Carved and polychromed. The reverse is flat. Emerging from the middle of the figure’s back is the stub of an old nail.

The nose and left hand are severely abraded. The right hand is missing. The polychromy is modern and incongruous (deviating from contemporaneous examples of polychromy): e.g. the sash around the saint’s waist, which is painted in the same colour as the skirt and the cloak.

…; from the collection A.P. Hermans-Smits (1822-1897), Eindhoven, with numerous other objects (BK-NM-2001 to -2800), fl. 14,000 for all, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-2507

IIn 1875, the Dutch government acquired over 800 objects from Antonius Petrus (‘Antoon’) Hermans.¹¹Antoon Hermans was a goldsmith, church warden, art dealer and collector, active in Eindhoven and was married to Joanna Maria Smits (1815-1879), see J.P. van Rijen, ‘Antonius Petrus Hermans (1822-1897), een ambivalent lid van het Sint-Bernulphusgilde’, Ex Tempore 12 (1993), pp. 57-64; P. Thoben, ‘Zilver van edelsmid Antonius Petrus Hermans’, Museum Kempenland Eindhoven Nieuws 7 (2001), p. 4; P. Thoben and R. Erven, Trotse burgers, Cuypers en de Sint-Catharinakerk: Speciale uitgave ter gelegenheid van het 150-jarig jubileum van de Sint-Catharinakerk Eindhoven, Eindhoven 2018, pp. 5, 18, 19, 24. on behalf of the then recently opened Nederlandsch Museum van Geschiedenis en Kunst in The Hague. Ten years later, this museum was integrated as part of the newly built Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The Hermans-Smits acquisition included earthenware, glass, silver and brass objects, and furniture, as well as approximately seventy works of sculpture. Many of these sculptures were of inferior quality, to which this unremarkably executed statuette, in very poor condition and repainted, attests.

This Female Saint is wearing a skirt, with above it a low-cut bodice over a chemise. A knotted sash hangs at the waist. The open cloak hangs down from her shoulders, but wraps across the waist and over her skirt, thus resembling a long apron. Long, curly hair emerges from beneath the turban on her head. On the basis of her raiment, this work can be dated to the first quarter of the sixteenth century. When recorded in the museum’s inventory, this book-toting figure was identified as St Barbara. This cannot be confirmed with certainty, however, as the attribute held in the saint’s right hand – in most cases Barbara’s tower – is missing. Considering the sculpture’s modest dimensions, it was likely intended for private devotion. Leeuwenberg catalogued this piece as a work originating from the Northern Netherlands. In light of her endearing face and the manner in which the cloak is draped across the body, however, one cannot rule out a possible origin in Brabant, perhaps Mechelen.²²Cf. several examples of Mechelen production in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see P. Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550, coll. cat. London (Victoria and Albert Museum) 2002, nos. 37-40.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 94

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous or , Female Saint (Barbara?), , c. 1500 - c. 1525', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200115858