Crib with Christ Child

Formed (solid) in a mould and fired. The bottom edge of the reverse is semicircular.

Possibly missing on the reverse is the semi-circular edge at the top, which, together with the surviving bottom edge, allowed the cradle to be rocked.

…; acquired from the estate of G. Haasloop Werner, Elburg, by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, The Hague, 1864; transferred to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885

ObjectNumber: BK-NM-4

In the late Middle Ages, simple pipeclay (white-firing clay) sculptures such as this were serially produced in the Low Countries using moulds.¹¹For pipeclay production in the Northern Netherlands, see e.g. S. Ostkamp, ‘Productie en gebruik van pijpaarden en terracotta devotionalia in de Nederlanden (ca. 1350-ca. 1550): Het ambacht van de heylichenbacker voor Judocus Vredis, een archeologisch verslag’, in A. Böing and G. Inhester, Judocus Vredis: Kunst aus der Stille: Eine Klosterwerkstatt der Dürerzeit/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. 188-256, esp. pp. 188-239 and S. Ostkamp, ‘Van Utrechtse bodem? Utrecht en de productie van pijpaarden devotionalia’, 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, pp. 108-27. Utrecht was unquestionably an important centre for the production of pipeclay devotional objects, as the large number of moulds and misfires unearthed there attest. However, archaeological research shows that this production also occurred in cities such as Amsterdam, Leiden, Deventer, Kampen, Antwerp, Liège and Cologne.²²See 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.

Depicted is the Christ Child lying in a crib. Sculptures of this kind were used for so-called ‘baby-cradling’, a religious ritual practiced both in the family context and in monastic life as a way to contemplate Mary in her role as Mother of God.³³M.L. Caron in Vroomheid per dozijn, exh. cat. Utrecht (Rijksmuseum het Catharijneconvent) 1982, p. 20; S. Ostkamp, ‘Christus per dozijn’, Vind: Geschiedenis, archeologie, kunst en antiek 1 (2011), pp. 68-75, p. 83; S. Ostkamp, ‘Van Utrechtse bodem? Utrecht en de productie van pijpaarden devotionalia’, 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, pp. 108-27, esp. p. 118 and I. Ippel, ‘A Christmas Crib as a Meek Heart of the Late Mediaeval Christian’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 62 (2014), pp. 330-47. The underside of these objects is often rounded off, enabling the worshiper to physically rock the child back and forth. Miniature sculptures of this kind have been unearthed in virtually every corner of the Netherlands, thus conveying their tremendous popularity and wide dissemination (cf. BK-NM-11289 and BK-NM-90). Far more common, however, are the fully independent pipeclay sculptures of the Christ Child, which, thanks to an integrated socle, were able to stand freely (cf. BK-NM-11283). These figurines were also probably used for the same cradling ritual, but instead placed in separate wooden cradles. An opulent example of such a cradle is preserved in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (BK-2013-14-1).

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 893; B. Kruijsen, Verzamelen van middeleeuwse kunst in Nederland 1830-1903, Nijmegen 2002, p. 99

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Crib with Christ Child, Northern Netherlands, c. 1475 - c. 1525', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.25656