The Lamentation

Carved and originally polychromed. The reverse has been partly hollowed out.

Woodworm damage; the wormholes have mostly been filled with wax. There is a large crack in the middle of the relief at the bottom and another through Nicodemus’s body. The toes of Christ’s right foot are missing. The polychromy has been removed with a caustic; traces remain in a few deeper areas.

...; from the art market, Munich, to R. Strohmayer, Bremen;¹¹H. Krohm and C. Theuerkauff, Sakrale Skulpturen. Sammlung Strohmayer, exh. cat. Bremen (Focke-Museum) 1972-73, under no. 1. his sale, Cologne (Lempertz), 6-8 June 1973, no. 1523, DM 69,000 (fl. 72,766.10), to the museum, with the support of the Fotocommissie

ObjectNumber: BK-1974-1

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Stichting tot Bevordering van de Belangen van het Rijksmuseum

The Virgin’s gaze is focused on her son’s lifeless body, which has just been removed from the Cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and placed in her lap. St John, his hand to his face, contorted in grief, stands behind the Virgin. Looking over her right shoulder Mary Magdalene stands on the extreme right, clasping her ointment jar to her breast. The female figure beside her kisses Christ’s left hand, while the woman in the foreground holds his right wrist. They are problably Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome.

Krohm and Theuerkauff associated this touching Lamentation with a Descent from the Cross in the Bode-Museum in Berlin (fig. a) that is alike in respect to size, type of wood, technique and style and undoubtedly came from the same workshop.²²Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung, inv. no. 507. H. Krohm and C. Theuerkauff, Sakrale Skulpturen. Sammlung Strohmayer, exh. cat. Bremen (Focke-Museum) 1972-73, under no. 1. For the altarpiece fragment see T. Demmler, Deutsche Skulpturen des Deutschen Museum, vol. 3, coll. cat. Berlin (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) 1930, no. 507. Although there are a great many similarities between the figures in the two scenes – compare, for example, St John with his curly hair and grief-stricken face – they considered that small differences in the clothes made it unlikely that the groups came from the same Passion altar.³³They also pointed to the different dimensions, but in this case it is solely a difference in height caused by the presence of a Cross in the background of the Berlin group. The width of the groups and the proportions of the figures are virtually identical. Further research is required to provide a conclusive answer.

On the basis of the intensity of the emotions, the affinity with Flemish painting and, above all, the type of wood (walnut),⁴⁴Whereas the woodcarvers in the Northern Netherlands worked exclusively in oak in this period, their Southern Netherlandish counterparts most often used walnut. the two groups can be convincingly placed in the Southern Netherlands, around 1440-50.⁵⁵For, among other things, parallels in the work of Master of Flémalle see H. Krohm and C. Theuerkauff, Sakrale Skulpturen. Sammlung Strohmayer, exh. cat. Bremen (Focke-Museum) 1972-73, under no. 1. For the compressed and relatively busy composition, in which the heads of the figures in the foreground and background are placed immediately above one another, the carver could have been inspired by the late work of the Brussels Master of Hakendover (active, c. 1395-1430), such as his group of the Apostles in Prayer of around 1425 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.⁶⁶New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 16.32.214. Didier refers to the Passion altarpiece in the Sankt-Reinoldikirche in Dortmund, see H. Krohm and C. Theuerkauff, Sakrale Skulpturen. Sammlung Strohmayer, exh. cat. Bremen (Focke-Museum) 1972-73, under no. 1. A few decades later similar quite crowded compositions would be associated with Utrecht woodcarving. The first examples from that city can be found in the work of Adriaen van Wesel around 1460-75 (cf. BK-NM-11647) and an Adoration of the Magi from around 1460 by one of his predecessors.⁷⁷Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, inv. no. BMH bh144, 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. 26. A later example representing the Descent from the Cross in the Bode-Museum in Berlin of around 1490, which is attributed to Van Wesel, shares with the present group a similar diagonal placement of Christ’s body.⁸⁸M. 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. 31. By contrast, in the second half of the fifteenth century Southern Netherlandish (particularly Brussels) woodcarving moved towards simpler compositions, with more space left between the figures. This trend is immediately obvious when the present group is compared with a Lamentation from a Brabant (Brussels?) altar dating from around 1490-1510 in Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, which was based on the same prototype.⁹⁹J. de Coo, Museum Mayer van den Bergh. Beeldhouwkunst, plaketten, antiek, coll. cat. Antwerp 1969, nos. 2244-2246. Two of the three female saints and St John have been omitted from this much simplified version.

