cf. R. Karrenbrock et al., Dries Holthuys: Ein Meister des Mittelalters aus Kleve (Schriftenreihe Museum Kurhaus Kleve: Ewald Mataré-Sammlung, 16), exh. cat. Cleves (Museum Kurhaus Kleve) 2002, nos. 50, 52; B. Rommé et al., Gegen den Strom: Meisterwerke niederrheinischer Skulptur in Zeiten der Reformation 1500-1550, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 1996, nos. 36-37. Parallels with respect to the déhanchement and the dynamic, deeply carved garment folds can also be found in this region and period, especially in the late work of Dries Holthuys, the most influential woodcarver in the Lower Rhine region in the years bridging the death of Arnt van Kalkar in 1492 and the rise of Henrik Douverman circa 1510. Particularly his Virgin and Child at Hüthum (near Emmerich) possesses a very similar drapery scheme.⁷⁷R. Karrenbrock, ‘Der Klever Bilhauer Dries Holthuys’, in B. Rommé (ed.), Der Niederrhein und die Alten Niederlande. Kunst und Kultur im späten Mittelalter, Bielefeld 1999, pp. 110-133, fig. 16. Like the present figure, the Virgin clasps the robe beneath her right arm, with on the right a deeply carved cascade of broken folds descending from the level of the hips, and on the left a hem characterized by decorative enroulements. One may therefore conclude the Amsterdam Magi was carved in the same artistic milieu, more or less in the same period.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 130, with earlier literature

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, One of the Magi (Balthasar?), from an Adoration of the Magi, Lower Rhine region, c. 1510', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20014983