Virgin and Child

Carved and originally polychromed and gilded in areas. The upper part of the Virgin’s head (hair) was carved from a separate piece of alabaster and glued to the rest, with virtually no visual trace.¹¹For a comparable Madonna with a ‘sawn-off’ crown of the skull (Netherlands, first half of the 15th century), see K.W. Woods, Cut in Alabaster: A Material of Sculpture and its European Traditions 1330-1530, London 2018, pp. 26-27 (fig. 9). Isotope analysis (W. Kloppmann et al. 2018) has indicated the alabaster is English (Nottingham) and not French (Saint-Lothain) as was previously²²F. Scholten, ‘Acquisitions: Medieval Sculpture from the Goldschmidt-Pol Collection and from Other Donors’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 59 (2011), pp. 414-35, esp. no. 8. assumed. It dates from the Triassic period.

One of Christ’s feet and a hem on Mary’s mantle have broken off. This damage was first documented in 1957.³³KIK-IRPA, Brussels, neg. no. B172036 (photo from 1957). Furthermore, minimal, minor ‘user’s damage’. Traces of polychromy can be discerned on the base (green), the apples (red) and the ornamentation on the hem (gilding).

…; collection Georges-Leon Beeckmans de West-Meerbeeck (1877-1955), acquired in the 1930s;⁴⁴Written communication of the dealer Benoît Orban de Xivry, 3 November 2009. his daughter Godelieve Beeckmans de West-Meerbeeck (1911-2007), Brussels, 1955; her nephews François-Xavier de Donnéa de Hamoir (born 1941), Jean-Marie de Donnéa de Hamoir (born 1945), Pierre de Donnéa de Hamoir (born 1951) and niece Marie de Patoul (born 1954); from whom acquired by the museum (through the mediation of the dealer Benoît Orban de Xivry (Artbox SCS), Brussels), with support of the Frits en Phine Verhaaff Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds, 2009

ObjectNumber: BK-2009-270

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Frits en Phine Verhaaff Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds

This Virgin and Child can be seen as a courtly and more monumental version of the characteristic Madonna-and-Child type produced in large numbers for private devotion in the city of Mechelen during the early decades of the sixteenth century. These so-called poupées de Malines, carved in oak or walnut and diminutive in size, share numerous characteristics such as round doll-like faces with high foreheads, pointed jeans, fine mouths, and sickle-shaped eyes. They wear richly varied, decorative clothing. They are also accompanied by an active Christ Child and a variety of attributes. The present sculpture of Mary displays most of these characteristics, albeit executed with much greater refinement and in the costly material alabaster.

The complex and highly linear scheme of the drapery folds on this Madonna statuette is commonly encountered around the year 1500 both in Mechelen and elsewhere in the Southern Netherlands. In this case, however, it is applied far more exuberantly and with a more complex, graphic quality compared to most of the sculptures produced in Mechelen.⁵⁵Cf. Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. nos. BMH bh3959 and ABM bh346, see M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 286, 287; Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. nos. RF 1788, RF 1567, RF 2543 and RF 2572, see S. Guillot de Suduiraut, Sculptures brabançonnes du Musée du Louvre: Bruxelles, Malines, Anvers, XVe-XVIe siècles, coll. cat. Paris 2001, nos. 10, 11, 14 and 15. The sculptor employed ‘waterfalls’ of sharp zigzag folds, thus creating small triangular areas of shadow, that alternate with vertical folds that gently descend on the reverse and the left side. The ornamental pattern on the hem consists of a single carved band with a winding leaf tendril of alternating palmettes. A less elaborate decoration in sgraffito regularly adorns the polychromed poupées de Malines, but the clearest parallels are found on a number of Antwerp retable sculptures from around 1520-30, and on the hem of the archangel Gabriel’s cloak in a Brussels Annunciation of circa 1500-10.⁶⁶Cf. S. Guillot de Suduiraut, Sculptures brabançonnes du Musée du Louvre: Bruxelles, Malines, Anvers, XVe-XVIe siècles, coll. cat. Paris 2001, nos. 2, 10, 11, 15 and 19-21 (cover and figs. on pp. 49, 54, 62 and cover); A. Huysmans et al., Beeldhouwkunst van de Zuidelijke Nederlanden en het Prinsbisdom Luik, coll. cat. Brussels (Royal Museums for Art and History) 1999, no. 87 (Antwerp, c. 1510-20; left soldier on p. 169).