In the past two oak altar groups have been put into the same style group as the Berlin Descent from the Cross and the Amsterdam Lamentation, but were dated on stylistic grounds around ten years later than these walnut carvings.¹⁰¹⁰The stylistic connection with the Resurrection was first observed by De Werd, see J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 513. In her turn, Halsema-Kubes associated the Resurrection with the Entombment in Herk-de-Stad, see W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, p. 142. They are an Entombment in the Sint-Martinuskerk in Herk-de-Stad in Belgian Limburg and a Resurrection (BK-14993) in the Rijksmuseum’s collection. In this case both groups unquestionably came from one and the same altar. Although the Resurrection had unanimously been regarded as a typical example of Northern Netherlandish (probably Utrecht) carving until then,¹¹¹¹C.M.A.A. Lindeman, ‘Een eikenhouten beeldgroep, voorstellende de Opstanding’, Mededelingen van het Departement van Onderwijs, Kunsten en Wetenschappen 1937, pp. 395-400; Verslagen omtrent ‘s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst (1937), pp. 9-10; K.G. Boon, ‘Eenige opmerkingen naar aanleiding van vroege Nederlandsche Schilders’, Oud Holland 57 (1940), pp. 97-108, p. 100; D.P.R.A. Bouvy, Middeleeuwsche beeldhouwkunst in de Noordelijke Nederlanden, Amsterdam 1947, p. 105; J.J.M. Timmers, Houten beelden. De houtsculptuur in de Noordelijke Nederlanden tijdens de late Middeleeuwen, Amsterdam/Antwerp 1949, p. 57; D.P.R.A. Bouvy, ‘De Verrijzenis van Christus’, Openbaar Kunstbezit 9 (1965), no. 16; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 47. in 1977 Didier and Krohm placed these four enigmatic works – which they praised for their personal style, superior quality, expressive powers and restraint – in the central Meuse area on the grounds of the stylistic resonance echoed in the work of Master(s) of Elsloo.¹²¹²R. Didier and H. Krohm, Duitse middeleeuwse beeldhouwwerken in Belgische verzamelingen, exh. cat. Brussels (Generale Bankmaatschappij) 1977, no. 40; C. Ceulemans et al., Laat-gotische beeldsnijkunst uit Limburg en grensland, vol. 2, exh. cat. Sint-Truiden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1990, no. 77; C. Ceulemans and F. Peters (eds.), A Masterly Hand: Interdisciplinary Research on the Late-Medieval Sculptor(s) Master of Elsloo in an International Perspective, Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels on 20-21 October 2011, Turnhout 2014, p. 336, current location: Wenau (Langerwehe), former monastic church. They even thought it possible that the four groups were created in the same workshop.¹³¹³R. Didier and H. Krohm, Duitse middeleeuwse beeldhouwwerken in Belgische verzamelingen, exh. cat. Brussels (Generale Bankmaatschappij) 1977, p. 112, note 9. The use of two types of wood in one an the same studio is unusual, however,¹⁴¹⁴But not without precedent; the Master of Hakendover worked in both walnut and oak, cf. BK-2011-3. and the stylistic similarity between the two pairs is not close enough to justify an attribution to the same workshop, or even the same region (for the full argumentation, see BK-14993).

More consensus about the Utrecht origin of the oak groups seems to have been achieved since,¹⁵¹⁵W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, p. 142. In 1990 Didier even attributed them to the leading Utrecht woodcarver Adriaen van Wesel, see R. Didier in C. Ceulemans et al., Laat-gotische beeldsnijkunst uit Limburg en grensland, vol. 2, exh. cat. Sint-Truiden (Provinciaal Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1990, no. 19. In this analysis, Didier takes no account of the walnut groups that he and Krohm had previously placed in the same style group or even workshop. while a Southern Netherlandish (probably Brussels) origin remains the most likely for the present Lamentation and the Berlin Descent from the Cross. In addition to the arguments already put forward, it can also be noted that the male figure types in these groups and the expressions on their faces echo the influential style of the Master of Hakendover (cf. for example the apostles in his stone reliefs in the choir of the Sint-Martinuskerk in Halle of around 1409) and the fringe-trimmed headdresses built up in different layers that are worn by two of the female saints.¹⁶¹⁶H. Krohm and C. Theuerkauff, Sakrale Skulpturen. Sammlung Strohmayer, exh. cat. Bremen (Focke-Museum) 1972-73, under no. 1. This headdress appears not infrequently in the painting and sculpture of the Southern Netherlands and was apparently a (local?) fashion there. It is found, for instance, in the work of the Master of Joachim and Anne, who has been convincingly located in the northwestern part of the Duchy of Brabant (cf. BK-NM-88 and BK-C-2007-2).

Despite the differences outlined above, the stylistic parallels that do exist between the four walnut and oak groups, and between the present group and Utrecht woodcarving in general,¹⁷¹⁷Apart from the analogies already mentioned in the present group, Mary Magdalene’s volumious wavy hair with the centre parting, partly covered by her cloak is normally considered to be a typical Utrecht characteristic. can probably be explained by the artistic exchange that came about between the Southern and Northern Netherlands (particularly between Brabant and Utrecht) as a result of the mobility of both artists and works of art (Utrecht pipeclay sculpture is a case in point). Telling evidence of this includes a seated Virgin and Child, a Virgin on the Crescent Moon and a Virgin Reading a Book from an Annunciation: three oak carvings with Antwerp or Mechelen guild marks whose style unmistakably points towards the Utrecht of Adriaen van Wesel.¹⁸¹⁸D. Preising, ‘Utrecht und Brabant. Künstlerische Wechselbeziehungen 1430-1530’, Aachener Kunstblätter 65 (2014), pp. 56-71, figs. 1-6.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 925, with earlier literature; R. Didier and H. Krohm, Duitse middeleeuwse beeldhouwwerken in Belgische verzamelingen, exh. cat. Brussels (Generale Bankmaatschappij) 1977, p. 111; P. Valvekens, Een keuze uit het kerkelijk kunstbezit van de parochies van Groot-Herk-de-Stad, exh. cat. Sint-Truiden (Provinciaal Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1980 (Kunst en Oudheden in Limburg 25), p. 40

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, The Lamentation, Southern Netherlands, c. 1440 - c. 1450', in F. Scholten and B. van der Marl (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.25708