Formed (solid) in a mould, fired and probably originally polychromed. A slot at top centre functioned to secure a separately made (now missing) cross with Christ. The freestanding figures of Mary and John, also manufactured separately but now lost, were placed on the two flat plateaus at either end (only the right plateau survives), using a peg in hole connection.

St John, Mary, Christ and the cross are missing. The left section with the plateau meant to support the figure of Mary has broken off and is missing.

…; excavated in the Spuistraat, Amsterdam, 1931;¹¹J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 874. on loan to the museum from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, Amsterdam, since 1931

Object number: BK-KOG-1708-1

Credit line: On loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap

This pipeclay fragment forms the centre and right section of Mount Calvary. The (removable) cross was inserted into a slot at the top of the mountain above the skull. A separate pipeclay figurine of St John was placed on the flat plateau on the right. An identical flat base, now broken off, originally extended to the left of the cross, on which the separate figure of Mary stood. As such, this Mount Calvary served as a base for an ensemble of freestanding figurines. The fabrication of these pieces as separate, individual components was undoubtedly aimed to facilitate the manufacturing process.

At least two other pipeclay Crucifixion groups have survived to the present day with the Mount Calvary, the cross, Mary and St John made as separate elements.²²See S. Ostkamp, ‘Productie en gebruik van pijpaarden en terracotta devotionalia in de Nederlanden (ca. 1350-ca. 1550)’, in A. Böing, G. Inhester and T. Sodmann (ed.), Judocus Vredis: Kunst aus der Stille: eine Klosterwerkstatt der Dürerzeit/ Judocus Vredis: Kunst uit de stilte: een kloosterwerkplaats uit de tijd van Dürer, exh. cat. Münster (Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte)/Vreden (Hamaland-Museum)/Borken (Kreismuseum)/Deventer (Historisch Museum de Waag) 2001, pp. 188-357, esp. p. 214, fig. 33 and p. 217, fig. 36. When compared to the present piece, however, these variants are smaller in size and less sharply defined. In the case of the first group, now preserved in the collection of the Van Beuningen family, the individual figurines were firmly affixed to the foundation plate (the Mount Calvary) prior to firing.³³S. Ostkamp, ‘Van Utrechtse bodem? Utrecht en de productie van pijpaarden devotionalia’, in M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 108-27 esp. p. 177 and fig. 9.15. The second group, unearthed on the Snipperlingsdijk near Deventer, contains figures that were added to the socle only after the piece was fired. In one of the cesspits (‘beerkelders’) of the Sint Agnesconvent in Kampen, a mourning figure of St John was discovered that once belonged to such a Crucifixion group comprising separately formed pipeclay figures.⁴⁴Kampen, Stedelijk Museum, see F. van der Pol and M. Smit (eds.), De susteren van Sanct-Agnetenhuus: De geschiedenis, materiële cultuur en spiritualiteit van het Kamper Agnietenconvent, Kampen 1997, p. 79 and p. 124 (ill.). The size (h. 28 cm) of this piece closely corresponds to the relatively large dimensions of the present Calvary group and perhaps therefore conveys a more complete picture of what the entire Crucifixion scene originally looked like. Ensembles of this kind were possibly displayed in small house altarpieces, as was probably the case with a pipeclay Pietà in the museum’s collection (BK-2011-22).

The fragment discussed here was excavated in 1931 on the Spuistraat in the Amsterdam city centre. The aforementioned Crucifixion group in the Van Beuningen Collection was also excavated in the Dutch capital.⁵⁵S. Ostkamp, ‘Van Utrechtse bodem? Utrecht en de productie van pijpaarden devotionalia’, in M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht: 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht: 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 108-27. For information regarding the place of manufacture, see fig. 9.15. Both pieces could very well have been manufactured by a local beeldendrucker (statue-squeezer) or heyligenbacker (saint-firer), as the makers of pipeclay figurines were called at this time. The pieces may also have come from Utrecht, however, where in the late Middle Ages the production of pipeclay sculpture is known to have occurred on a large scale, with mass-produced devotional objects widely disseminated throughout the Low Countries and elswhere.⁶⁶Archaeological research has shown that such pipeclay figurines were produced not only in Utrecht but also in cities such as Amsterdam, Leiden, Deventer, Kampen, Antwerp, Liège and Cologne, as well as various monasteries, see S. Ostkamp, ‘Productie en gebruik van pijpaarden en terracotta devotionalia in de Nederlanden (ca. 1350-ca. 1550)’: Het ambacht van de heylichenbacker voor Judocus Vredis, een archeologisch verslag’, in A. Böing, G. Inhester and T. Sodmann (ed.), Judocus Vredis: Kunst aus der Stille: eine Klosterwerkstatt der Dürerzeit/Judocus Vredis: Kunst uit de stilte: Een kloosterwerkplaats uit de tijd van Dürer, exh. cat. Münster (Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte)/Vreden (Hamaland-Museum)/Borken (Kreismuseum)/Deventer (Historisch Museum de Waag) 2001, pp. 188-256, esp. pp. 206-07.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Die Ausstrahlung Utrechter Tonplastik’, in Studien zur Geschichte der europäischen Plastik: Festschrift Theodor Müller, Munich 1965, pp. 151-66, esp. p. 166; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 874; C. Schrickx, ‘Pijpaarden heiligenbeeldjes: Een onderbelichte materiaalgroep’, Archetype 4 (2001), pp. 8-13, esp. p. 11

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous and and , Mount Calvary, Fragment of a Crucifixion, Northern NetherlandsAmsterdam, c. 1450 - c. 1475', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20036293