Carved and polychromed. A hole in the top of the head has been filled. The reverse is partly flat.

Almost all of the club (with the exception of its lower end) and part of the right hand once holding it are missing, as are a corner of the book and a narrow section of the base. The polychromy is modern.

…; ? Bridgettine abbey Mariënwater, Koudewater (near Rosmalen), date unknown;¹¹For the history of these abbeys and the transitional period and transfer of the art patrimony, see L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, pp. 39-57, 62-64. ? transferred to the Bridgettine convent Maria Refugie, Uden, 1713-24;²²Ibid. from which to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, with numerous other sculptures (BK-NM-1195 to -1243), fl. 2,000 for all, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, 1950-2005

Object number: BK-NM-1205

This statue was added to the Rijksmuseum’s collection in 1875 along with numerous other sculptures acquired from the convent of Maria Refugie in Uden, which was financially destitute at the time. In all probability, this piece was transferred there in 1713 by the Bridgettine nuns who were obliged to relinquish their former abbey, the Bridgettine double abbey Mariënwater in Koudewater, near Rosmalen. On the basis of the figure’s resemblance to Christ and his partly preserved attribute – a club, with remnants visible next to his left foot – he may be identified as St Jude or St James the Less. Both were ‘brothers of the Lord’ and beaten to death with a club for preaching the gospel. The apostle’s current, rather ludicrous facial expression is a consequence of the ill-suited modern application of polychromy, thus complicating an accurate assessment of the original work. Evident nevertheless is the woodcarver’s marked difficulty in liberating the figure from its wooden block. We are therefore likely dealing with a piece produced in a provincial workshop. De Werd situated this workshop in the northern part of the Duchy of Brabant. Given the sculpture’s earliest known provenance, this seems the most tenable conclusion.³³G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Beelden uit Brabant: Laatgotische kunst uit het oude hertogdom 1400-1520, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1971, no. 63.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 95, with earlier literature; K.W. Woods, Imported Images: Netherlandish Late Gothic Sculpture in England c. 1400-c. 1550, Donington 2007, p. 254

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Apostle (St Jude or St James the Less), Northern Brabant, c. 1500 - c. 1525', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035581