Solid cast, excepting a rectangular cavity running along the figure’s reverse. Gilded.
Alloy copper alloy with some zinc; copper with high impurities (Cu 94.48%; Zn 2.02%; Sn 0.92%; Pb 0.71%; Sb 0.30%; As 0.39%; Fe 0.72%; Ni 0.18%; Ag 0.49%)

…; collection John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York;¹¹Von Bode 1910, I, p. 8, nos. 25 and 26.…; from the dealer Duveen, with BK-16925-B, $4,500 to Dr Fritz Mannheimer (1890-1939), Amsterdam and Paris, 1929;²²GRI, Digital Collections, Duveen Brothers records, Series II.I, Collectors’ files: Mannheimer, F., ca. 1924-1948, image 171, Memorandum of Shipment, d.d. 12 December 1929, no. 29015 and 29016 and image 169, Internal note between Duveen New York and Duveen London, d.d. 13 December 1929. from whom, fl. 6,350,000, en bloc, to Artistic & General Securities Ltd. as security for a loan from the Mendelssohn & Co. Bank, but kept in usufruct, 1934;³³NHA, 476, RMA Archive, inv. no. 2142, Recapitulatie der geïnventariseerde kunstvoorwerpen van wijlen Dr F. Mannheimer, undated, p. 86, nos. Br 17 a-b, Artistic no. 12/68; NHA, 233, Arrondissementsrechtbank Amsterdam, inv. no. 1365, ‘O.R. 256/1939, Faillissementsdossier: nalatenschap Dr F. Mannheimer, 28 augustus 1939’, image 3, page 2. purchased from Mendelssohn & Co. Bank, en bloc, by the Dienststelle Mühlmann, The Hague, for Adolf Hitler's Führermuseum, Linz, 1940;⁴⁴Korthals Altes 1974, pp. 21-22. war recuperation, SNK, 1945;⁵⁵HNA, SNK Archive, 2.08.42, inv. no. 548. on loan, with 1,702 other objects, from the DRVK to the museum, 1952;⁶⁶Note RMA. transferred to the museum, 1960

Object number: BK-16925-A

This gilded bronze pair of kneeling prophets (for the other figure, see BK-16925-B) originally belonged to a series of six (or possibly even twelve) Old Testament prophets clasping scrolls between their two hands. As a group, these prophets most likely functioned as supporting figures of a large reliquary shrine – a conclusion based on their material and size. Similar in function but reflecting a different artistic vision are two Prophets, one in Cleveland and one in Paris, that originally belonged to a highly prestigious ensemble: the reliquary shrine of St Germanus (490-576).⁷⁷Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. OA 5917 and Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. no. 1964.360. See V. Wyllie Egbert, ‘The Reliquary of Saint-Germain’, The Burlington Magazine 112 (1970), pp. 355-64; W.D. Wixom, Renaissance Bronzes from Ohio Collections, exh. cat. Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 1975, no. 3; E. Taburet-Delahaye et al., Paris 1400: Les arts sous Charles VI, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) 2004, no. 190D; S.N. Fliegel and S. Jugie (eds), Art from the Court of Burgundy 1364-1419, exh. cat. Dijon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 2004-05, no. 15; O. ter Kuile, Koper en brons (Catalogi van de verzameling kunstnijverheid van het Rijksmuseum van Amsterdam, vol. 1), coll. cat. Amsterdam 1986, p. 9. Once preserved at the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Germain-des-Prés in Paris, this reliquary had the form of a gothic chapel and was made by Parisian goldsmiths in 1408-09.⁸⁸E. Taburet-Delahaye et al., Paris 1400: Les arts sous Charles VI, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) 2004, no. 190B (engraving of the shrine, from 1724).

