Carved in relief. No traces of polychromy have been found

There are old wormholes. There are two small cracks upper left and lower left. A small piece of the front of the bottom edge has broken off. The Virgin’s hands are missing. There is slight discolouration typical of fire damage lower left. There are three drilled holes in the underside.

…; collection Uylenberg family, The Hague, c. 1920; by descent to J.C. Uylenberg and P. Uylenberg; by whom donated to the museum, 6 June 2007

Object number: BK-2007-7

Credit line: Gift of J.C. Uylenberg and P. Uylenberg

This relief is of a scene from the Bible that was depicted relatively seldom in the Middle Ages. It is the Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, as described in Acts 2:1-5.¹¹Cf. a painting by the anonymous Bruges Master of the Baroncelli Portraits (c. 1480-90): sale, London (Christie’s), 7 December 2010, no. 8; M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. 10, Leiden/Brussels 1973, pp. 19, 70, no. 14 and fig. b. 13; D. Martens and H. Mund, ‘Autour de la “Pentecôte Rapaert” du Maître des portraits Baroncelli. Modèles et traditions dans la peinture Brugeoises à l’aube des temps modernes’, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 45 (2003), pp. 1-37. Christ’s twelve disciples had come together and gathered in a circle around Mary. The two foremost apostles (James on the left, possibly Peter on the right) sit on gothic stools. Above the group, but missing here, the Holy Ghost appears in the form of a dove and pours its spirit over the twelve apostles, who will then go out into the world to proclaim faith in Christ in every language. After the departure of Judas Iscariot, who had betrayed Christ, they had been joined by a new apostle, Matthias (Acts 1:23-26).

This notably small sculpture may once have been part of a house altar, where – in view of its symmetrical composition – it may well have been the central scene.²²The scene was given a central place in late 15th-century painting particularly in Bruges, whereas in other Flemish towns the Pentecost figured exclusively on the wings of Passion altars, see D. Martens and H. Mund, ‘Autour de la “Pentecôte Rapaert” du Maître des portraits Baroncelli. Modèles et traditions dans la peinture Brugeoises à l’aube des temps modernes’, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 45 (2003), pp. 1-37. An alabaster Pentecost of the same size is held in the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung in Frankfurt am Main, inv. no. 702, see W. Schenkluhn, Nachantike kleinplastische Bildwerke, vol. 1, Mittelalter, 11. Jahrhundert bis 1530-40, coll. cat. Frankfurt am Main (Liebieghaus) 1987, no. 109 (as ‘Schwaben, c. 1480’). The dove would have descended from above the altar caisse, either as a separate carving or painted. The two vertical grooves in the back of the group were probably for positioning and securing it in its caisse. With its emphasis on the ‘family’ gathering of the apostles and their spiritual mother, the Pentecost is a highly appropriate scene for a house altar set up in a private chapel or in a domestic setting, where it would evoke feelings of homely and spiritual harmony and affinity. Painted scenes of the Pentecost are consequently often set in a contemporary household environment.

Despite this small group’s modest size and the hardness of the oak, the woodcarver succeeded in achieving a remarkable degree of detail in the diversity of the apostles’ heads, facial expressions, hair and beards. The similarities between some of their faces and those of figures in a larger altar group of the Meeting of the Magi, attributable to a follower of Adriaen van Wesel in Utrecht, active around 1500, suggests that the two works come from the same circle – if not the same workshop.³³Utrecht, Centraal Museum, inv. no. 1820, 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. 25 (as ‘follower of Van Wesel, c. 1500’); J. Klinckaert, De verzamelingen van het Centraal Museum Utrecht, vol. 3, Beeldhouwkunst tot 1850, coll. cat. Utrecht 1997, no. 106. These similarities are particularly striking when we compare the Magi on the left and right and the servant with a cap on the far right with the heads of the two foremost apostles, the two at the upper left edge and the apostle seen in profile on the right above the Virgin. The gracefully waving locks of hair are particularly alike. The style of the folds of the clothes, with fairly sharp graphic lines, corresponds closely. This Pentecost must likewise have been made in this Utrecht ambiente in the last quarter of the fifteenth century.

On the reverse there is an old, probably eighteenth-century label stating that the object survived the fire in the Kapel ter Heilige Stede (after the Alteration known as the Nieuwezijds Kapel) in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam in 1452. The historical reliability of this information is doubtful, however, contradicted as it is by the style of the relief, which is difficult to reconcile with a date of manufacture before 1452.⁴⁴For the later history of the chapel, see A. de Koomen, ‘Een lamentatio over een lapidarium: De Nieuwezijds Kapel in de Rijksmuseumtuin’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 55, no. 4 (2007), pp. 299-331.