The statuette’s refined and luxurious execution is also manifest in the elaborate and consistent detailing. This applies to the aforementioned palmette motif adorning the hem of Mary’s raiment – carved in relief and subsequently gilded, though now abraded in sections – but also the subtle suggestion of her undergarment’s sleeves and the detailed finishing of the eye pupils, the eyelids and individual strands of hair. Beneath Mary’s alabaster skin, one can discern the collarbone and the tensed muscles of the neck. Traces of an original polychromy and gilding indicate the alabaster was enhanced by the application of subtle colour accents, likewise contributing to the statuette’s sumptuous appearance: a green earthly base, red and/or golden apples in Christ’s basket, and the gilt ornamental borders lining Mary’s mantle and dress. Such a colour scheme may perhaps convey an applied standard of alabaster polychroming that existed in north-western Europe – a standard that fully preserved the inherent qualities of the costly stone, while facilitating a certain striving towards naturalism.⁷⁷Cf. the polychromy on Riemenschneider’s alabaster Annunciation group in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. BK-16986) with a green basis and gilt lettering, as well as gilding on the hair and the ornamentation of Gabriel and Mary’s robes.

A notable characteristic of the Mechelen poupées is the variation in the positioning and activity of the Christ Child, who, for instance, plays with Mary’s collar, or holds an apple, a pear, grapes, a book or rosary, all attributes drawn from the devotional literature that was popular at this time.⁸⁸R.L. Falkenburg, The Fruit of Devotion: Mysticism and the Imagery of Love in Flemish Paintings of the Virgin and Child, 1450-1550, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 1994, passim. Yet the motif of Christ holding a small basket of apples – from which he takes one and gives it to his mother – is, as far as can be ascertained, unique in late medieval sculpture. In a small group of the Virgin and Child with St Anne (so-called Anna-te-Drieën) from Mechelen (c. 1520), the Christ Child plays with a small beehive, held in front of him by his grandmother.⁹⁹T. Brandenburg et al., Heilige Anna, grote moeder: De cultus van de Heilige Moeder Anna en haar familie in de Nederlanden en aangrenzende streken, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1992, no. 117 (from the Sint-Luciakerk in Ravenstein, The Netherlands). My thanks to Bieke van der Mark for this information. More similar to the present alabaster is a wooden Madonna and Child (c. 1500-25) regionally attributed to the Northern Netherlands. Here Mary holds a round wicker basket, from which the child, who sits on her arm, takes a piece of fruit.¹⁰¹⁰Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. bh1521, see M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 171-72.

A basket with apples in connection with Christ and his mother also occurs as an independent motif in Netherlandish sculpture and painting from this period. An early example is the marginal decoration of a miniature accompanying the Office of the Death in the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, painted around 1440.¹¹¹¹New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.917/945, fol. 169r; J. Plummer (ed.), The Book of Hours of Catherine of Cleves, New York 1964, no. 100. In Geertgen tot Sint Jan’s The Holy Kinship, a painted panel in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-500), a wicker basket with apples rests at Anne’s feet. Pinched between thumb and finger, she holds one of the fruits by its stem (fig. a). Two paintings by Colyn de Coter (c. 1450/55-1522/32) show an angel offering a small basket of fruit or flowers to Mary and her son.¹²¹²M.J. Friedländer (with comments and notes by N. Veronee-Verhaegen), Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. 4, Hugo van der Goes, Leiden 1969, plates 90, 91.

