The portico-shaped house altar comprises nine separately carved elements: 1: the altar caisse (h. 57 cm); 2: the superstructure with the two angels and the baldachin; 3: the tassel-like ornamentation on top of the baldachin; 4: the God the Father with cherubim (h. 22 cm); 5: the Virgin and Child in the altar caisse (h. 26.5 cm); 6/7: two standing angels with cornucopia incl. base in the altar caisse (h. 25.7 cm); 8/9: two vases on the architrave. Remnants of gilding can be discerned on the capitals, the bead moulding, the curtain fringe, the wings of the angels and those of the cherubim.

The attribute (staff?) in Christ’s raised hand is missing, as are bunches of flowers and fruit from the lower angels’ cornucopiae and part of the pedestal’s profiled moulding below the left angel. Above the same figure’s head, a burn mark can be discerned on the cornice.

…; collection Franchomme, Brussels, by 1913;¹¹J. Casier and P. Bergmans, L’art ancien dans les Flandres (région de l’Escaut): Mémorial de l’exposition rétrospective organisée à Gand en 1913, vol. 1, Sculpture et mobilier¸ exh. cat. Brussels 1914, pp. 94-95, pl. LXXXI. …; from sale Brussels (Palais des Beaux Arts), 22/25 March 1977, no. 582, to the dealer E. Golbert, Antwerp; from whom, fl. 80,000, to the museum, as a gift by the Rijksmuseum-Stichting, 1978

Object number: BK-1978-161

Credit line: Gift of the Rijksmuseum-Stichting

In form and iconography, this house altar is a greatly reduced and condensed version of a monumental Flemish Baroque church altar, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Flanked by Corinthian columns, she dominates the portico altar’s central niche, standing on a compressed, hexagonal baluster-shaped pedestal, with the Christ Child standing on a similar, but much smaller square-profiled pedestal of his own. The Virgin appears in her apocalyptic role as the vanquisher of evil, depicted here in the form of a snake with an apple in its mouth, referring to the Fall of Man. The creature slithers along the hem of Mary’s mantle, but is halted in its progress by her trampling foot. Originally, its head was pierced by the end of a (now missing) cross-staff held in the Christ Child’s upraised right hand.²² B. Knipping, De iconografie van de Contra-Reformatie in de Nederlanden, 2 vols., Hilversum 1939-40, vol. 1, pp. 247-48; A. Pigler, Barockthemen: eine Auswahl von Verzeichnissen zur Ikonographie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols, Budapest 1956, vol. 1, p. 506. The central niche is flanked left and right by standing angels, each with their own niche. The angel right holds a cornucopia with both hands.

The altar’s superstructure has the form of a baroque curtained baldachin, with angels left and right drawing back each end of heavy, fringe-lined draperies. Beneath the baldachin, God the Father appears, posed sitting on a floating cloud with cherubim from which light rays emit, with the train of his flowing robes virtually encircling him. Flower vases flank the baldachin left and right. The entire structure portico altar rests on six compressed double volute corbels, with the centre bay supported by a winged, demi-figure angel.

In its form, the present house altar follows the typological evolution of the monumental Flemish, late-baroque portal altars of the late seventeenth and eighteenth century. The overall architectural structure remains rooted in that of the symmetrical high-baroque altars from the second half of the seventeenth century, whereas the superstructure already betrays the transition from a purely architectural element with sharply defined contours, as commonly encountered on seventeenth-century altars, to a more sculptural and narrative entablature characteristic of the early decades of the eighteenth century.³³A. Jansen, ‘Het zeventiende-eeuws kerkelijk meubilair’, Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen 69 (1965), pp. 93-213, esp. pp. 108-10 and figs. 4-12; U. Becker, Studien zum flämischen Altarbau im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Brussels 1990, pp. 138-40 and 167-78. P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 89-329 and 412-93. On the Amsterdam house altar, this late-baroque aspect manifests itself in the theatrical ‘unveiling’ of God the Father by two flanking angels. On the basis of these formal parallels with the development of the Flemish high altar, this house altar can be dated to the first decades of the eighteenth century, a conclusion that likewise befits the style of the figures, rendered in a gracious but artificial pose turning on their axes, the billowing draperies, and the ornamentation with double volute corbels and acanthus leaves.

