Carved in the round. Several (sealed) workbench holes can be discerned on the head. On the reverse is a small, square hole, likely made for securing purposes.

The fingertips of the right hand are missing. A crack in the figure’s back has been filled with a wedge.

…; from an unknown owner, with BK-NM-3886 to -3888, fl. 200 for all, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1877;¹¹BK-NM-3886 and -3887 are pendants and are missing since 1948 or earlier. transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-3889

From about 1500 on, scenes of St Francis raising his hands to display the wounds in his palms, void of any additional narrative context or attributes, enjoyed a degree of popularity in the Netherlandish and Nether-German regions.²²J.W. Einhorn, Kunst in Kirche und Kloster: Franziskus und Anna Selbdritt in Bildwerken des Dorstener Franziskanerklosters, Werl 1988, p. 136. The dissemination of this theme is likely to have been somewhat influenced by prints. Hartmann Schedel’s influential Weltchronik (Nuremberg 1490) contains a woodcut with this iconography, as does the title page of the very popular post-incunabula Den Wijngaert van Sinte Franciscus (Antwerp 1518).³³J.W. Einhorn, Kunst in Kirche und Kloster: Franziskus und Anna Selbdritt in Bildwerken des Dorstener Franziskanerklosters, Werl 1988, p. 134. Francis’s gesture of the hand is derived from the iconography of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, who elevates his hands to reveal the stigmata (cf. RP-P-OB-1176). It probably also refers to Christ’s and Francis’s shared roles as intercessors.⁴⁴J.W. Einhorn, Kunst in Kirche und Kloster: Franziskus und Anna Selbdritt in Bildwerken des Dorstener Franziskanerklosters, Werl 1988, pp. 136-37; C. Hagnau, Der Meister der Lindauer Beweinung, Berlin 1998, pp. 33-36. Netherlandish sculptural depictions of Francis following this type are preserved in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht,⁵⁵Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. ABM bh599, see M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 9. and in the Museum Krona in Uden.⁶⁶Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. no. ABM bh599, see M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 9. The Rijksmuseum also possesses a second oak St Francis of this same type (BK-NM-1207). Contrary to these late-gothic examples, the present sculpture was produced around the mid-sixteenth century. It distinguishes itself by a notable element of realism: Francis’s finely carved physiognomy, though somewhat idealized, is furnished with wrinkles and a natural facial expression. He stands in a calm contrapposto, with a flowing and fairly natural arrangement of the drapery folds of his habit. Leeuwenberg catalogued the sculpture as a work produced in the Northern Netherlands, based on considerations of style.⁷⁷J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 104. As far as can be ascertained, no comparable pieces have survived. Francis’s fleshy face and inartificial physical demeanour, however, are details indeed similar to those found in several older examples originating from Utrecht.⁸⁸Cf. the physiognomic type of St Martin in the group of the same name in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, by Adriaen van Wesel from c. 1480-90, inv. no. 1781, see M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, no. 32; and for the figure’s physical demeanour and the folds of the sleeves, a Christ as Salvator Mundi in the Rijksmuseum by the Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head, inv. no. BK-1964-1.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 104; J.W. Einhorn, Kunst in Kirche und Kloster: Franziskus und Anna Selbdritt in Bildwerken des Dorstener Franziskanerklosters, Werl 1988, p. 136; M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, p. 205

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, St Francis of Assisi, Northern Netherlands, c. 1550', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035585