Carved from a wood block comprising of several different parts and polychromed. The reverse is flat.

A corner of the book cover has crumbled away. The lamb’s right foot is missing. The angels’ feet have been repaired, the lamb has been repainted white.

…; from Mrs M.P.F. van Mastenbroek, Rotterdam, fl. 300, to the museum, 1947

Object number: BK-16014

The Lamb of God with a cross and banner lies on the book with the seven seals. Two plump angels hover on either side. The one on the left is about to kiss the front foot of the lamb, the symbol of Christ. The iconography refers to the description of the Apocalypse in St John’s Revelations, in which he tells of his vision of the ultimate victory of good over evil signifying the end of the world as we know it. By breaking the seven seals one by one, the lamb will precipitate the Apocalypse.

The downward gaze of both the lamb and the angel on the right indicates that the fragment would have originally been attached high up. The semicircular shape of the ensemble suggests it might have been part of an altar crown, where the iconography of the Apocalyptic Lamb can often be found, for example at two other altars: in the H.H. Petrus en Pauluskerk in Amsterdam and the H.H. Maria en Ursulakerk in Delft.¹¹L. Schade van Westrum, Oud-katholieke kerken: Drie eeuwen verborgen erfgoed van een eigenzinnige geloofsgemeenschap, Zutphen 2010, fig. p. 144; P. Dirkse (ed.), Kunst uit Oud-Katholieke kerken, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent) 1989, fig. 12.

The fragment was purchased in 1947 from a collection in Rotterdam. In view of the provenance it is conceivable that it came from the Sint-Laurentius en Maria Magdalenakerk of 1698 which was destroyed during the bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940. A few remnants of the church interior could be salvaged from the rubble, including a fragment of the central part of the communion bench by Willem Kerricx I (1652-1719),²²P. Dirkse (ed.), Kunst uit Oud-Katholieke kerken, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent) 1989, no. 83. one of the foremost Antwerp carvers of the day.³³For Kerricx, see A. Jansen and C. Van Herck, ‘Guillielmus Kerricx: Antwerpsch beeldhouwer 1652-1719’, Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring, Jaarboek 17 (1941), pp. 41-117. It is perhaps no coincidence that the style of the present fragment ties in well with that sculptor’s late-baroque art, although the angels’ poses are less graceful and their faces and bodies less idealized than in Kerricx’ repertoire and contemporary Antwerp sculpture in general.⁴⁴For example, compare the putti of the marble communion rail by Willem Kerricx I and Hendrik Frans Verbruggen in the Sint-Jacobskerk in Antwerp dating from 1696. Incidentally, an Apocalyptic Lamb is incorporated in the central part of the rail. Although in those days there was a considerable import of religious works of art from the Southern Netherlands especially Antwerp, it would seem plausible that the maker of the present piece was local and derived his inspiration from examples (imported?) from the neighbours in the south.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

Verslagen omtrent ’s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst 1947, pp. 10-11; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 350

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'anonymous, The Lamb of the Apocalypse on the Book with the Seven Seals, Northern Netherlands, 1700 - 1725', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035795