Composed of two hollow halves formed in a front mould and a back mould, fired and probably originally polychromed. The underside is slightly concave and has a round opening.

The upper section with the saint is missing, as are a section of the niche with the priest and a section of one of the blind niches on the reverse. A crack can also be seen on the reverse.

…; donated to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, by David van der Kellen Jr (1827-1895), before 1881;¹¹Note RMA. transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-4853

Credit line: Gift of D. van der Kellen

This socle was integrally incorporated as part of a saintly figure made from a white clay known as pipeclay, an inexpensive material used to serially reproduce sculptural ‘squeezes’ in a fairly easy manner via moulds. Typically, pipeclay figures of saints functioned as objects of private devotion.²²J.W.M. de Jong, Thuis in de late middeleeuwen. Het Nederlands burgerinterieur 1400-1535, exh. cat. Zwolle (Provinciaal Overijssels Museum) 1980, p. 77. Utrecht was unquestionably an important centre for the production of pipeclay devotional objects, as the large number of moulds and misfires unearthed there attest.³³Archaeological research shows that this production also occurred in cities such as Amsterdam, Leiden, Deventer, Kampen, Antwerp, Liège and Cologne, see S. Ostkamp, ‘Productie en gebruik van pijpaarden en terracotta devotionalia in de Nederlanden (ca. 1350-ca. 1550)’, in A. Böing, G. Inhester and T. Sodmann (ed.), Judocus Vredis: Kunst aus der Stille: eine Klosterwerkstatt der Dürerzeit/ Judocus Vredis: Kunst uit de stilte: Een kloosterwerkplaats uit de tijd van Dürer, exh. cat. Münster (Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte)/Vreden (Hamaland-Museum)/Borken (Kreismuseum)/Deventer (Historisch Museum de Waag) 2001, pp. 188-257, esp. pp. 206-07.

The hexagonal socle comprises a profiled base surmounted by an arcaded frieze. Each of three niches in front contains a bust (from left to right): a priest holding a book, a king and a prophet, with the latter two holding banderoles in their hands. These three figures personify the three offices of Christ: priest, king and prophet. The three niches on the socle’s reverse are blind. The socle type with the bust reliefs, referred to as the ‘Meerveldhoven type’, dates from around the mid-fifteenth century. It was used with both an iconographic type of the Virgin and Child and an iconographic type of a saintly monk.⁴⁴J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Die Ausstrahlung Utrechter Tonplastik’, in Studien zur Geschichte der europäischen Plastik: Festschrift Theodor Müller, Munich 1965, pp. 151-66, esp. p. 157.

A variant of this socle type exists in which the niches with the three busts feature tracery derived from gothic architecture. This model occurs with figurines of the Virgin and Child and apostles.⁵⁵J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Die Ausstrahlung Utrechter Tonplastik’, in Studien zur Geschichte der europäischen Plastik: Festschrift Theodor Müller, Munich 1965, pp. 151-66, esp. figs. 4 and 9. Although the prototype for both socles very likely comes from Utrecht, it was also applied in Liège.⁶⁶Cf. a pipeclay Virgin and Child from c. 1460-70, described as a work produced in Liège on stylistic grounds. Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh, inv. no. 2165, see J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Die Ausstrahlung Utrechter Tonplastik’, in Studien zur Geschichte der europäischen Plastik: Festschrift Theodor Müller, Munich 1965, pp. 151-66, esp. fig. 9 and Reesing in M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 89. Recent archaeological research indeed shows that beeldenbackers (statue-firers) were also active in the latter city, working with pipeclay models imported from Utrecht.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 873

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Hexagonal Socle with a Priest, King and Prophet, Fragment of a Figurine, Northern or Southern Netherlands, in or after c. 1450 - c. 1450', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20036292