Carved in relief from a sarcophagus lid. Two deep parallel decorative grooves on the reverse show the outlines of what was originally the trapezoid cover of a tomb (fig. a). The corner pieces left and right at both ends are an integral part of the object, for attaching it to a wall. Three metal dowels with eyes on the reverse of the tympanum were used to hang it on hooked pegs in the wall. Peter’s pupils were inset with lead; one remains.

The faces and Peter’s crozier are damaged. There are two 1.5 cm deep (bullet?) holes in the right half of the front. An old crack on the back between Peter and Petronilla has been repaired twice with a total of three iron staples secured with lead.

Commissioned by Petronilla of Saxony, Countess of Holland (c. 1082-1144), for the church of Egmond Abbey, by 1130;¹¹H.G.C.M. Klomp, ‘Het tympaan van Egmond: Kunst als instrument van propaganda’, in G.N.M. Vis and J.P. Gumbert (eds.), Egmond tussen kerk en wereld, Hilversum 1993, pp. 139-61, esp. p. 159. transferred to an unspecified location, 1801/04;²²H. van Wijn, ‘Iets nopens de vernieling der Egmondsche Abtdije en Boekerije …’, Huiszittend leeven, vol. 1, part 4, Amsterdam 1804, pp. 442-64. donated by E.M. Tinne-Gregory, widow of J.P.T. Tinne, Lord of the Egmonds, to the Koninklijk Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schoone Kunsten, located in the Trippenhuis, Amsterdam, 1820;³³E.H.P. Cordfunke et al., De abdij van Egmond: Archeologie en duizend jaar geschiedenis, Zutphen 2010, p. 73. installed in the garden of the Trippenhuis, Amsterdam, first recorded in 1842;⁴⁴A. Beekman, Catalogus der tentoonstelling ‘De abdij van Egmond’ in het Gemeentemuseum ’s-Gravenhage, exh. cat. The Hague 1934, p. 20. transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-NM-1914

This tympanum, which came from the church of Egmond Abbey, is the oldest surviving specimen of monumental sculpture in Dutch art history and an early example of medieval dedication art.⁵⁵For Egmond Abbey, see E.H.P. Cordfunke et al., De abdij van Egmond: Archeologie en duizend jaar geschiedenis, Zutphen 2010. The present abbey has a replica of this tympanum, made in 2010. The relief is a frontal, half-length image of St Peter with a double-bit key and a crozier. On either side of his head, in letters written under one another, are the (misspelled) Greek words: AG??C ?HTPVC (Saint Peter).⁶⁶There are three spelling errors in this inscription: the first word should be spelled ‘AG?OC’ ( (H)agios: Saint) and the second ?ETPOC ( Petros: Peter). Greek inscriptions were extremely rare in western Europe in the 12th century and the language was little known. According to Den Hartog the text is probably based on the Greek inscription on a (now lost) 10th century antependium that was donated by Count Dirk II to the Egmond abbey between 975 and 980, see E. den Hartog, ‘De Griekse inscriptie op het timpaan van de abdijkerk van Egmond’, Holland: Historisch tijdschrift 55 (2023) no. 2, pp. 52-59, esp. pp. 57-58; also see H.G.C.M. Klomp, ‘Het tympaan van Egmond: Kunst als instrument van propaganda’, in G.N.M. Vis and J.P. Gumbert (eds.), Egmond tussen kerk en wereld, Hilversum 1993, pp. 139-61, esp. p. 141, note 11. St Peter is worshipped by two much smaller, half-length figures, whose faces are so seriously damaged as to be virtually indistinguishable.

