The Swoon of the Virgin

Carved and originally polychromed. The reverse is flat.

Breakages on the front side of the base. The polychromy has been removed with a caustic. Remnants of red bole can be observed on John’s hair.

…; 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 Noordbrabants Museum, Den Bosch, 1974-2017

ObjectNumber: BK-NM-2473

This retable group with the Swoon of the Virgin in all probability originated from an altarpiece devoted to the Life of the Virgin or the Passion of Christ. Derived from a prototype that was repeated with great frequency in Antwerp during the first half of the sixteenth century, the group’s composition consists of three figures, with the foundering figure of the Virgin depicted frontally in the centre, supported on either side by St John the Evangelist and one of the holy women (typically a fashionably dressed Mary Magdalene). In contrast to the figure of the Virgin, the other two figures are depicted standing upright and in profile view. In the present group, John gazes upwards at an angle to the (former) location of Christ on the cross, while the holy woman gazes down at the Virgin Mary, who is overcome with sadness. Comparable works include a retable group, later converted into a freestanding devotional piece, of the Swoon of the Virgin, dated circa 1520-30,¹¹London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. Circ. 244-1932, see P. Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550, coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2002, no. 25. and a retable group of the same theme from circa 1530, both preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.²²London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. A.50-1940, see P. Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550, coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2002, no. 24. With the first group, the Amsterdam Virgin shares the facial type and the sash tied around the waist. The Swoon of the Virgin in the Antwerp Passion Retable of Opitter of circa 1540, though similar, is stylistically further developed.³³Opitter-Bree, Sint-Trudokerk, see KIK-IRPA, object no. 91065 and H. Nieuwdorp (ed.), Antwerp Altarpieces 15th-16th centuries, 2 vols., exh. cat. Antwerp (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal) 1993, vol. 1, no. 15. On this altarpiece, the group is still located in the customary place: left below the cross of the Calvary scene in the central retable caisse.

The present group can be dated circa 1510-20 based on the staid drapery folds, the figures’ as yet somewhat stiff poses and details in their attire, such as Mary Magdalene’s fantastical headdress and openworked sleeves. Unlike the aforementioned groups in the Victoria and Albert Museum, it possesses no trace of the approaching Antwerp Mannerism, a style characterized by the excessively artificial, almost dance-like poses and the ballooning, supply draping clothing pieces that came to predominate in Antwerp retable-building approximately in the years 1520 to 1540, of which the aforementioned retable of Opitter is a fully developed example.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 155, with earlier literature; P. Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550, coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2002, pp. 92 and 95

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, The Swoon of the Virgin, Antwerp, c. 1510 - c. 1520', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24435