Pietà

Carved and originally polychromed. The reverse is flat.

Woodworm damage in several areas. Various small cracks can be discerned, resulting from the removal of the polychromy with a caustic.

…; collection Charles Gérard Hubert Guillon (1811-1873), Musée Guillon, Roermond; his sale, Roermond, 30 November to 14 December 1874, p. 12, no. 23, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague; transferred to the museum, 1885

ObjectNumber: BK-NM-1279

Seated with her son’s lifeless body lying across her lap, the Virgin stares serenely into space.¹¹For scenes of the Pietà in Southern Netherlandish sculpture, see J.E. Ziegler, Sculpture of Compassion: The Pietà and the Beguines in the Southern Low Countries c. 1300-c. 1600, Brussels/Rome 1992. She uses both arms to prevent Christ’s body, its weakness convincingly portrayed, from sliding off her legs. Mary has a remarkably youthful face, despite the veil and wimple she wears in accordance with her actual age. Scenes of the Pietà appear in altars dedicated to the Passion of Christ and the Sorrows of Mary. As an Andachtsbild, the image was also often chosen as the main scene in smaller retables.²²Works for comparison include the Brabantine portable altar in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, inv. no. BEK 1773 (OK), see M. van Vlierden and J. Giltay, Uit het goede hout gesneden: Middeleeuwse beelden uit de collectie Schoufour-Martin in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, coll. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) 2008, no. 49 and N. Gliesmann, Geschnitzte kleinformatige Retabel aus Antwerpener, Brüsseler und Mechelener Produktion des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts: Herstellung, Form, Funktion, Petersberg 2011, no. 70, and two single-caisse retables produced in Antwerp, works similar to each other, one in the Sint-Walburgiskerk at Netterden and the other in the Convento da Consiegão do San Bernardo (Museo Municipal), see P. Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550, coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2002, fig. 30a on p. 110 and N. Gliesmann, Geschnitzte kleinformatige Retabel aus Antwerpener, Brüsseler und Mechelener Produktion des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts: Herstellung, Form, Funktion, Petersberg 2011, nos. 44, 45.

In the nineteenth century, the sculpture belonged to the Roermond notary and politician Charles Guillon (1811-1873), whose large collection was exhibited in his home in the Swalmerstraat, also known as the Museé Guillon. After Guillon’s death, his entire collection was sold at auction in two parts. In 1874, the books, charters and art objects were put up for sale. The Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst bought six sculptures, including this Pietà and a somewhat related Virgin and Child with St Anne (BK-NM-1280). The women in both groups display a similar facial type characterized by a long, straight nose and crescent-shaped eyes with slightly bulging eyeballs, reminiscent of the physiognomic types of the poupées de Malines produced in the Brabantine city of Mechelen on a major scale during the late Middle Ages. A further indication of the Pietà’s Brabantine origin is its similarity to an early sixteenth-century Christ on the Cold Stone, likely produced in Leuven, which appeared on the Antwerp art market in 2011.³³B. Descheemaeker, Geprezen en Geprijsd/ Appraised and Apprized (Bernard Descheemaeker Works of Art 8), sale cat. Brussels 2011, no. 11. The anatomy of this Christ figure is strikingly similar to that of the Amsterdam Christ, and the rendering of the eyes is comparable to that of Mary’s.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 85

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Pietà, Brabant, c. 1500 - c. 1525', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24360