The Latin inscription on the plinth, HIC THID[E]RIC ORAT – OPUS H[O]C PET[R]ONILLA DEC[O]RAT (Here prays Dirk – Petronilla adorns this work), identifies these figures as donor portraits of Petronilla of Saxony, Countess of Holland (c. 1082-1144), and her son, Count Dirk (Theodoric) VI (c. 1114-1157). The design was carved on the back of an old red Bunter sandstone sarcophagus lid, which may have come from the Main or the Weser area.⁷⁷See H. Martin, Vroeg-middeleeuwse zandstenen sarcophagen in Friesland en elders in Nederland, Drachten 1957, pp. 44-45 and no. 10. For three stonemason’s yards in a valley near Miltenberg on the Main, where sarcophagus lids of this type were made in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, see A. Slinger et al., Natuursteen in monumenten, Zeist/Baarn 1980, p. 65. The Velsen Tympanum is also carved from an old sarcophagus lid, see P. Glazema, ‘Het tympaan te Velsen’, Het gildeboek 13 (1940), pp. 44-46. Two deep, parallel decorative grooves on the back of the tympanum show the outlines of what was originally the trapezoid cover of a tomb (fig. a). It is believed that the slab was converted into a tympanum in Egmond by the monks at the abbey.⁸⁸R. Ligtenberg, Die romanische Steinplastik in den nördlichen Niederländen, vol. 1, The Hague 1918, pp. 7-22. Count Floris II (c. 1085-1121), Petronilla’s consort and the founder of the first stone-built abbey church in Egmond, does not appear on the tympanum. For this reason it is generally assumed that the relief must have been made after his death on 2 March 1121. Since his son Dirk is depicted as a beardless youth and, as can be inferred from the inscription, Petronilla was the donor of the tympanum, it is likely that it was done not long after the count’s death, and in any event between 1121 and 1130, when the countess and widow Petronilla acted as regent for her underage son.

The building work of the new, more prestigious stone-built abbey church in Egmond founded by Petronilla, started in the same period, while the first abbey church remained in use until well into the twelfth century.⁹⁹E. den Hartog, De oudste kerken van Nederland: Van kerstening tot 1300, Utrecht 2002, pp. 91, 99-100, 178; E.H.P. Cordfunke et al., De abdij van Egmond: Archeologie en duizend jaar geschiedenis, Zutphen 2010, p. 119. However, it is unlikely that the tympanum was intended to be installed above the entrance of this second abbey church, since the first, temporary entrance to that church was not completed until around 1143 and the main entrance to the west building (above which the tympanum was eventually reinstalled) was not finished until near the end of the twelfth century.¹⁰¹⁰Klomp suggested that the relief was originally situated above a temporary entrance to the choir of the new church, which was completed in 1143, but gave no explanation for the long period between the making of the tympanum and its installation. H.G.C.M. Klomp, ‘Het tympaan van Egmond: Kunst als instrument van propaganda’, in G.N.M. Vis and J.P. Gumbert (eds.), Egmond tussen kerk en wereld, Hilversum 1993, pp. 139-61, esp. p. 145, note 30 and pp. 159-60. As Den Hartog has convincingly argued, the tympanum was probably initially installed above the entrance on the south side of the new church, a section that was under construction at the time.¹¹¹¹E. den Hartog, ‘De Griekse inscriptie op het timpaan van de abdijkerk van Egmond’, Holland: Historisch tijdschrift 55 (2023) no. 2, pp. 52-59, esp. pp. 58-59. This entrance was used by the monks, to enter the church from the abbey that was situated at that side. In that case the prayer carved in the round arch around the tympanum, ‘Oh, Keeper of the Gate of Heaven, admit this flock kneeling before you with pious hearts and reconcile them with the King of the Angels’, served as a constant reminder for them to pray for the salvation of the souls of Petronilla and her son, as well as the other counts of Holland. Furthermore, by including her portrait and the Latin inscription, ‘Petronilla adorns this work’ [i.e. the church], the countess also establishes herself as the patroness of the tympanum and the founder of the new abbey church.

Countess Petronilla was a fervent supporter of the ideas of the Gregorian Reform, whose objective was to place all the monasteries under the direct authority of the Pope. She hoped that this would prevent the powerful Bishop of Utrecht from taking charge of her abbey. To leave her allegiance to the Pope in no doubt, she even changed her name from Geertruid to Petronilla – a reference to the martyr of the same name, who was believed to be the daughter of the apostle Peter, the ‘forefather’ of the popes.¹²¹²E.H.P. Cordfunke and F.W.N. Hugenholtz, Gravin Petronilla van Holland: Holland in het begin van de twaalfde eeuw, Zutphen 1990, p. 41. This political and religious bond is quite explicitly depicted in the tympanum by portraying St Peter as a pope, not as an apostle.¹³¹³H.G.C.M. Klomp, ‘Het tympaan van Egmond: Kunst als instrument van propaganda’, in G.N.M. Vis and J.P. Gumbert (eds.), Egmond tussen kerk en wereld, Hilversum 1993, pp. 139-61, esp. p. 157. According to Den Hartog Peter’s clothing should not be identified as a pallium, see E. den Hartog, ‘De Griekse inscriptie op het timpaan van de abdijkerk van Egmond’, Holland: Historisch tijdschrift 55 (2023) no. 2, pp. 52-59

