Christ Child Holding a Bird

Formed (solid) in a two-piece mould and fired.

Slightly abraded.

…; excavated at the site of the convent of the Sisters of the Common Life at Diepenveen (near Deventer), date unknown; collection professor Willem Moll (1812-1879), Amsterdam, in or before 1858;¹¹W. Moll, ‘Diepenveensche oudheden’, Kalender voor Protestanten in Nederland, Amsterdam 1858, pp. 93-98, esp. p. 96. Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, date unknown; transferred to the museum, 1898

ObjectNumber: BK-NM-11284

In the late Middle Ages, simple pipeclay (white-firing clay) sculptures such as this were serially produced in the Low Countries using moulds.²²For pipeclay production in the Northern Netherlands, see e.g. S. Ostkamp, ‘Productie en gebruik van pijpaarden en terracotta devotionalia in de Nederlanden (ca. 1350-ca. 1550): Het ambacht van de heylichenbacker voor Judocus Vredis, een archeologisch verslag’, in A. Böing and G. Inhester, Judocus Vredis: Kunst aus der Stille: Eine Klosterwerkstatt der Dürerzeit/Kunst uit de stilte: Een kloosterwerkplaats uit de tijd van Dürer, exh. cat. Münster (Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte)/Vreden (Hamaland-Museum)/Borken (Kreismuseum)/Deventer (Historisch Museum de Waag) 2001, pp. 188-256, esp. pp. 188-239 and S. Ostkamp, ‘Van Utrechtse bodem? Utrecht en de productie van pijpaarden devotionalia’, in M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht: 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht: 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 108-27. Utrecht was unquestionably an important centre for the production of pipeclay devotional objects, as the large number of moulds and misfires unearthed there attest.³³Archaeological research shows that this production also occurred in cities such as Amsterdam, Leiden, Deventer, Kampen, Antwerp, Liège and Cologne, see S. Ostkamp, ‘Productie en gebruik van pijpaarden en terracotta devotionalia in de Nederlanden (ca. 1350-ca. 1550)’, in A. Böing, G. Inhester and T. Sodmann (ed.), Judocus Vredis: Kunst aus der Stille: eine Klosterwerkstatt der Dürerzeit/ Judocus Vredis: Kunst uit de stilte: Een kloosterwerkplaats uit de tijd van Dürer, exh. cat. Münster (Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte)/Vreden (Hamaland-Museum)/Borken (Kreismuseum)/Deventer (Historisch Museum de Waag) 2001, pp. 188-257, esp. pp. 206-07.

Depicted is a naked Christ Child, a so-called Jéseau, holding a bird in his hands.⁴⁴For this type, see S. Ostkamp, ‘Christus per dozijn’, Vind: Geschiedenis, archeologie, kunst en antiek 1 (2011), pp. 68-75. Hundreds of this type of figurine exist, with minor differences often distinguishing one pipeclay sculpture from the next, with the added variation of the attribute held in the child’s hands.⁵⁵J. Klinckaert, ¬De verzamelingen van het Centraal Museum Utrecht, vol. 3, Beeldhouwkunst tot 1850, coll. cat. Utrecht 1997, nos. 200-236; S. Ostkamp, ‘Christus per dozijn’, Vind: Geschiedenis, archeologie, kunst en antiek 1 (2011), pp. 68-75, figs. 3-5. By far the most common attribute is a bird (cf. BK-KOG-1272-O and BK-KOG-11283), most likely in reference to an episode from the apocryphal Childhood Gospel that tells of how the Christ Child moulded small clay birds which he subsequently brought to life, allowing them to fly away as a prefiguration of his own resurrection.⁶⁶W. Moll, ‘Diepenveensche oudheden’, Kalender voor Protestanten in Nederland, Amsterdam 1858, pp. 93-98, esp. pp. 96-98.

While the present figurine was excavated on the site of the former monastery in Diepenveen (near Deventer), similar figurines have been found throughout the country, including Halsteren near Bergen op Zoom, where an estimated 200 pieces were unearthed.⁷⁷W.H.T. Knippenberg, ‘Middeleeuwse, Romeinse en moderne pijpaarden beeldjes’, Brabants Heem 15 (1963), pp. 35-36. During the excavation of a cesspit of the St Catharinagasthuis in Leiden, a pipeclay mould for making such Christ Child figurines was discovered.⁸⁸S. Ostkamp, ‘Van Utrechtse bodem? Utrecht en de productie van pijpaarden devotionalia’, in M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht: 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht: 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 108-27, esp. p. 113 and fig. 9.8.

Such pipeclay infant figures of Christ typically had their own socle, which allowed them to function as freestanding images. Others were used for the purpose of ‘baby-cradling’, a religious ritual practiced both in the family context and monastic life. The infant Christ was laid in a small crib that one could rock back and forth.⁹⁹M.L. Caron in Vroomheid per dozijn, exh. cat. Utrecht (Rijksmuseum het Catharijneconvent) 1982, p. 20; S. Ostkamp, ‘Christus per dozijn’, Vind: Geschiedenis, archeologie, kunst en antiek 1 (2011), pp. 68-75, p. 83; S. Ostkamp, ‘Van Utrechtse bodem? Utrecht en de productie van pijpaarden devotionalia’, in M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht: 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht: 1430-1530, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 108-27, esp. p. 118 and I. Ippel, ‘A Christmas Crib as a Meek Heart of the Late Mediaeval Christian’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 62 (2014), pp. 330-47. An intricately carved wooden crib in the Rijksmuseum’s collection features a cradle suspended between two stands with pins, thus allowing it to be rocked (BK-2013-14-1). Simple pipeclay figures of the infant Christ with integrated cribs also exist. They can be rocked on their rounded underside (cf. BK-NM-11289).

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

W. Moll, ‘Diepenveensche oudheden’, Kalender voor Protestanten in Nederland, Amsterdam 1858, pp. 93-98, esp. 96-98; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 890

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Christ Child Holding a Bird, Northern Netherlands, c. 1475 - 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.25653