Antler Chandelier with Female Figure (‘Leuchterweibchen’)

The sculpture is composed of four separately carved elements, subsequently polychromed and partly gilded: head with torso and left arm; right forearm; right upper arm; escutcheon. The upper part of the figure’s back is flat and unpainted. In the lower back is an integrally (?) carved rosette with two cavities, each holding an antler. Secured via three rings – one in the lower back and two at the ends of the antlers – are chains with S-shaped links for hanging purposes.

The sculpture has sustained woodworm damage in areas. The original polychromy is covered by two or three later polychrome layers; these layers appear intermixed, most likely resulting from the partial removal of overpainting during past restorations. The most recent layer comprises oil paint and imitation gold.

…; sale Luzern (Galerie Fischer), 18-22 June 1963, no. 782; …; from the Paul Drey Gallery, New York, fl. 18,012, to the museum, 1969; on loan to the Museum voor Religieuze Kunst, Uden, 2005-12

ObjectNumber: BK-1969-1

Leuchterweibchen or Lüsterweibchen is the German appellation for an unusual type of chandelier combining a carved figure of a woman and antlers (typically of a stag), hung from the ceiling via chains or articulated rails.¹¹For these chandeliers, see J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98; L. Telsnig, ‘Zu Lüchten ein Hitzhorn… Mittelalterliche Geweihkronen als Hänggeleuchter’, Weltkunst 66 (1996), pp. 1614-15; J. von Fircks, ‘Lieben diener v(nd) dinerine, pfleget mit steter trewen minne: Das Wiesbadener Leuchterweibchen als Minneallegorie’, in T. Kunz (ed.), Nicht die Bibliothek, sondern das Auge: Beiträge zu Ehren von Hartmut Krohm, Petersberg 2008, pp. 98-110; D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011; D. Preising, ‘Geweih und Schnitzwerk: Ein Leuchtertypus und sein Bedeutungswandel vom Mittelalter zum Historismus’, Aachener Kunstblätter 65 (2014), pp. 98-115; D. Preising and M. Rief, ‘Neue Funde und Ergänzungen zu Geweihleuchtern’, Aachener Kunstblätter 65 (2014), pp. 116-37. Although antler chandeliers also exist with male figures, saints, historical, allegorical and mythological figures, and (mythical) animals, by far the majority feature female figures.²²D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, p. 22. See also the inventory of known antler chandeliers on pp. 167-208 and the addenda to D. Preising and M. Rief, ‘Neue Funde und Ergänzungen zu Geweihleuchtern’, Aachener Kunstblätter 65 (2014), pp. 116-37. The chains accompanying most of the surviving medieval antler chandeliers of this type have been lost; the Amsterdam chandelier is unique in this respect, as its original chains remain intact.

The term Leuchter is not always applicable, as antler chandeliers by no means served solely as decorative sources of light. As with the Rijksmuseum piece, candleholders on many of these objects are entirely absent. When bearing escutcheons, the function of these objects was primarily heraldic in nature. This heraldic significance applies not only to the coats of arms themselves, but also to the chandelier as a whole: such objects can therefore be seen as a three-dimensional variant of shield and crest, with the combination of figure and antlers representing the latter. This is literally the case with crests consisting of a figure flanked by antlers.³³D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 60-66, with illustrations of various crests (with both male and female figures) and including a reference to the crest on the coat of arms of the famous etcher Augustin Hirschvogel (1503-1553), which consists of a female half-figure with wings made of stag antlers. See also D. Preising, ‘Geweih und Schnitzwerk: Ein Leuchtertypus und sein Bedeutungswandel vom Mittelalter zum Historismus’, Aachener Kunstblätter 65 (2014), pp. 98-115, esp. pp. 103-04. Invariably, the escutcheons on these chandeliers tilt downwards at an angle, thus ensuring the coats of arms’ legibility when seen from below.

