Sedes Sapientiae

Carved, polychromed and partly gilded. There is a workbench hole in the Virgin’s head and there are mortises in the arms where missing elements would have been attached. The reverse has been hollowed out with a small axe or chisel. There are nail holes where a cover plate was once attached around the cavity (the current plate is modern).

There is a wide crack between the Virgin’s feet, and other cracks in her body, between the infant’s legs and in his knee. A crack in the side of the Virgin’s head has been filled with wax. There is some woodworm damage on the back of the throne at the left. The Virgin’s crown and right forearm, the infant Christ’s right arm, the head of the bird, parts of the cloak and sections at the front at the Virgin’s waist level are missing. Remnants of polychromy and gilding are found on the Virgin’s face, hair, cloak and hands. Some retouching has been done to the face.

...; purchased from a private collection, Eindhoven, by the dealer J.J.T.M. Bless, Lent;¹¹Note RMA. from whom, fl. 3,500, to the museum, 1954

ObjectNumber: BK-1954-40

This oak statue shows the Virgin sitting on a bench with the infant Christ on her left knee. This type of sculpture is known as the Sedes Sapientiae, the Throne of Wisdom. The Virgin originally wore a crown to underline her status as the Queen of Heaven. According to the standard iconography, she could have been holding a pomegranate, a sceptre or a bunch of grapes in her missing right hand. Christ’s missing right hand was undoubtedly raised in a gesture of blessing. The bird (a goldfinch?) in his left hand symbolizes the soul of man redeemed by Christ’s suffering. The polychromy on the statue and the gilding on the hair have largely been lost.

The ancient pictorial tradition in which the Christ child sits on the lap of his majestically ‘enthroned’ mother is rooted in Byzantine culture.²²I.H. Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, New Jersey 1972, pp. 23-24. The Sedes Sapientiae first appeared in Western miniature art in the ninth century. In the second half of the tenth century the first free-standing, three-dimensional versions of this theme were produced in the Auvergne region of France.³³I.H. Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, New Jersey 1972, p. 7. From there the type swiftly spread throughout Western Europe and the Throne of Wisdom became an immensely popular subject for free-standing sculpture until around 1200. The figures, often lavishly gilded, were worshipped as cult objects in a church setting and stood on or beside an altar dedicated to the Virgin. The sculptures were frequently carried in liturgical processions and relics were often kept in them. In the Meuse area, where this example originates, the Sedes Sapientiae remained popular until well into the thirteenth century.

The Throne of Wisdom’s power may lie in the portrayal of the Virgin’s dual role – both her humanity and her divinity are made visible. On the one hand she is the ‘throne’ of Christ’s Divine Wisdom made flesh, on the other she appears as a mortal mother with her child on her lap.⁴⁴I.H. Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom, New Jersey 1972, pp. 1-2. In early Romanesque statues the emphasis is placed on the first notion, but as style moved towards the Gothic there was a shift in preference for a more spontaneous, natural rendition with an interaction between mother and child. At some point this aspect dominated to such an extent that there was no longer any reference to the Sedes Sapientiae.

Nothing is known about the early provenance of the statue. Stylistically the type is related to a substantial group of late-romanesque or early-gothic Sedes Sapientiae sculptures from the Meuse area, that are distinctive in the depiction of the Virgin and the infant Christ with oval faces and gentle, even features.⁵⁵For a fairly complete overview of literature on the Meuse area Sedes images, see F. Leuxe, ‘Bibliographie des Sedes’, in J. Deckers (ed.), Millénaire de la collégiale Saint-Jean de Liège. Exposition d’art et d’histoire, exh. cat. Liège (L’église Saint-Jean de Liège) 1982, pp. 139-40. For a more recent discussion of this group, see T. Kunz in B. van den Bossche (ed.), L’art mosan. Liège et son pays à l’époque romane du XIe au XIIIe siècle, Alleur 2007, pp. 177-80. The famous Sedes in the Collégiale Saint-Jean l’Évangéliste in Liège is regarded as the principal work in this group.⁶⁶For this statue, see R. Didier in A. Legner, Rhein und Maas, Kunst und Kultur 800-1400, vol. 2, exh. cat. Cologne (Museum Schnütgen)/Brussels (Royal Museums of Art and History) 1973, pp. 416-18 and figs. 14-20; R. Didier, ‘La Sedes, La Vierge et le saint Jean au calvaire de l’église Saint-Jean-l’Evangéliste a Liège et la sculpture mosane de la priemière moitié du XIIIe siècle’, in J. Deckers (ed.), La collégiale Saint-Jean de Liège. Mille ans d’art et d’histoire, Liège 1981, pp. 57-76. The statue displays the intricate, classicized draperies that prevailed until around 1240. In the two decades that followed they gave way to a simpler style with broader, broken folds like those seen in a Sedes in the Art and History Museum in Brussels,⁷⁷Brussels, Art and History Museum, inv. no. VDP.161, see R. Didier in A. Legner, Rhein und Maas. Kunst und Kultur 800-1400, vol. 2, exh. cat. Cologne (Museum Schnütgen)/Brussels (Royal Museums of Art and History) 1973, p. 420, fig. 22. which are even more evident in one in the Museum Schnütgen in Cologne that was made around 1250.⁸⁸Cologne, Museum Schnütgen, inv. no. A25, see U. Bergmann, Die Holzskulpturen des Mittelalters 1000-1400, coll. cat. Cologne (Museum Schnütgen) 1989, no. 24. In the last of these Sedes, moreover, the elongated lines have been reduced to more natural proportions. In another version in the same museum, dating from around 1260, the draperies have become less rigid and more graceful again, influenced by French Gothic.⁹⁹Cologne, Museum Schnütgen, inv. no. A10, see U. Bergmann (ed.), Die Holzskulpturen des Mittelalters 1000-1400, coll. cat. Cologne (Museum Schnütgen) 1989, no. 28. Stylistically, the Amsterdam figure can be situated between the last two statues. The Virgin and the infant Christ have relatively gentle expressions and natural proportions, but are still shown very frontally, wearing garments with the angular folds of around 1250. Taking all this together, the statue appears to be a very early transitional piece between the romanesque and gothic periods.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 3, with earlier literature; F. Scholten and G. de Werd, Een hogere werkelijkheid: Duitse en Franse beeldhouwkunst 1200-1600 uit het Rijksmuseum Amsterdam/Eine höhere Wirklichkeit, Deutsche und Französische Skulptur 1200-1600 aus dem Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, exh. cat. Cleves (Museum Kurhaus Kleve) 2004-06, p. 115

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Sedes Sapientiae, Meuse area, c. 1250 - c. 1260', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24232