Object data
Baumberg sandstone with polychromy
height 42.5 cm × width 148 cm × depth 7 cm
anonymous
Three Medallions with a Virgin and Child and Two Escutcheons, Frieze from a Chimney-Piece
Utrecht, c. 1510 - c. 1525
Inscriptions
- coat of arms, at the left, in relief: parted per pale, 1. a crowned lion rampant on a field of blocks (? Van Stepraedt or Van Wijhe); 2. three viols (? Van Swieten)
- coat of arms, at the right, in relief: parted per pale, 1. eight bars wavy (? Van Hardenbroek); 2. a six-pointed star (? De Vooght [Voicht])
Technical notes
Carved in relief and polychromed. The recesses on the underside of both ends were made to provide room for the fireplace jambs.
Condition
The ends have been shortened slightly, particularly on the right. The recesses underneath are original. The polychromy is modern.
Conservation
- conservator unknown, in or after, 1883: restored.
- conservator unknown, c., 1885: incorporated in reconstruction fireplace.
- conservator unknown, c., 1900 - c. 1950: removed from reconstruction fireplace.
Provenance
...; found in a street (St Annastraat) near Utrecht Town Hall and acquired by Mr Samuel Muller Fzn (1848-1922), Utrecht;1 by whom donated to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1877;2 transferred to the museum, 1885
Object number: BK-NM-3290
Credit line: Gift of S. Muller, Utrecht
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
This relief (see close up) is one of a group of typical Utrecht carved (fragments of) stone chimney-piece friezes dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.3 In other towns these lintels were usually plain or very simply decorated, but in Utrecht they were often elaborately ornamented with figurative reliefs, which were then polychromed. The rise in their popularity was probably prompted by the construction work on Utrecht Cathedral, which was adorned with a great deal of decorative and figurative carving.4 The chimney-pieces in the larger rooms of mansions sometimes assumed huge proportions. The finest example came from Huis Zoudenbalch in Donkerstraat, Utrecht, but is now in Huize Hiëronymus on Maliesingel in the same city.5 The Centraal Museum in Utrecht has a contemporaneous Utrecht chimney-piece that is likewise still complete.6 The frieze there is supported on either side by two jambs that go down to the floor. Recesses to take the jambs were cut in the lower corners of the frieze, as is the case in this example.7
Chimney-piece friezes usually contain three medallions with a saint in the centre, flanked by escutcheons. The Virgin is represented most frequently, as in this frieze. She appears as a half-length figure in an aureole above the crescent moon with the Christ child in her arms. She is dressed in a wide cloak and wears a scarf over her head with a very wide crown on top. Christ makes a gesture of blessing with his right hand and holds an apple or globe in his left. An escutcheon on a strap hangs from the top edge of each of the flanking medallions.
The chimney-piece frieze was gifted to the Rijksmuseum in 1877 by Samuel Muller Fzn (1848-1922).8 This Utrecht city archivist found it in the street in Utrecht and bought it from the then owner, but was unfortunately unable to discover the property from which it had come.9 To date, the arms of alliance on the escutcheons have likewise failed to produce an identification. A caption to a 1909 reproduction of a photograph of the gallery in which the chimney-piece was displayed at the time (fig. a) stated, without further explanation, that the frieze may have come from Loenersloot Castle, but the coats of arms do not support this.10
The dexter part of the arms of alliance at left with the crowned lion rampant on a field of blocks may belong to the Van Stepraedt family or the Van Wijhe family.11 The sinister part of the escutcheon with three viols was carried by the Van Swieten family among others. The dexter part of the arms of alliance at right with the eight bars wavy is probably the arms of the notable Van Hardenbroek family of Utrecht. The sinister part of this escutcheon with the six-pointed star could belong to the De Vooght (also Voicht) family.12
Bieke van der Mark, 2024
Literature
J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 33, with earlier literature; H.L.M. Defoer, ‘Een laat-middeleeuws schoorsteenfries uit Utrecht met de bekoring van Antonius’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 45 (1994), pp. 300-23, esp. p. 303; M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, c. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 217-18, 237
Citation
B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Three Medallions with a Virgin and Child and Two Escutcheons, Frieze from a Chimney-Piece, Utrecht, c. 1510 - c. 1525', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24299
(accessed 9 May 2024 12:43:05).