The house altar was first attributed to the sculptor Theodoor Verhaegen (1700-1759) of Mechelen in 1914.⁴⁴ J. Casier and P. Bergmans, L’art ancien dans les Flandres (re´gion de l'Escaut): Me´morial de l’exposition re´trospective organise´e a` Gand en 1913, vol. 1, Sculpture et mobilier¸ exh. cat. Brussels 1914, pp. 94, 95; T. Müller, ‘Das kleine Andachtsbild in der Augsburger Plastik’, Miscellanea Pro Arte: Hermann Schnitzler zur Vollendung des 60. Lebensjahres am 13. Januar 1965, Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 257-63, note 10. Once acquired by the Rijksmuseum, however, its maker was instead sought among sculptors a generation earlier in Antwerp or Mechelen responsible for a number of monumental church altars executed in the late baroque style.⁵⁵An unpublished annotation made by Willy Halsema-Kubes concerning the present house altar can be found in the Object File. These included Artus II Quellinus (1625-1700), Hendrik-Frans Verbruggen (1654-1724), Willem Kerricx (1652-1719), and Ludovicus Willemsens (1630-1702) from Antwerp, and Nicolaas van der Veken (1637-1707) from Mechelen. The determination of a precise attribution and identifying a specific individual style is complicated by the fact that these sculptors commonly collaborated with one another.⁶⁶Such as on the high altar of the Sint-Jacobskerk in Antwerp, see P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, p. 898.

In this context, a comparison between the present house altar and the high altar for the abbey of Hemiksem (transferred to the Sint-Andrieskerk, Antwerp, in 1806) is noteworthy. Although construction began according to Verbrugghen’s design, the altar remained uncompleted as a consequence of his death in 1724. The commission then went to Willem Kerricx de Jongere, who largely ignored his predecessor’s work and instead devised a new design executed between 1726 and 1729.⁷⁷P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 428-30 and 1018. While the iconographic programme substantially differs from that of the house altar, the altar shares the same general architectural structure: a monumental portico altar in Corinthian style surmounted by a large baldachin with flanking angels and vases. Such similarities, while facilitating a more precise dating of the present altar, fail to justify an attribution to Kerricx Junior. Other aspects, including the dynamic and elegant poses, deviate too markedly to be linked to this sculptor’s more classical figural style.

In part due to this dating of circa 1725-30, the previous attribution to Theodoor Verhaegen becomes more credible, a conclusion further reinforced when acknowledging that key elements of the Amsterdam house altar also commonly occur in his oeuvre more than any other Flemish sculptor from this period. Verhaegen was first trained in the workshop of Jan-Frans Boeckstuyns in Mechelen. He thereafter worked in the studios of Michiel van der Voort and Johannes Claudius de Cock in Antwerp, where he finally completed his period of apprenticeship under Willem Kerricx the Younger.⁸⁸For Verhaegen see P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 1038-43. Verhaegen’s style was therefore formed in several of the major Antwerp studios responsible for the transition from the heavy baroque of the seventeenth century to a more airy and elegant variant of Flemish sculpture. Even if he had already left Kerricx’s workshop before the latter’s modernization of the high altar in the abbey church at Hemiksem, Verhaegen is certain to have been well aware of the master’s precepts regarding style.

Many of the motifs on the Amsterdam house altar can be found on Verhaegen’s house altar for the Sint-Amandskerk in Geel (1747-48), his confessional at Ninove (Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Hemelvaartkerk, 1736-38), and the pulpits at Hoogstraten (Sint-Katharinakerk, 1735) and Lokeren (Sint-Laurenskerk, 1736). The same also applies for his later, more monumental works on which the late baroque ornamentation has already made way for rococo motifs; these include Verhaegen’s altar of St Nicholas and church master choir stalls for the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in Dendermonde (1752-60), but also his design for the high altar in the Sint-Janskerk in Mechelen (posthumously executed in 1768).⁹⁹P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 434-35, 438, 511 (figs. 4, 5), 567 (figs. 4, 5, 6), 616, 1039 (fig. 1). Both the altar at Dendermonde and the Amsterdam house altar share the same kind of angularity in the architectural contours, characterized by sharply projecting cornices. In the latter case, the pointed tips of the angels’ wings in the baldachin also lend a certain playfulness to the heavy overall form.

