Carved and originally polychromed. The reverse is partly flat.

Beneath the surface the material is worm-eaten and decayed. Vertical cracks, which have been filled, run from the ground under the left foot to the face. Part of the left hand, the attribute, parts of the head covering and the cloak are missing. The right hand has been replaced. Remnants of original gilding have been found on the hem.

…; found in the Oude Kerk, Soest, with several other objects (BK-NM-12006-1 to -19), 1905;¹¹W. Vogelsang, ‘Vondst te Soest’, Bulletin van de Nederlandschen Oudheidkundigen Bond 4 (1905), pp. 187-96, pp. 190-91; J. Kalf, ‘Een belangrijke vondst’, Het huis, oud en nieuw. Maandelijks prentenboek gewijd aan huis, inrichting, bouw- en sierkunst 3 (1905), pp. 289-301. donated by the municipality of Soest to the museum, 1907; on loan to the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, 1958-2006

Object number: BK-NM-12006-5

Restoration work in the tower of the Oude Kerk in Soest in 1905 uncovered in a bricked-up area an important treasure trove of statues, albeit in a deplorable condition.²²These objects have been donated to the Rijksmuseum in 1907, see inv. nos. BK-NM-12006-1 to -19. It is assumed that the figures were hidden there either in 1566 at the outbreak of the Iconoclasm or in December 1580, when Calvinists in the Eemland region endeavoured to destroy every last remnant of religious art.³³K. Broekhuijsen-Kruijer, ‘Het Passieretabel uit Soest’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 32 (1984), pp. 3-16, esp. p. 3.

Among the statues was this figure of a holy knight, clad in armour and coat of mail. On his abundant mid-length hair he wears a beret, with a second head covering placed at an angle on top of it; the dangling ribbons are knotted loosely on his chest. He wears a cloak with a fur collar over his shoulders, hitching it up under both arms. His left hand is missing, as is the object he was holding in the palm of his right hand. At this spot there is now a round hole which has been filled.

Bouvy cautiously identified the anonymous figure as St Adrian, without further explanation.⁴⁴D.P.R.A. Bouvy, Middeleeuwsche beeldhouwkunst in de Noordelijke Nederlanden, Amsterdam 1947, p. 152. Leeuwenberg adopted this without reservation; see J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 63. Adrian was a relatively popular saint in the Low Countries, who in view of his legend – he was an officer in the Roman army – is always depicted in armour. The standard attribute of this Christian martyr is the anvil on which his legs were crushed. In some cases he is accompanied by a lion. Since such attributes are missing here, this figure could in theory also be one of the other holy knights revered in the region – George, Victor, Maurice, Quirinus or Gereon.

The type of armour the knight wears, the wide shoes with the rounded toes, the double head covering and the ribbon with which the upper cap is loosely knotted under the chin reflect the fashion of the early sixteenth century.⁵⁵W. Vogelsang, ‘Vondst te Soest’, Bulletin van de Nederlandschen Oudheidkundigen Bond 4 (1905), pp. 187-96, esp. p. 193; B. Nederveen, Soest, tussen Amersfoort en Utrecht. Een studie naar de herkomst van de laatgotische sculptuur uit de Hervormde Kerk te Soest, Amsterdam 1999 (unpub. thesis University of Amsterdam), p. 98. The knight’s facial type with the squinting eyes and the bags under them, and the downturned corners of the mouth show some dependence, as Nederveen observes, on the work of the eminent Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head (active c. 1490-c. 1530). This suggests that the figure was made in Utrecht not far from Soest, which was an important centre of sculpture.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 26, with earlier literature; B. Nederveen, Soest, tussen Amersfoort en Utrecht. Een studie naar de herkomst van de laatgotische sculptuur uit de Hervormde Kerk te Soest, Amsterdam 1999 (unpub. thesis University of Amsterdam), pp. 18-19, 97-98

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Holy Knight (St Adrian?), Utrecht, c. 1500 - c. 1515', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200115816