Sculpted and probably originally polychromed. The hole (Ø 0.5 cm) in the Virgin’s head is for the attachment of a missing metal crown. The reverse is slightly worked.

Very damaged and weathered. The left part of the head and the Virgin’s crown, the head and arms of the Christ Child, and parts of the mantle are missing, and various other small fragments have crumbled away.

…; from an anonymous owner, fl. 3, to the museum, through the mediation of P.J.H. Cuypers, 1897

Object number: BK-NM-10933

In spite of its damaged surface, the above-average quality of this limestone statuette is still clearly visible. The Virgin Mary carries the Christ Child, dressed in a tunic, on her left arm. With her right hand she holds up a tail of her capacious mantle, loosely gathered in front of her body. Its hem meanders gracefully downward. Her belted undergarment is trimmed with pearls at the neck. Several holes were made in her head for the attachment of a lost (silver?) crown. The museum acquired this piece in 1897 from an anonymous seller through the architect Pierre Cuypers, who designed the Rijksmuseum, the Amsterdam Central Station and numerous Roman Catholic churches. He also led many restorations of churches and other monuments and it is quite possible that he found this statue during one of these projects.

In stylistic terms, the work is connected with both Northern and Southern Netherlandish sculpture. The way Mary’s delicate hands support the sitting Christ Child, the manner in which her right arm is revealed through a deeply carved, roomy opening in her mantle, and the long tresses hanging forward over her shoulders are characteristics that occur in a coherent group of Utrecht sculptures, executed in wood and portraying a standing Virgin and Child, from the period around 1440-75. Statues belonging to this group can be found in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen,¹¹Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, inv. no. SK 316, see 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, no. 3. the Sint-Catharinakerk in Kortrijk-Dutsel,²²J.W. Steyaert et al., Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands, exh. cat. Ghent (Museum of Fine Arts) 1994, no. 82; 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, fig. 4.6. and the Sankt-Matthiaskirche in Trier.³³J.W. Steyaert et al., Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands, exh. cat. Ghent (Museum of Fine Arts) 1994, no. 83; 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, fig. 4.5. The possible precursor of this group is the Mary of Ankeveen of around 1430 in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht.⁴⁴Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. ABM bh 494, see 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, no. 2. However, the type was well known beyond this Northern Netherlandish cathedral city due to the wide dissemination of Utrecht pipeclay sculpture.⁵⁵Cf. a pipeclay variant of the composition portraying St Margaret in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, inv. no. 1917, see 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, no. 83. The flowing drapery of the Amsterdam Mary differs, however, from the rather stiff and angular draperies of the sculptures in this group. Her oval face and eyes squeezed into slits do not correspond to a familiar Utrecht type either; instead, they seem to have been inspired by Flemish examples. For instance, an alabaster Virgin and Child of around 1440-50 from Bruges, which survives only as a fragment in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, displays a very similar head type.⁶⁶Ghent, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. no. 1914-DN. The possible Bruges provenance is based on the drapery, reminiscent of Jan van Eyck, which is displayed by the works belonging to the same stylistic group; see J.W. Steyaert et al., Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands, exh. cat. Ghent (Museum of Fine Arts) 1994, no. 101.

A pipeclay Virgin and Child of around 1460-70 in the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, which has the same facial features,⁷⁷Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh, inv. no. 2165, see J.W. Steyaert et al., Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands, exh. cat. Ghent (Museum of Fine Arts) 1994, no. 88; 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, no. 89. and a wooden Female Saint (Mary?) in the Sint-Willibrorduskerk in the Belgian Limburg town of Heusden,⁸⁸J.W. Steyaert et al., Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands, exh. cat. Ghent (Museum of Fine Arts) 1994, fig. 88a. display a mixture of Utrecht and Southern Netherlandish characteristics similar to those seen in the present work. These sculptures have now been attributed on solid grounds – albeit with reservations – to Liège workshops that worked from (imported) Utrecht pipeclay examples.⁹⁹Reesing 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, p. 340. Caution is called for, however, in localizing the Amsterdam statue, given the lack of clear evidence for its origin in the Southern Netherlands. It might just as well have originated in Utrecht, where Southern Netherlandish influences were in plentiful supply.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 74, with earlier literature

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Virgin and Child, Northern or Southern Netherlands, c. 1475', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035565