Carved and polychromed. There is a hole (Ø 0.5 cm) in the top of the head for the attachment of a nimbus (?). The polygonal base displays Tremolierung and a hole (Ø 2 cm) extending all the way through. The reverse is slightly worked. Dendrochronological analysis was carried out following a non-invasive approach to keep intact the tool traces on the underside. A tree-ring series with 147 rings was obtained,¹¹M. Domínguez Delmás remarks that it is possible that the series contains errors and that the sculpture would profit from research through computed tomography, also because the widest point in higher up and not at the base. but crossdating with reference chronologies from central, eastern and northern Europe did not produce a reliable dating result.

The foremost part of the base, with the right toes, is missing. There are remnants of what is possibly original polychromy below a later overpainting.

…; collection ‘Count’ Jan Jacob Nahuys (1801-1864), Utrecht; from whom, with eight other objects (BK-NM-20, -23 to -25, -27 to -29 and -31), fl. 400 for all, to the State, 1864; transferred to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-26

Leeuwenberg localized this St John the Evangelist to the Northern Netherlands, circa 1500, without giving his reasons.²²J. Leeuwenberg with the assistence of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 99. Vogelsang compared it to a smaller version in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, in which John holds a chalice instead of a book.³³Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, inv. no. Sk 265, see W. Vogelsang and M. van Notten, Die Holzskulptur in den Niederlanden, vol. 2, Berlin/Utrecht 1912, p. 6. That statue is now convincingly attributed to the workshop of the Kalkar sculptor Arnt van Tricht (active c. 1530-d. 1570) and dated to around 1540 (fig. a).⁴⁴B. Rommé (ed.), Gegen den Strom: Meisterwerke niederrheinischer Skulptur in Zeiten der Reformation 1500-1550, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 1996, no. 39. Although the drapery of the Amsterdam St John is much simpler and more vertically orientated – owing in part to the closed cloak – than the drapery of the Aachen statue, the parallels – in the pose, the sharply carved face with deep folds around the nose, the curly hair fanning out and the polygonal bases – are striking enough to support the placement of the Amsterdam St John in the circle of Arnt van Tricht.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 80, with earlier literature

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'circle of Arnt van Tricht or , St John the Evangelist, or Kalkar, c. 1540', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035571