Carved and polychromed. The reverse is nearly flat.

A part of the right hand and the front of the triple crown are missing. The polychromy is not original.

? Commissioned by the Bridgettine abbey Mariënwater, Koudewater, near Rosmalen, c. 1480-90;¹¹For the history of this abbey and the transitional period and transfer of the art patrimony, see L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, pp. 39-57, 62-64, 97. transferred to the Bridgettine convent Maria Refugie, Uden, 1713-24;²²Ibid. from where, with numerous other sculptures (BK-NM-1195 to -1243), fl. 2,000 for all, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Museum Krona (formerly known as the Museum voor Religieuze Kunst), Uden, inv. no. 0018, since 1973

Object number: BK-NM-1204

The Master of Koudewater owes his name of convenience to the fact that most of his statues of saints presumably came from the Bridgettine abbey of Mariënwater in Koudewater, which was dissolved in 1713.⁴⁴J. Leeuwenberg in R. van Luttervelt (ed.), Middeleeuwse kunst der Noordelijke Nederlanden, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1958, pp. 192-93. In 1875 the museum acquired three core pieces by the master (BK-NM-1195, -1196 and -1197) – together with a large number of stylistically related statues of saints, including this St Elizabeth of Hungary, in the dress of the tertiaries – from the immediate successor to this institution, the convent of Maria Refugie in Uden.⁵⁵She has previously been incorrectly identified as St Begga (A. Pit, Catalogus van de beeldhouwwerken in het Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst te Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1904, no. 69; A. Pit, Catalogus van de beeldhouwwerken in het Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst te Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1915, no. 151) and as St Bridget of Sweden (W. Vogelsang and M. van Notten, Die Holzskulptur in den Niederlanden, vol. 2, Berlin/Utrecht 1912, no. 49).

St Elizabeth of Hungary, also known as Elizabeth of Thuringia, was a paragon of heroic Christian charity at Wartburg Castle during the famine of 1226. After the death of her husband, she became a tertiary: a follower of the Third Order of Francis of Assisi. Driven out by her brother-in-law, she fled to Marburg, where she founded a Franciscan hospital. Here she devoted the rest of her life to caring for the sick. Because of the path taken by her life, she became the patron saint of beggars and the sick. This statue, therefore, probably stood in the infirmaries of the abbey of Koudewater and later Uden. In her left hand she holds a triple crown, symbolic of her three virtues: for her atonement, purity and edifying example, she earned the triple crown of martyrs, virgins and preachers.⁶⁶K. Künstle, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, vol. 1, Freiburg im Breisgau 1926, p. 204.

Although the woodcarver must have been well acquainted with the work of the Master of Koudewater, and might even have been trained in his workshop,⁷⁷L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij. Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, p. 120. his St Elizabeth is somewhat inferior to the Master’s statues of saints in terms of elegance, refinement and serene appearance (cf. BK-NM-1196). Instead of the bowl-shaped drapery created by lifting the upper garment with one hand – a drapery scheme characteristic of this master – he chose much simpler folds with a vertical orientation. This is a strong indication that the maker did not have any of the Master’s examples at his disposal while carving the image, which makes it unlikely that the statue was made within the Koudewater workshop.

The sculpture has traditionally been attributed to the same follower of the Master of Koudewater who carved the Virgin and Child with St Anne (BK-NM-1211), which also came from the convent in Uden.⁸⁸G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Beelden uit Brabant: Laatgotische kunst uit het oude hertogdom 1400-1520, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1971, p. 45; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 92. Anne and Elizabeth display the same type of oval head with half-closed eyes, a long, straight nose and slightly protruding chin. The head and chin cloths are very similar in design and their long gowns are nearly identical at the front, where they display deep, projecting vertical folds that flare out over the base but leave exposed the tip of the shoe on her right foot. It is striking that Anne and Elizabeth reflect each other’s contrapposto and that the statues are almost equal in height. Meis interprets the two statues as pendants,⁹⁹J. Meis in H.A. Tummers (ed.), Bekende en minder bekende laatmiddeleeuwse houten beelden, Nijmegen 1996, p. 31. but this is by no means certain, since an iconographic connection between the two saints is lacking. The similarities could also be the result of working to standardized formulas. In 1996 Meis succeeded convincingly in linking – on the basis of the comparable head types, the resemblance of the head and chin cloths, and the shape of the hands – two walnut statues of seated saints, representing St Catherine and St Bridget, which were made by the same follower.¹⁰¹⁰J. Meis in H.A. Tummers (ed.), Bekende en minder bekende laatmiddeleeuwse houten beelden, Nijmegen 1996, pp. 31-32. With regard to these statues, see also G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Beelden uit Brabant. Laatgotische kunst uit het oude hertogdom 1400-1520, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1971, nos. 13, 14; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij. Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, nos. 18, 19. These statues were transferred around 1843 from the convent of Maria Refugie to the new daughter convent of Maria-Hart in Weert. Given their provenance from the nunnery in Uden, they probably also belonged originally to the convent’s predecessor in Koudewater.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 63, with earlier literature; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Birgitta van Zweden 1303-1373. 600 jaar kunst en cultuur van haar kloosterorde, Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1986, no. 66; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij. Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, no. 17; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, ‘Meesters met Noodnamen’, Kunstschrift 6 (2004), p. 34

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'follower of Meester van Koudewater, St Elizabeth of Hungary, Northern Brabant, c. 1480 - c. 1490', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200115844