Composed of two solid halves pressed in a front mould and a back mould, fired and polychromed.

A corner of the plinth has crumbled, resulting in the loss of the last three letters of the name ST PETRUS, originally applied to the plinth in raised relief. These have been added in paint.

…; from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, Amsterdam, on loan to the museum, since 1927

Object number: BK-KOG-1740

Credit line: On loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap

St Peter appears here accompanied by two of his attributes: the keys to heaven’s gate and a large fish. The terracotta statuette is a nineteenth-century interpretation of a late medieval sculptural type, recognizable above all by the hexagonal, openwork socle, commonly made especially in the city Utrecht (cf. BK-NM-11300). The letter type of the inscription on the socle confirms this dating. Like its late-medieval predecessors, the present statuette was serially manufactured using moulds. An identical figure has recently surfaced in a private collection, accompanied by a pendant figure of St Paul.¹¹Oral communication Gerrit Verhoeven, 15 September 2016. Photos in Object File.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 212

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, St Peter, Netherlands, 1800 - c. 1900', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035637