In the context of the Virgin and Christ, the apple’s meaning can be interpreted as a reference to Eve and the forbidden fruit, which through Mary’s purity regains its positive status as the apple of mercy.¹³¹³A. Wallert, G. Tauber and L. Murphy, The Holy Kinship: A Medieval Masterpiece, Amsterdam/Zwolle 2001, p. 11. This aspect is depicted quite literally in an alabaster Madonna in Cracow, dated circa 1400 and likely of German origin. The Christ Child offers his mother an apple, which he has picked from the Tree of Paradise standing beside her. The same tree also signifies the cross on which Christ is later crucified.¹⁴¹⁴H.W. van Os in E. Kirschbaum (ed.), Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, vol. 1, Freiburg 1968, p. 124 (under the keyword Apfel); A. Lipinska, Wewnetrzne swiatlo: Poludniowoniderlandzka rzezba alabastrowa w Europie Srodkowo-Wschodniej, Wroclaw 2007, fig. 2. Here Christ and Mary are depicted as the ‘new Adam’ and the ‘new Eve’, i.e. as instruments in Salvation history.¹⁵¹⁵For Christ as the ‘new Adam’ and Mary as the ‘new Eve’, see O. Schmitt (ed.), Reallexikon zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte, vol. 1, Stuttgart/Munich 1937, pp. 158-67; E. Guldan, Eva und Maria: Eine Antithese als Bildmotiv, Graz/Cologne 1966, pp. 27-36. In the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, they appear in the same capacity, with Eve and the Virgin and Child standing on either side of the tree. Above the tree, an angel holds a scroll bearing the Latin inscription: Eve cause of sin, Mary cause of merit.¹⁶¹⁶New York, Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.917/945, fol. 139r; H.W. van Os in E. Kirschbaum (ed.), Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, vol. 1, Freiburg 1968, p. 124 (under the keyword Apfel).

On one level, this Madonna is stylistically in line with developments in Brussels in the late fifteenth century. A number of Madonnas soundly linked to the sculptural production of that city radiate the same courtly refinement and elegance observable in the alabaster Virgin and Child, and also share the long, slender neck, the doll-like face with its high forehead, and delicate, sickle-shaped eyes and mouth. Two figures are attributed to Jan Borman II (both depicting Mary Magdalene),¹⁷¹⁷Brussels, Art and History Museum, inv. no. 2992, see A. Huysmans et al., Beeldhouwkunst van de Zuidelijke Nederlanden en het Prinsbisdom Luik, coll. cat. Brussels (Royal Museums for Art and History) 1999, no. 40; Paris, Musée de Cluny, Musée national du Moyen Âge, inv. no. Cl. 1851. but also anonymous works, including two seated Madonnas with Child;¹⁸¹⁸Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. RF 1370, see S. Guillot de Suduiraut, Sculptures brabançonnes du Musée du Louvre: Bruxelles, Malines, Anvers, XVe-XVIe siècles, coll. cat. Paris 2001, no. 5; Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, inv. no. 8104, see T. Demmler, Deutsche Skulpturen des Deutschen Museum, vol. 3, Die Bildwerke in Holz, Stein und Ton, Grossplastik, coll. cat. Berlin (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) 1930, pp. 347-48. and a standing Virgin and Child in the Rijksmuseum (BK-2011-2).¹⁹¹⁹A.C. Oellers, D. Preising, U. Schneider et al., In gotischer Gesellschaft: Spätmittelalterliche Skulpturen aus einer niederländischen Privatsammlung, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 1998, no. 6. This Brussels type is perhaps the direct precursor (or model?) of the more serial production of poupées in Mechelen.

