Christ Carrying the Cross

Carved and originally polychromed. The reverse is flat with a wrought-iron securing strip. There are two peg holes and an old wrought-iron nail in the underside.

Part of the cross, part of Christ’s right arm, the rope with which Christ is being dragged, Veronica’s right hand, the dog’s foreleg and tail, part of the shawm and fingers of the raised fist are missing. The dog’s midsection may have been replaced. There are some splits and cracks in the group. Only some of the original polychromy has survived, chiefly the flesh tones, and some gilding remains on the hair.

...; ? collection Nationale Konst-Gallery, The Hague, first recorded in 1801;¹¹P.J.J. van Thiel, ‘De inrichting van de Nationale Konst-Gallery in het openingsjaar 1800’, Oud Holland 95 (1981), pp. 170-227, esp. p. 201, no. 139. first recorded in the museum in 1904;²²A. Pit, Catalogus van de beeldhouwwerken in het Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst te Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1904, no. 54. on loan to Doornenburg Castle, 2011-14

ObjectNumber: BK-18041

In the foreground of this expressive group, a tormented Christ hauls his cross up Mount Calvary, aided by Simon of Cyrene, who is identified by his pointed Jewish hat. We see the moment when Christ hands the sudarium or sweat cloth to St Veronica. After she wiped the sweat from his face, his likeness remained on the cloth. A vicious-looking Roman soldier holds the end of a rope, now lost, with which he drags Christ forward. An executioner behind Christ pulls his hair and raises his clenched fist. On the higher register behind Christ a herald, cheeks distended, plays a shawm. On the left stand a man and woman with a child, innocent spectators of the scene, while the soldier on the far right sticks his tongue out mockingly at the viewer in a gesture of ultimate contempt. The heavy wooden block hanging on a cord around Christ’s waist is a medieval instrument of torture that wounds the wearer’s legs with every step. This ‘spike block’ first appears as an attribute in depictions of Christ carrying the cross around 1410 in the Northern Netherlands, from where it spread far beyond the borders.³³For the spike block, see A.E. Rientjes, ‘Het spijkerblok in de kruisdraging van Christus’, Het Gildeboek 5 (August 1922), no. 2, pp. 41-47; J.H. Marrow, Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance: A Study of the Transformation of Sacred Metaphor into Descriptive Narrative, Courtrai 1979, pp. 171-89. In this case the block is attached to a real, albeit not original, cord. The hair on the back of the little dog running towards the sudarium has been partially shaved.⁴⁴Dogs with similar shaven backs can be found in Jan Nude’s St Martin (Utrecht, Centraal Museum, inv. no. 1788/001, see J. Klinckaert, De verzamelingen van het Centraal Museum Utrecht, vol. 3, Beeldhouwkunst tot 1850, coll. cat. Utrecht 1997, no. 44); Geertgen tot Sint Jan’s The Raising of Lazarus (Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. RF 1285, see P. van der Coelen et al., Images of Erasmus, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) 2008, no. 3); the Master of the View of St Gudula’s Pastoral Instruction (Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. 1991 L 3874, see P. Syfer-d’Olne et al., Catalogue of Early Netherlandish Painting in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The Flemish Primitives IV: Masters with Provisional Names, coll. cat. Brussels (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) 2006, pl. 63) and in Christ Brought before Pilate (Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inv. no. S.32, see J. Giltaij et al., Van Eyck to Bruegel, 1400-1550: Dutch and Flemish Painting in the Collection of the Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, coll. cat. Rotterdam 1994, no. 30). Since all of these are religious scenes, this treatment of the dogs’ coats may have a religious symbolism analogous to monks’ tonsures. Suggestion put forward by Jori Zijlmans, see W. Du Crocq-van Zeil, ‘Waarom werden die hondjes op zo’n vreemde manier geschoren?’, Volkskrant 30 January 2016.

There is no record of when the group, probably originally part of a Passion altarpiece, entered the museum’s collection. It may be the ‘old bas-relief carved in wood, showing Christ carrying his cross to Mount Calvary’ which, according to an unpublished catalogue manuscript, was already in the Nationale Konst-Gallery, the forerunner of the Rijksmuseum, in 1801.⁵⁵‘oud Basrelief in hout gesneeden, voorstellende Christus zijn kruis dragende naar den Berg Calvaria’; P.J.J. van Thiel, ‘De inrichting van de Nationale Konst-Gallery in het openingsjaar 1800’, Oud Holland 95 (1981), pp. 170-227, esp. p. 201, no. 139.

Stylistically the group relates to the Northern Netherlandish woodcarving tradition. Although certainly not by the same hand, there are parallels with the fragments of the Soest Altarpiece, which was most probably made in Utrecht. In this altarpiece a clear distinction has likewise been made between the realistically rendered ‘innocent’ figures, and the figures mocking Christ, who border on caricature. Compare for example the brutal head of the executioner pulling Christ’s hair and that of a soldier from the Soest Altarpiece (BK-NM-12006-15-B). Leeuwenberg found a number of other similar motifs in altar fragments and paintings that support a Northern-Netherlandish – possibly Utrecht – origin.⁶⁶J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Een nieuw facet aan een Utrechtse beeldhouwkunst 5’, Oud Holland 77 (1962), pp. 79-99, noot 3; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 59.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 20, with earlier literature; J.H. Marrow, Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance: A Study of the Transformation of Sacred Metaphor into Descriptive Narrative, Courtrai 1979, no. 142; P.J.J. van Thiel, ‘De inrichting van de Nationale Konst-Gallery in het openingsjaar 1800’, Oud Holland 95 (1981), pp. 170-227, esp. p. 201; A.K. Wheelock and A. Georgievska-Shine, Adriaen Brouwer: Youth Making a Face, brochure/exh. cat. Washington (National Gallery of Art) 1995-96, no. 8

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Christ Carrying the Cross, Northern Netherlands, c. 1475', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24278