Recently, a link was established between the present Pentecost and an oak fragment from an Ascension measuring 24.5 by 11 centimetres (fig. a) preserved in the Museum W in Weert.⁵⁵Weert, Museum W, inv.no. 3872. Obvious similarities in size and style are discernible, including the figures’ sharply defined, graphic drapery folds, their idiosyncratic faces and elegantly flowing hairlocks and beards. Moreover, the Weert group has a similar vertical groove on the reverse, with comparable signs of fire damage also visible towards the bottom.⁶⁶With thanks to John van Cauteren for this information (written communication to Bieke van der Mark, 16-02-2024). Independently, Van Cauteren noted the same similarities and also attributed the Weert group to a Utrecht workshop. Perhaps more noteworthy is the presence of a handwritten, unfortunately partly legible label on the reverse. The handwriting does not match that of the label on the Pentecost group and is ostensibly of much earlier date, possibly the late sixteenth or seventeenth century. Even so, the label’s text also refers to a fire in Amsterdam: […] stadt Amsterdam [‘city of Amsterdam’], brand [‘fire’] and de half stat is aefgebr[..]d [‘… half of the town has been (burnt down?)’]. This strongly suggests that both sculptures originated from the same altar, probably found in an Amsterdam church, chapel or monastery. The connection with the Weert fragment appears to exclude the possibility that the Pentecost scene came from a house altar, as suggested above.

Both fragments would have formed part of a somewhat larger sculpted retable, placed – as Van Cauteren rightly noted – in two hinged caisses used to shutter the altar’s central top section. A similar construction is known from Adriaen van Wesel’s Marin altar for the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in Den Bosch, of which both caisses are still preserved.⁷⁷W. 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. 38-42, fig. 6, and nos. 8, 9. In the form of painted wings flanking the central top section, we find both the Ascension and the Pentecost appearing on an Antwerp Passion altar in the church of Klausen (Eifel, Germany), which dates from circa 1480.⁸⁸H.J. De Smedt, ‘The Antwerp altarpieces and their iconography. An overview of subjects and changes’, in H. Nieuwdorp (ed.), Antwerp Altarpieces 15th-16th centuries, 2 vols., exh. cat. Antwerp (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe-Kathedraal) 1993, vol. 2, pp. 23-46, esp. 25-27, and fig. 4; M. Weniger, ‘L’atelier du Maître de Klausen’, in S. Guillot de Suduiraut et al., Retables brabançons des XVe et XVIe siècles, Paris 2002, pp. 487-539. This plausibly indicates that the two fragments’ original setting must also have been a Passion retable – given their small dimensions, one quite modest in size. In shape and format, this retable would be comparable to several smaller Brussels altarpieces dating from the same period.⁹⁹Cf. B. D’Hainaut-Zveny (ed.), Miroirs du sacré: Les retables sculptés à Bruxelles XVe-XVIe siècles: Production, Formes et usages, Brussels 2005, nos. A5, A6, B18. Because of the detailed carving on both fragments and the total absence of polychromy, this ‘Amsterdam’ altarpiece was likely intentionally left unpainted.

The fact that the label on the Weert fragment may date from the late sixteenth or seventeenth century bolsters the historical reliability of its inscription, and by implication, that of the text on the Pentecost group. The style of both works inevitably suggests that they could not have been rescued from the fire in the Kapel ter Heilige Stede in 1452. Even so, the agreement between the two labels serves to further confirm a shared Amsterdam provenance. Conceivably, the burn marks on both pieces highlights an association with this devastating fire that destroyed approximately two-thirds of the city – an event undoubtedly still firmly anchored in Amsterdam’s collective memory more than a century and a half later. In any case, an Amsterdam provenance by no means refutes the notion that the altar would have originated from the dominant artistic centre in the vicinity of Utrecht.¹⁰¹⁰The provenance of the Weert piece, documented in the parish of Gorkum in or before 1935, by no means counters an Utrecht origin. Thanks to John van Cauteren for this information (written communication, 16-02-2024).

Frits Scholten, 2024

‘Keuze uit de aanwinsten’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 55 (2007), pp. 397-98, no. 1; F. Scholten, ‘Recent Acquisitions (2004-09) of Sculpture at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam’, The Burlington Magazine 151 (2009), p. 808, no. 5

F. Scholten, 2024, 'anonymous, Pentecost, Utrecht, c. 1475 - c. 1500', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/2008355