The popularity of antlers as a heraldic motif is linked to symbolism and the display of status. As trophies of the hunt – a lordly right – these objects indirectly referred to their owner’s noble status. Even shed antlers were deemed as the landowner’s possession, to be relinquished by the finder.⁴⁴D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, p. 48. Additionally, antlers were associated with vitality, fertility, regeneration (the annual shedding and regrowing), and love. In the Christian tradition, they also symbolise spiritual authority, as deer antlers grow upwards in the direction of the spiritual realm.⁵⁵For the symbolism surrounding antlers and antler chandeliers, see F.M. Kammel, ‘Gehörnt: Das Geweih als Trophäe, Apotropaion und Zierrat’, in T. Springer et al., Vom Ansehen der Tiere (Kulturgeschichtliche Spaziergänge im Germanischen Nationalmuseum 10), Nuremberg 2009, pp. 132-47; D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 45-47. Antlers were collected as miracles of nature and incorporated as such in unique Kunstkammer pieces, e.g. the wooden Doe’s Head with Antlers and Crucifix held in the National Museum of Denmark (Copenhagen), made at the request of Archduchess Margaret of Austria by the sculptor Conrad Meit in 1518.⁶⁶Copenhagen, National Museum of Denmark, inv. no. NO2 10987, see D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 49-51, 207. Antler chandeliers reflect a similar combination of naturalia (antler) and artificialia (sculpture), based on the notion that the carved artefact enhances the value of the natural object. Lastly, antlers were thought to keep demonic forces and other misfortunes at bay. Veit Stoß’s Drachenleuchter (dragon chandelier), modelled after a design by Albrecht Dürer, and the Schreckkopf chandelier in Jever are fine examples of such apotropaic antler chandeliers.⁷⁷D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, nos. 7 and 11. See also F.M. Kammel, ‘Gehörnt: Das Geweih als Trophäe, Apotropaion und Zierrat’, in T. Springer et al., Vom Ansehen der Tiere (Kulturgeschichtliche Spaziergänge im Germanischen Nationalmuseum 10), Nuremberg 2009, pp. 132-47. The symbolic aspect of antler chandeliers therefore played an important role, an element more precisely defined by the iconography of the integrated sculpture

Many medieval antler chandeliers probably also served a formal function, considering their documented frequency in city council halls, where in some cases they survive today in situ.⁸⁸D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 67-79; D. Preising, ‘Geweih und Schnitzwerk: Ein Leuchtertypus und sein Bedeutungswandel vom Mittelalter zum Historismus’, Aachener Kunstblätter 65 (2014), pp. 98-115, esp. pp. 104-06. Their presence was an implicit appropriation of the symbolism of lordship associated with antlers originally reserved for the nobility, and hence, of the spiritual and legislative authority granted to governing authorities by God.⁹⁹For example, Romans 13:1: ‘Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God’. In the Free Imperial City of Goslar, for example, the city council swore an oath of loyalty to imperial authority beneath the Kleiner Kaiserleuchter, which hangs there to the present day; in the Belgian city of Diest, departing members of the city council officially handed over the keys of the archive cabinet to their successors beneath the Antler Chandelier with St George (also today in situ).^[J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98, esp. p. 165; D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, p. 68. Antler chandeliers also hung in churches. Leeuwenberg cited the late fourteenth-century Leuchterweibchen from the Marienkirche in the old Hanseatic city Lemgo, with a portrait bust of Gehse Lambrachting, a wealthy citizen of Lembo who donated the chandelier to the church in 1392. To his knowledge, this was the only chandelier of its kind hanging in a church. It has since been learned that these objects in fact adorned the interiors of many more churches.¹⁰¹⁰D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 70-76; D. Preising, ‘Geweih und Schnitzwerk: Ein Leuchtertypus und sein Bedeutungswandel vom Mittelalter zum Historismus’, Aachener Kunstblätter 65 (2014), pp. 98-115, esp. pp. 105-06. Other quasi-public locations included princely courts, fortresses and castles, abbeys (refectories), guild houses, almshouses and schools. Moreover, antler chandeliers were increasingly to be found in the homes of affluent burghers, in accordance with their growing status.¹¹¹¹J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98, esp. pp. 174-79; D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 76-79.