Commonalities with Verhaegen’s oeuvre can also be observed in the figural style of the Amsterdam house altar, specifically with respect to the elegant, affected poses, idealized faces and lively drapery folds. The central group of the Virgin and Christ Child finds its formal roots in examples of Mechelen sculpture from the first half of the seventeenth century. The specific type of the Virgin and Child standing on a pedestal was applied by the sculptor Maria Faydherbe and others.¹⁰¹⁰H. De Nijn, H. Vlieghe and H. Devisscher (eds.), Lucas Faydherbe 1617-1697: Mechels beeldhouwer en architect, exh. cat. Mechelen (Stedelijk Museum Hof van Busleyden) 1997, nos. 1, 2. Nevertheless, the execution of the Amsterdam house altar differs markedly, especially the angular contrapposto of both the Virgin and Child, an aspect likewise discernible on several of the angels. Parallels for this almost zigzag rendering of the corporeal form also exist in Verhaegen’s oeuvre, the initial stages of which can already be discerned in the work of his teachers’ generation,¹¹¹¹Cf. A. Jansen, ‘Het zeventiende-eeuws kerkelijk meubilair’, Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren en Kunst van Mechelen 69 (1965), pp. 93-213, esp. figs. 44-46; S. Zajadacz-Hastenrath, Das Beichtgestühl der Antwerpener St. Pauluskirche und der Barockbeichtstuhl in den südlichen Niederlanden, Brussels 1970, figs. 171, 173. albeit generally less exaggerated than as encountered in the present case: e.g. Verhaegen’s pulpit in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Hanswijk in Mechelen (1743-1746), the standing angels flanking the high altar at Dendermonde, the hovering angel and the figural group on the pulpit in Lokeren (cf. RP-T-1987-32), and the penitent Magdalene on the confessional at Ninove. In Verhaegen’s later work, this overt liveliness diminishes. The same idealized faces and the busy, often angular folds of Verhaegen’s monumental statues can also be discerned on the small-scale figures of the Amsterdam house altar. Despite the difference in height, for example, the countenance of God the Father is highly comparable to those of the old men adorning the pulpit of Lokeren.¹²¹²P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 508 (fig. 1), 618 (fig. 1), 1040, 1041 (figs. 1, 2). The faces also recall those found on works by Jan Pieter van Baurscheit the Elder.

The present house altar can be attributed to Theodoor Verhaegen, albeit with some reservation, on the basis of the above-cited similarities. It can best be described as a relatively early work in the sculptor’s oeuvre, carved prior to circa 1735 when rococo motifs first begin to appear in his work. On one hand, the altar betrays the influence of the generation of sculptors active 1700, including his mentor Kerricx Junior. At the same time, however, the presence of various motifs already foretells signs of Verhaegen’s later, fully matured style.

Frits Scholten, 2026

J. Casier and P. Bergmans, L’art ancien dans les Flandres (région de l'Escaut): Mémorial de l’exposition rétrospective organisée à Gand en 1913, vol. 1, Sculpture et mobilier¸ exh. cat. Brussels 1914, pp. 94, 95, pl. LXXXI; T. Müller, ‘Das kleine Andachtsbild in der Augsburger Plastik’, Miscellanea Pro Arte: Hermann Schnitzler zur Vollendung des 60. Lebensjahres am 13. Januar 1965, Düsseldorf 1965, esp. p. 174 (note 10); Verkoopcatalogus XIde Antiekbeurs Antwerpen, sale cat. Antwerp 1978, stand 24 (with ill.); Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 26 (1978), p. 182, fig. 1; Jaarverslag Nederlandse Rijksmusea 1978, part C, pp. 24-26, fig. 13

F. Scholten , 2026, 'attributed to Theodor Verhaegen, Portico-Shaped House Altar with Virgin and Child and God the Father, Mechelen, c. 1725 - c. 1735', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200258218