Pietà

Carved and originally polychromed. The reverse is largely flat. A cloth with an incised lozenge pattern hangs over the back of Mary’s throne. An oblong cavity has been made between the shoulder blades, with an iron securing bar placed over it.

Damage due to woodworm infestation can be observed in places. The crown of thorns and the tip of the cloak front right have suffered some crumbling due to wood rot. Christ’s toes have been replaced. The polychromy has been removed.

…; ? the Achterhoek (eastern Guelders);¹¹Note RMA.…; from the dealer H. Schlichte Bergen, Amsterdam, fl. 7,000, to the museum, 1959

ObjectNumber: BK-1959-75

After Christ’s death on the cross, his body is laid upon the lap of his mother, who mourns her son’s death. This moment, known as the Pietà, is described neither in the Bible nor the apocryphal books.²²See E. Kirschbaum (ed.), Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, vol. 4, Freiburg 1972, cols. 450-56. Under the influence of monks and nuns living in monastic communities, images depicting this theme emerged in Germany around 1300 in the form of a freestanding Andachtsbild. From there the subject was dispersed across the rest of Europe.³³W. Passarge, Das deutsche Vesperbild im Mittelalter, Cologne 1924. In the present work, Mary is depicted as an elderly woman, dressed in a hooded cloak and wimple while seated on a mound of earth, stone and grass. She experiences her grief inwardly, with her head bent down over the lifeless body of her son. Christ’s head faces the viewer. Directly beneath on the ground, at the left front corner of the base, lies the crown of thorns, which has fallen from his head. Mary’s body is much more largely proportioned than Christ’s – a likely intentional motif aimed to accentuate her sorrow. Another noticeable element is the express manner in which Christ’s legs are crossed, in reference to the cross on which he died, a detail encountered in other works (cf. BK-NM-2523).

In terms of style and wood type (walnut), the present sculpture, though long thought to have come from Guelders, points to an origin in the northern part of the duchy of Brabant. One example of production in this region that bears a striking similarity to the Christ figure in this piece is the Christ in a walnut Mercy Seat (c. 1490) from the former Soeterbeeck Priory.⁴⁴L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, no. 50. Both have strikingly robust, well-muscled bodies, and an expressive face with the mouth slightly open. Mary’s rather plump face, with its large nose and straight mouth, recalls that of several female saints attributed to the Master of Leende (active c. 1480-c. 1500). The larger proportions of Mary’s body in relation to the recumbent Christ figure is a characteristic also encountered in an early sixteenth-century oak Pietà in the town of Dommelen in Brabant.⁵⁵Dommelen, Sint-Martinuskerk, see L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, no. 59. Here too Christ’s body drapes diagonally over the right knee of his mother, who supports him with one hand just below the armpit while raising his left arm with the other. The demonstrative crossing of Christ’s legs is a motif also encountered in an oak Pietà today preserved in the Schnütgen Museum (Cologne). Although Westphalian in origin, this work clearly betrays the influence of comparable Netherlandish examples.⁶⁶R. Karrenbrock et al., Die Holzskulpturen des Mittelalters II: 1400 bis 1540. Teil 1: Köln, Westfalen, Norddeutschland, coll. cat. Cologne (Museum Schnütgen) 2001, p. 437. More generally, the type of the present Pietà is found throughout Brabant, but with Christ’s limp body typically lying across Mary’s lap versus only one knee.⁷⁷Cf. J.E. Ziegler, Sculpture of Compassion: The Pietà and the Beguines in the Southern Low Countries c. 1300-c. 1600, Brussels/Rome 1992, figs. 1, 2, 17, 29, 113.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 119, with earlier literature; R. Karrenbrock et al., Die Holzskulpturen des Mittelalters II: 1400 bis 1540. Teil 1: Köln, Westfalen, Norddeutschland, coll. cat. Cologne (Museum Schnütgen) 2001, p. 437

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Pietà, Northern Brabant, c. 1500', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24394