Judging from its modest size, the Rijksmuseum chandelier was likely intended for a private space. The coat of arms on the escutcheon clasped in the Leuchterweibchen’s hands cannot be traced to any one patron: a single jumping ibex in an otherwise empty field was used by numerous families both in the Netherlands and abroad, and even various territorial regions.¹²¹²J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98, esp. p. 196, note 13. The Amsterdam piece belongs to the group of antler chandeliers whose iconography alludes to love and courtship, conveyed through the Weibchen’s charming appearance but also the rose on her back, a time-honoured symbol of love. Chandeliers of this kind are the product of an era in which courtly love and the noble veneration of women were vital to the culture of the elite class.¹³¹³M. Caron ed., Helse en hemelse vrouwen: Schrikbeelden en voorbeelden van de vrouw in de christelijke cultuur, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent) 1988, pp. 82-84; see also J. von Fircks, ‘Lieben diener v(nd) dinerine, pfleget mit steter trewen minne: Das Wiesbadener Leuchterweibchen als Minneallegorie’, in T. Kunz (ed.), Nicht die Bibliothek, sondern das Auge: Beiträge zu Ehren von Hartmut Krohm, Petersberg 2008, pp. 98-110; D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 45-47. In contemporaneous representations, Leuchterweibchen appear in combination with loving couples such as Matthäus Zasinger’s The Embrace and Willem Vrelant’s miniature entitled The Workshop of the Sculptor Pygmalion (fig. a). In Zasinger’s print, the half-figure Leuchterweibchen holds two as yet blank escutcheons in her hands, presumably destined for the coats of arms of the two lovers engaged in an embrace below.¹⁴¹⁴M. Lehrs, Geschichte und kritischer Katalog des deutschen, niederländischen und französischen Kupferstichs im XV. Jahrhundert, Vienna 1908-34, vol. 9, p. 365, no. 16. In Vrelant’s miniature, we see a somewhat earlier type of chandelier adorned only with a woman’s head (similar to the Lambrachting Leuchterweibchen) as opposed to a half-figure, with Pygmalion kneeling before Galatea. In German-language courtly literature of the fifteenth century, we encounter Frau Minne as the personification of love. She also occasionally appears with the wings of Amor, the god of love, to which the antlers on ‘courtly’ chandeliers, like the example in the Rijksmuseum, may intentionally allude.¹⁵¹⁵J. von Fircks, ‘Lieben diener v(nd) dinerine, pfleget mit steter trewen minne: Das Wiesbadener Leuchterweibchen als Minneallegorie’, in T. Kunz (ed.), Nicht die Bibliothek, sondern das Auge: Beiträge zu Ehren von Hartmut Krohm, Petersberg 2008, pp. 98-110, esp. pp. 104-06. See also the early 16th-century design for an antler chandelier in the form of a flying Amor with antlers as wings in D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, p. 30, fig. 18.

Leuchterweibchen were primarily popular during the first half of the sixteenth century, specifically in the southern parts of German-speaking regions (southern Germany, Tirol, Switzerland). Nevertheless, contemporaneous representations and archival sources show these objects were also quite common in the Northern and Southern Netherlands, perhaps even earlier than in Germany. The earliest known documentation of an antler chandelier occurs in an estate inventory from 1325, held in the archives of the former Flemish region of Pas-de-Calais. The entry’s wording - ‘4 chandeliers of horn that have heads of nuns…’¹⁶¹⁶4 candeliers à cornes qui ont testes de nonnains… - leaves little doubt that this concerns a Leuchterweibchen.¹⁷¹⁷J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98, esp. pp. 174-75, with more early Southern and Northern Netherlandish antler chandeliers on pp. 172-79. See also D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 40-45 and the inventory on pp. 159-65. The Amsterdam Leuchterweibchen – with its fashionable renaissance raiment, hair and flat beret – remains a rare example of a Netherlandish antler chandelier, as very few are known to have survived.¹⁸¹⁸Besides the Mechelen-made Leuchterweibchen in Berlin, see the Mosan Marian chandelier of c. 1430 (J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98, esp. pp. 166-69) and a Mechelen antler chandelier figure on the Marienluchter of c. 1500 in the Friedenssaal of the city hall of Münster. The female figure on this chandelier is said to have originally been a Lucretia, later replaced by a Virgin Mary (D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, p. 28). Stylistically, she falls seamlessly in line with the so-called poupées de Malines (Mechelen dolls): carved, wooden statuettes of the Virgin, the Christ Child and other saints used for private devotion that were mass-produced in Mechelen workshops during the first half of the sixteenth century and dispersed across Europe. Typical of these carvings are the round heads with high domed foreheads, a refined nose and mouth, and eyes slightly askew, all characteristics also found on the Amsterdam Weibchen. Even if acknowledging that poupées de Malines were rarely profane in nature and that the quality marks invariably applied to Mechelen wood-carved sculptures during this period – e.g. the Mechelen municipal coat of arms (three pales, certifying the wood quality) and the letter ‘M’ (for the polychromy) – are nowhere to be discerned, there exists no doubt regarding the Amsterdam Leuchterweibchen’s Mechelen provenance. Confirmation is provided by a virtually identical antler chandelier in the Bode-Museum in Berlin, possibly made in the very same workshop, which does in fact bear the ‘M’ of the city Mechelen (fig. b - antlers, chains and escutcheon now missing).¹⁹¹⁹Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, inv. no. SI 21, see J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98, esp. p. 172, fig. 6; W. Godenne, Prélimiaires à l’inventaire général des statuettes d’origine malinoise, présumées des XVe et XVIe siècles, Mechelen 1973, pp. 133-35, fig. II/243; D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, p. 170.

