St Giles

Carved and originally (?) polychromed. The figure is completely finished in the round. The missing right hand was carved separately and joined with a peg. The bottom section of the base was carved separately and attached to the figure with several dowels.

The base has sustained woodworm damage. The hind’s left ear is missing, as are St Giles’s right hand holding an arrow (?) and the index finger of his left hand. A large crack and several small fractures have been filled. The original polychromy was likely removed.

…; from the collection A.P. Hermans-Smits (1822-1897), Eindhoven, with numerous other objects (BK-NM-2001 to -2800), fl. 14,000 for all, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Museum voor Religieuze Kunst, Uden, 2005-12

ObjectNumber: BK-NM-2731

As his legend tells, St Giles (Aegidius) lived at the close of the seventh century as a hermit in the woods near Nîmes, where he survived by drinking the milk of a hind. During a hunting party, Wamba, King of the Visigoths attempts to shoot the deer with an arrow. Instead of hitting the deer, however, he unintentionally wounds the hermit with whom the animal had sought refuge. As penitence, the king founded a Benedictine abbey at the mouth of the Rhône River, where Giles was named abbot. Here the saint is portrayed attired and shorn as a Benedictine monk. At his feet stands the doe in memory of the monk’s legendary act. She gazes up at him, while laying her front left leg against his leg. The arrow wound in Giles’s chest is visible through his habit. In his now missing right hand, he would have held the arrow, as corroborated by the turning of the head in that direction. He holds a folio book clamped between his left arm and upper body, at the same time pinching the skirt of his habit and resulting in a flowing rightward sweep of the folds across his chest and abdomen. The characteristic face and the exquisitely finished play of the drapery – particularly the right sleeve of his habit – point to a distinctive woodcarver. Nevertheless, his identity remains enigmatic. Stylistically, the present St Giles displays an affinity to carved works produced in the Lower Rhine region, with the drapery folds, mannerist pose and positioning of the fingers indicating a dating of circa 1530-40.

In the past, this saintly figure was dated either at the start of the sixteenth century or around 1525, and ascribed to various regions – including the Northern Netherlands,¹¹A. Pit, Catalogus van de beeldhouwwerken in het Nederlandsch Museum voor geschiedenis en kunst te Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1904, no. 116. the Lower Rhine region,²²W. Vogelsang and M. van Notten, Die Holzskulptur in den Niederlanden, vol. 2, Das Niederländische Museum zu Amsterdam, Berlin/Utrecht 1912, no. 65; Pit 1915, no. 173. Guelders,³³Note RMA. and the Southern Netherlands – without argumentation.⁴⁴J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 137. Ostensibly the most tenable attribution is the Southern Netherlands, given St Giles’s tremendous popularity in that region. However, this is contradicted by the figure’s style, as it shows no agreement with Southern Netherlandish woodcarving. Elements such as the dynamic and effusive folds of the drapery, the fleshy facial type, high cheekbones, square jawline and prominent, jutting chin are all characteristics similar to those found on sculptural works produced in the Lower Rhine region. Examples of the same facial type are found in the oeuvres of woodcarvers such as Master Arnt of Kalkar (active c. 1460-d. 1492),⁵⁵Cf. an Augustine from 1480-90 in the Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, inv. no. ABM bh272, see M. van Vlierden et al., _ Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, ca. 1200-1600_, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 299-300. Henrik Douverman (c. 1490-1543/44. cf. BK-NM-11537) and Arnt van Tricht (active c. 1530-d. 1570).⁶⁶Cf. the male figures from the Retable of the Seven Sorrows of Mary of 1518-22 by Henrik Douverman and Arnt van Tricht in the Sankt-Nicolaikirche in Kalkar, see B. Rommé et al., Gegen den Strom: Meisterwerke niederrheinischer Skulptur in Zeiten der Reformation 1500-1550, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 1996, nos. 15, 33. Compare also several apostles from a retable group with the Descent of the Holy Spirit in the Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, inv. no. ABM bh278, see M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, p. 338 as ‘Cleves-Guelders, c. 1520’. For the ‘fluttering’ drapery folds on Giles’s right sleeve, parallels can be discerned in a number of works by Arnt van Tricht, including a Visitation of circa 1530 preserved in the Kolumba Museum in Cologne, a St Barbara from circa 1530 in the Sankt-Antonius Abbaskirche in Hanselaer, and a St Christopher in the Pfarrkirche Sankt-Peter und Paul in Kranenburg.⁷⁷B. Rommé et al., Gegen den Strom: Meisterwerke niederrheinischer Skulptur in Zeiten der Reformation 1500-1550, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 1996, nos. 34, 35, 43. Additionally, the mannerist positioning of the fingers on Giles’s left hand are reminiscent of Douverman’s Enthroned Virgin from circa 1540 in Musée Cluny in Paris.⁸⁸Paris, Musée de Cluny, Musée national du Moyen Âge, inv. no. Cl. 13236, see B. Rommé et al., Gegen den Strom: Meisterwerke niederrheinischer Skulptur in Zeiten der Reformation 1500-1550, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 1996, no. 32. Lastly, the ground on which the saint stands, composed of clumps of earth from which small, flat stones emerge, provides another strong argument for a Lower Rhenish origin. The manner in which the bottom section of the base is carved can be described as a technical distinction, which, as far as can be ascertained, occurs only with figures by Henrik Douverman and other woodcarvers from his circle.⁹⁹Cf. B. Rommé et al., Gegen den Strom: Meisterwerke niederrheinischer Skulptur in Zeiten der Reformation 1500-1550, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 1996, nos. 28, 56, 61 and 73.

There are no indications that St Giles enjoyed any kind of special veneration in the Lower Rhine region, but this in itself by no means precludes a localization of the sculpture in this region. As one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, he is certain to have enjoyed ample renown.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 137, with earlier literature; C. van Gerwen, Uit Noachs Ark: Dieren in westerse religieuze kunst, exh. cat. Valkenswaard (Museum van Gerwen-Lemmens) 2000, no. 33

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, St Giles, Lower Rhine region, c. 1530 - c. 1540', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24414