Measuring several centimetres smaller than their counterparts in Paris and Cleveland, the two Amsterdam Kneeling Prophets are compacter in form and pose. By comparison, their facial expressions are less stereotypical, while their hemispheric caps in no way resemble the floppy, overhanging caps worn by the other two. Nor do they possess the elegantly modelled, expansive beards. Lastly, they lack the elegant sickle-shaped, horizontal drapery folds characteristic of the International Gothic style.⁹⁹Cf. the wooden prophets in Utrecht and Frankfurt, attributed to the Master of the Hakendover Altarpiece, see F. Scholten in S. Kemperdick and F. Lammertse et al., The Road to Van Eyck, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) 2012, no. 43. In summary, their origin must not be sought in the Parisian workshops where this style prevailed circa 1400, nor in the immediate circle of the French court sculptor André Beauneveu (c. 1335-c. 1400).¹⁰¹⁰S. Nash et al., “No Equal in Any Land”: André Beauneveu: Artist to the Courts of France and Flanders, London-Bruges 2007, pl. 74, pp. 107-43, and pls. 68-79. Some similarity to the present bronzes can be discerned in the stone carved prophets on the corbels of the Belfort Portal of the Brussels Town Hall, especially the mantles and their thickset beards. Yet a greater affinity exists with the corbel figures in the chapel of the Maison Jacques Coeur in Bourges.¹¹¹¹G. Troescher, Die burgundische Plastik des ausgehenden Mittelalters und ihre Wirkungen auf die europäische Kunst, 2 vols., Frankfurt am Main 1940, pl. XLVIII (figs. 161-64), vol. 2, pl. LIII (figs. 191-93, esp. 192). At this time, no direct parallels have been ascertained for the hemispherical, helmet-like headdresses of the two Amsterdam Prophets. Most comparable is the domed helmet worn by the prophet Joel in Beauneveu’s miniature in the Psalter of the Duke de Berry.¹²¹²S. Nash et al., “No Equal in Any Land”: André Beauneveu: Artist to the Courts of France and Flanders, London-Bruges 2007, pl. 74.

Also approaching the two Amsterdam bronzes in style is the fragment of a gilded bronze Angel in Cleveland: here one finds not only a similar full-round face, but also the rather mechanical treatment of the hair and a comparable drapery scheme. Viewed as Franco-Flemish in origin and dated circa 1400, this Angel is thought to have also formed part of a reliquary shrine.¹³¹³W.D. Wixom, Renaissance Bronzes from Ohio Collections, exh. cat. Cleveland (The Cleveland Museum of Art) 1975, no. 2.

A standing, bearded Apostle preserved at Münster – made from hammered copper and subsequently gilded – echoes the facial features, treatment of the drapery folds and the large hands of the Amsterdam bronzes. Measuring more than 15 centimetres high, this Apostle also possibly comes from a reliquary shine and was likely produced in Westphalia during the second half of the fourteenth century.¹⁴¹⁴Münster, Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL), inv. no. BM 359, on loan from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Münster. My thanks to Bieke van der Mark for bringing this piece to my attention. The strongest parallel, however, is provided by four seated oak-carved figures, specifically, two Carmelite monks (or prophets?), the apostle St James the Greater and St John the Baptist. Originally functioning as crowning elements adorning the sides of the choir stall in the Carmelite abbey church of Gerunden (near Sion, Switzerland), all are today preserved at the collegiate church in nearby Valeria. Dated circa 1425, the figures are viewed as works produced under the Burgundian influence of Sluter and his école dijonnaise.¹⁵¹⁵G. Troescher, Die burgundische Plastik des ausgehenden Mittelalters und ihre Wirkungen auf die europäische Kunst, 2 vols., Frankfurt am Main 1940, vol. 1, pp. 149, 150 and vol. 2, pl. CIV (figs. 451, 454).

Frits Scholten, 2024

W. von Bode, Bronzes of the Renaissance and Subsequent Periods: Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, 2 vols., coll. cat. New York 1910, vol. 1, p. 8, nos. 25, 26, pl.; O. von Falke, Katalog der Sammlung F.M. [Fritz Mannheimer] (typescript in Rijksmuseum Library), s.l. 1935-36, p. 116, no. B17; E.G.G. Bos, Vijf eeuwen koper en brons (Rijksmuseum, Facetten der Verzameling 13), Amsterdam 1973, fig. 20; O. ter Kuile, Koper en brons (Catalogi van de verzameling kunstnijverheid van het Rijksmuseum van Amsterdam, vol. 1), coll. cat. Amsterdam 1986, no. 6

F. Scholten, 2024, 'anonymous or , Kneeling Prophet, , c. 1400 - c. 1410', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200112378