In Vrelant’s miniature (fig. a), the Leuchterweibchen appears to be an item placed on display for sale, supporting the notion that these objects were not only made per commission, but also sold in shops. ²⁰²⁰D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, p. 107. While it is not known whether the two Mechelen Leuchterweibchen were made at the request of a specific patron, for the local market or for export, the latter scenario is perhaps confirmed by the fact that both came up for sale in the early twentieth century – one in Switzerland, the other in Austria. ²¹²¹The figure in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, came from the private collection of Albert Figdor (1843-1927), Vienna. Leeuwenberg assumed the Amsterdam chandelier was integrally assembled in Mechelen. Nevertheless, the possibility also exists that the figure, though initially carved in Mechelen, was transported to its final destination (Germany), with the rosette-like back piece, antlers and chains added only later.²²²²J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98, esp. p. 163. Unlike the back piece on the Amsterdam Weibchen, which indeed appears to have been carved from the same piece of wood as the torso, the (now missing) back piece on the Berlin figure was carved from a separate piece of wood. Here the upper half of the figure’s back is dark in colour, with its surface unplaned as is customary of Mechelen carvings from this period. In the area where the back piece was once attached, however, the wood’s surface has been finished smooth and bare (fig. c).²³²³See the black-and-white photo of the reverse in W. Godenne, Prélimiaires à l’inventaire général des statuettes d’origine malinoise, présumées des XVe et XVIe siècles, Mechelen 1973, no. II/243. According to Leeuwenberg, one can also see the stub of a bolt that has broken off (J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98, esp. p. 172). The figure itself could therefore very well have been exported without the back piece, with the lower portion of the back planed smooth only upon its arrival in Germany (at which time the municipal guild mark was removed?), thus allowing the back piece to be readily attached in its proper place. The same was perhaps true of the two separately carved escutcheons, added only later to the Leuchterweibchen, or if delivered together with the figure, adorned with coats of arms only when a buyer for the chandelier emerged.²⁴²⁴W. Godenne,‘Prélimiaires à l’inventaire général des statuettes d’origine malinoise, présumées des XVe et XVIe siècles’, Bulletin du Cercle Archéologique, Littéraire et Artistique de Malines 76 (1972), pp. 1-80, esp. p. 72; D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 107-08.

Titia de Haseth Möller, 2024

‘Keuze uit de aanwinsten’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 18 (1970), p. 66, fig. 1; W. Godenne,‘Prélimiaires à l’inventaire général des statuettes d’origine malinoise, présumées des XVe et XVIe siècles’, Bulletin du Cercle Archéologique, Littéraire et Artistique de Malines, 67 (1972), p. 1-80, esp. pp. 70-72 and ibid. 77 (1973), pp. 87-155, esp. pp. 133-35; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 173, with earlier literature; B. Ferrao, Imagens de Malines: Colecção Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga [Lisboa], coll. cat. Lisbon 1976, p. 26 with ill.; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Geweikronen ook in de Nederlanden’, Antiek 13 (1978) no. 3, pp. 161-98; M. Caron (ed.), Helse en hemelse vrouwen: Schrikbeelden en voorbeelden van de vrouw in de christelijke cultuur, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent) 1988, pp. 83, 90, no. 101; H. van Os et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1400-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2000, no. 26; D. Preising, M. Rief and C. Vogt (eds.), Artefakt und Naturwunder: Das Leuchterweibchen der Sammlung Ludwig, exh. cat. Oberhausen (Ludwiggalerie Schloss) 2011, pp. 24-25, fig. 9 and p. 168; Scholten in F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 68; F. Cayron and D. Steyaert, Made in Malines: Les Statuettes malinoises ou ‘poupées de Malines’ de 1500-1540. Etude matérielle et typologique (Scientia Artis 16), Brussels 2019, fig. 2.76a

T. de Haseth Möller, 2024, 'anonymous, Antler Chandelier with Female Figure (‘Leuchterweibchen’), Mechelen, 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.24454