Carved and polychromed. There is a workbench hole in the Virgin’s head. The reverse is finished and there are two square forged nails and two holes made by such nails, which indicate that at some point the statuette was attached to a background.

There is woodworm damage. There is a vertical crack centre front, between two folds of the Virgin’s cloak. The crack at the bottom, by her feet, has been filled with a wedge. The Virgin’s left forearm and the infant Christ’s hands are missing. The remaining polychromy is old and may be original.

…; from the collection of 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

Object number: BK-NM-2508

In the past the figure has been variously located in the Lower Rhine region, Holland, Upper Guelders and Guelders and dated to both the beginning and around the middle of the fifteenth century.¹¹W. Vogelsang and M. van Notten, Die Holzskulptur in den Niederlanden, vol. 2, Berlin/Utrecht 1912, no. 4; A. Kleinclausz, ‘Une nouvelle Vierge de Claus Sluter’, La Revue de l’Art Ancien et Moderne 34 (1913), pp. 81-94; J.J.M. Timmers, Maria in de kunst, exh. cat. Maastricht (Kloostergang der Basiliek van Onze Lieve Vrouwe) 1947, no. 19; J.J.M. Timmers, Laat-middeleeuwse kunst uit Opper-Gelre, exh. cat. Roermond (Gemeentemuseum) 1953, no. 4; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 9. The best comparison pieces are found in Cleves-Guelders, where the Virgin’s rather flat, broad face, with its narrow mouth, and the stylized hair springing out at the temples often occur. Three oak statues of the Virgin from this region in Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, dating from the first three decades of the fifteenth century, share the facial type, the high waist and the pipe folds gathered at the side of the cloak with the Amsterdam Virgin.²²Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. nos. ABM bh271, ABM bh262 and ABM bh521a-b, see M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 97-100. However, the present example lacks the dish and triangle folds at the front of the cloak that characterize these three figures, and the waist is much more tightly cinched. On these grounds the statuette probably must be dated a little later, around 1440-50.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 9, with earlier literatureJ. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 9, with earlier literature

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Virgin and Child, Cleves-Guelders, c. 1440 - c. 1450', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035538