St Eligius Forging a Chalice

Carved and (originally) partly gilded. The working block is composed of three vertical parts (wainscots?). The pedestal supporting the anvil is ornamented in front with a rock crystal cabochon mounted over a piece of pink textile. Six rosette-shaped recesses can be discerned: four around the rock crystal and two flanking the weighing scale on the sculpture’s integrally carved base.¹¹In 1973 the recess right of the scale still had its rosette: six almandine stones encircling a gilded heart, see J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 165. The round recessed surface between the two ends of St Eligius’s collar perhaps also held an inlay stone.

The head of the hammer is missing, as are five of the six almandine rosettes. The left half of the weighing scale has sustained damage. Traces of an old bole layer can be discerned in areas; the gilding has been lost

…; ? France;²²J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 146. from the dealer J.M. Morpurgo, Amsterdam, fl. 3,000, to the museum, 1956

ObjectNumber: BK-1956-18

This somewhat enigmatic statuette – with no comparable work known – was likely commissioned by a gold and silversmith’s guild. Depicted is a smith forging a chalice on an anvil with a hammer. Traces of a bole layer indicate the sculpture was originally gilded. Adorning the anvil’s pedestal is a rock crystal cabochon through which a piece of pink textile can be seen: possibly some kind of relic, such as a bit of fabric from a saint’s robe. Four round recesses on the front corners of the anvil’s pedestal and two flanking the relief-carved weighing scale originally held rosettes composed of several amandine stones.³³In 1973, the rosette right of the scale was still intact, see J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 146.

Acknowledging the presence of (or at least an allusion to) a relic, the figure most likely depicted here is St Eligius (Eloy) of Noyon, the patron saint of smiths. This blacksmith of modest origin rose to the rank of goldsmith and master coiner of the Frankish kings Chlothar II and Dagobert I, ultimately becoming bishop of Noyon.⁴⁴For Eligius, see E. Kirschbaum (ed.), Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, vol. 6, Freiburg 1974, cols. 122-27. In his role as bishop, Eligius sought to convert the heathen peoples living in the region of the Scheldt and Lys rivers. He is also said to have preached in Antwerp. One often represented legend from the saint’s hagiography tells of how Eligius once had to shod a wild, kicking horse. He achieved this feat by amputating the horse’s lower forelimb, shodding the hoof and then miraculously reattaching it to the leg, as depicted in a small, wood-carved sixteenth-century (retable?) group in the church of Sainte-Elisabeth in Mons.⁵⁵See KIK-IRPA, object no. 10052934. and A. Kuyle, St Eloy, Utrecht 1955, p. 2 (ill.). Cf. a Burgundian St Eligius statue in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, inv. no. RMCC b84, see M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 471-72.

Despite the ostensible religious function of a reliquary statuette, the present object has a distinct worldly character. No reference is made to any of the Eligius legends, nor is the figure dressed in the vestments of a bishop (cf. RP-P-OB-963). Instead he wears the simple clothing of a working man. As the integrally carved, raised-relief weighing scale adorning the front of the socle is not one of the saint’s standard attributes (chalice, hammer, anvil, pincer, horse’s hoof and reliquary shrine), it might therefore be interpreted as an additional reference to the smith’s, or more specifically, the goldsmith’s profession. The overall emphasis on artisanship only serves to strengthen the impression that this work was commissioned by a guild. Eligius similarly appears (i.e.: working at his anvil wearing everyday work attire) on one of the rear panels of Ambrosius Francken’s (1544/45-1618) painted triptych made for the former altar of the blacksmiths in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal in Antwerp.⁶⁶Antwerp, Royal Museums of Fine Arts, inv. no. 576, see C. Van de Velde, ‘Het kunstpatrimonium: De 16de eeuw’, in J. Van Damme and W. Aerts (eds.), De Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal van Antwerpen, Antwerp 1993, pp. 177-203, esp. p. 194 (ill.). Another example is Petrus Christus’s (c. 1425-1475) rendering of Eligius as a goldsmith working in his shop, painted in 1449 and in all probability commissioned by a goldsmith’s guild.⁷⁷New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection, inv. no. 1975.I.110, see M.W. Ainsworth and M.P.J. Martens, Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges, exh. cat. New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) 1994, p. 96.

On stylistic grounds, the present statuette can be dated to the second half of the sixteenth century. At this time, Antwerp, but also Mechelen, Utrecht, Amsterdam and other major cities had their own St Eloy guilds, where goldsmiths and silversmiths unified themselves, sometimes in alliance with other metalsmiths. These corporations had their own altar or chapel in their local church, dedicated to the guild’s patron saint. In Antwerp, for example, the goldsmiths placed a silver (reliquary?) statue of St Eligius on the altar of their guild chapel in the church of the Dominicans.⁸⁸D. Schlugleit, De Antwerpse goud- en zilversmeden in het Corporatief Stelsel (1382-1798), Wetteren 1969, pp. 68, 106-07, 199-201. In the Northern Netherlands, guild altars – like other Catholic altars – were dismantled during the Alteration. In the Southern Netherlands, most of the altarpieces were lost with the abolition of these corporations under the French occupation. By this time, however, many altarpieces dating from before the Reformation had already been demolished during the Iconoclasm.

The present work offers no clues regarding its origin or for which St Eloy guild it might have been produced. St Eligius’s relics were dispersed throughout the Netherlands. Moreover, the naturalistic, late-renaissance style of the carving was prevalent in all parts of the Low Countries, further complicating a more precise determination of its place of manufacture. Lastly, the wooden piece could also have conceivably functioned as a (casting?) model for a work executed in silver.⁹⁹As suggested by Dirk Jan Biemond, oral communication, RMA, 5 September 2016. For wooden statuettes serving as (casting) models for goldsmith’s works, see L. Seelig et al, Modell und Ausführung in der Metallkunst, exh. cat. Munich (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum) 1989, pp. 14-18 and no. 13. For a silver-gilt reliquary statuette with the wooden model still preserved intact, see J. Kempf (ed.), Sculpture Collection in the Bode Museum, coll. cat. Berlin (Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung) 2008, no. 29. If indeed initially conceived as a model, the (now lost) gilding, the rock crystal cabochon and the (now lost) inlay gemstones would affirm its ultimate designation as an autonomous sculpture.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 165, with earlier literature

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, St Eligius Forging a Chalice, Northern or Southern Netherlands, c. 1550 - c. 1560', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24445