At the same time, however, a stylistic connection exists between the present alabaster and the sculptural production of a group of Flemish alabaster-carvers hired to work on the monumental tombs of Philibert II of Savoy, Margaret of Bourbon (his mother) and Margaret of Austria (his wife) in the church of the Monastère royal de Brou in Bourg-en-Bresse (France).²⁰²⁰With thanks to Aleksandra Lipinska for this suggestion. Initially, the work carried out on these monuments, which began around 1517, was chiefly a Flemish enterprise, with Jean Perréal (c. 1455/60-1530)²¹²¹A.R. Berens, Jean Perreals Beitrag zur fürstlichen Memoria in Brou, Stiftung und Grablege der Margarethe von Österreich, Norderstedt 2009. and Jan van Roome (active 1498-1521) as the designers, and Lodewijk van Bodeghem (c. 1470-c. 1540) as contractor/project manager. Known are the names of various sculptors involved in the project, including Gillis van Belle (active c. 1500-25) and Jan van Loven or Leuven (active c. 1500-25). Unclear, however, is the exact contribution of these men in respect to the sculpture produced during this first project phase.²²²²See J. Duverger, ‘Vlaamsche beeldhouwers te Brou’, Oud Holland 47 (1930), pp. 1-27. E. Dhanens, ‘Jan van Roome alias Van Brussel, schilder’, Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis 11 (1945-48), pp. 41-137, esp. p. 64. Alabaster statues of the Virtues that adorn both Philibert’s tomb (e.g. fig. b)²³²³E. Dhanens, ‘Jan van Roome alias Van Brussel, schilder’, Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis 11 (1945-48), pp. 41-137, esp. figs. 4-6. and the Retable of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, both in the church of the Monastère royal de Brou, possess drapery folds that are strikingly similar to those of the Amsterdam alabaster Madonna.²⁴²⁴M. Fransolet, ‘Le retable des Sept Joies de l’église St Nicolas de Tolentin à Brou’, Oud Holland 48 (1931), pp. 13-41. In style, the sculpture could very well have preceded the alabaster sculpture adorning these works. Besides the agreement in the treatment of the drapery, other shared similarities with the Virtues include the dimensions, the positioning of the foot and the base. One clear deviation, however, is the physiognomic type of the Virgin. Lodewijk van Boghem is also linked to the alabaster tomb monument of Henri van Witthem (d. 1515) and his wife, Isabelle de Spout (d. 1503), in the Sint-Lambertuskerk in Beersel. Notwithstanding differences in scale and pose, these effigies display clear parallels to the Rijksmuseum Virgin. The drapery folds of the recumbent female figure are also similar to those of the Madonna, whose hair, in turn, is treated in a manner highly comparable to that of the male effigy.²⁵²⁵With thanks to Aleksandra Lipinska for this observation. Lastly, a striking agreement can be observed when comparing the face of the Christ Child to that of a Christ in an alabaster house altar dating from the second quarter of the sixteenth century. Today preserved in Brussels, this example of Mechelen alabaster was produced under Jean Mone’s (c. 1485-?1554) immediate sphere of influence.²⁶²⁶A. Huysmans et al., Beeldhouwkunst van de Zuidelijke Nederlanden en het Prinsbisdom Luik, coll. cat. Brussels (Royal Museums for Art and History) 1999, no. 122. With thanks to Bieke van der Mark for this observation.

These stylistic similarities legitimize an attribution of the Amsterdam alabaster to an alabaster-carver working in Lodewijk van Boghem’s team for the project at Brou during the second decade of the sixteenth century. These sculptors were presumably recruited from various Flemish cities, individuals who perhaps also worked on behalf of or in close proximity to Margaret of Austria’s court in Mechelen. Such artists were ideal candidates for executing sculpture in the elegant courtly style – a style rooted in the spirit of late fifteenth-century Brabantine sculpture. The alabaster Madonna’s exquisite quality also suggests it was made for a patron circulating in the highest circles.²⁷²⁷Furthermore, pearls (cf. Mary’s pearl necklace around her head) are a symbol of Margaret of Austria, suggesting she may have personally been involved in the commissioning of the sculpture. A regional attribution in Mechelen is likewise affirmed by the alabaster’s height (55.8 cm), virtually the exact equivalent of two Mechelen feet (2 x 27.8 cm). In this sense, the sculpture marks the onset of the cleynstekers tradition, which later evolved into a veritable industry of renaissance alabaster sculpture primarily in the second half of the sixteenth century.

Frits Scholten, 2024

F. Scholten, ‘Acquisitions: Medieval Sculpture from the Goldschmidt-Pol Collection and from Other Donors’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 59 (2011), pp. 414-35, esp. no. 8; A. Lipińska, Moving Sculptures: Southern Netherlandish Alabasters from the 16th to 17th Centuries in Central and Northern Europe (Studies in Netherlandish Art and Cultural History 11), Leiden/Boston 2015, p. 52 and fig. 22; F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 39; F. Scholten in M. Debaene (ed.), Alabaster Sculpture in Europe 1300-1650, exh. cat. Leuven (Museum M) 2022-23, no. 16

F. Scholten, 2024, 'circle of Lodewijk van Bodeghem, Virgin and Child, Brabant, c. 1500 - c. 1510', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.479047