The tympanum is one of the earliest examples of a pictorial tradition of sculpted Romanesque founders’ portraits that include, for instance, an early thirteenth century tympanum from red sandstone that originates from a church in the town of Larrelt (Germany),¹⁴¹⁴Now embedded in in the northern wall of the choir of the late-Gothic church of Larrelt built on the site of the 12th-century predecessor. A modern copy of the relief is on view in the Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum in Emden. and the St Cecilia Tympanum (c. 1160-70) in the Museum Schnütgen in Cologne.¹⁵¹⁵Cologne, Museum Schnütgen, inv. no. K 275, see H. Westermann-Angerhausen and D. Täube (eds.), Das Mittelalter in 111 Meisterwerken aus dem Museum Schnütgen Köln, coll. cat. Cologne 2003, fig. 52. Stylistically the Egmond Tympanum bears some resemblance to the design on the trapezoid sarcophagus lid made from Baumberger sandstone on the tomb of Bishop Gottschalk von Diepholz (d. 1118) in the minster in Bad Iburg, Westphalia.¹⁶¹⁶See K. Bauch, Das mittelalterliche Grabbild. Figürliche Grabmäler des 11. bis 15. Jahrhunderts in Europa, Berlin 1976, fig. 21. There are parallels between the stiff frontality of St Peter and the bishop, their triangular heads and the downturned corners of their mouths. The Egmond Tympanum differs, however, in the unusual way St Peter’s hair is rendered as a double row of tight curls. This echoes a Byzantine pictorial tradition that appears on coins and seals.¹⁷¹⁷H.G.C.M. Klomp, ‘Het tympaan van Egmond: Kunst als instrument van propaganda’, in G.N.M. Vis and J.P. Gumbert (eds.), Egmond tussen kerk en wereld, Hilversum 1993, pp. 139-61, esp. pp. 146-54. The spelling of Peter’s name in Greek letters, the parity accorded Dirk and Petronilla and their praying hands, known as deësis, are also Byzantine characteristics.¹⁸¹⁸K.N. Ciggaar, ‘The Empress Theophano (972-991): Political and Cultural Implications of her Presence in Western Europe for the Low Countries, in Particular for the County of Holland’, in K.N. Ciggaar and V.D. von Aalst, Byzantium and the Low Countries in the Tenth Century: Aspects of Art and History in the Ottonian Era, Hernen 1985, pp. 33-76, esp. p. 57. Byzantine art and culture had found their way to the Low Countries in the tenth century through the marriage of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II and the Byzantine princess Theophanu in 972, and their frequent visits to Nijmegen. In Egmond this was reflected, for instance, in the dedication miniatures in the Egmond Gospels of around 974-80, which were much influenced by Byzantine compositional schemes.¹⁹¹⁹The Hague, National Library of the Netherlands, ms 76 F 1; K.N. Ciggaar, ‘The Dedication Miniatures in the Egmond Gospels: A Byzantinizing Iconography?’, Quaerendo 16 (1986), no. 1, pp. 30-62.

Klomp points out that in Petronilla’s time, the early twelfth century, the Byzantine character of the tympanum was already outmoded. However, he convincingly explained the decision to use this visual idiom, not customary at that time, as a reference to the transfer of the allodium of the major part of the territory that would later be called the County of Holland to Dirk II in 985.²⁰²⁰H.G.C.M. Klomp, ‘Het tympaan van Egmond: Kunst als instrument van propaganda’, in G.N.M. Vis and J.P. Gumbert (eds.), Egmond tussen kerk en wereld, Hilversum 1993, pp. 139-61, esp. pp. 154-55, 160. Empress Theophanu, who had meanwhile been widowed and was acting as regent for the empire for her five-year-old son, later Emperor Otto III, was responsible for this extraordinarily generous gift.²¹²¹For Theophanu and this gift, see K.N. Ciggaar, ‘The Empress Theophano (972-991): Political and Cultural Implications of her Presence in Western Europe for the Low Countries, in Particular for the County of Holland’, in K.N. Ciggaar and V.D. von Aalst, Byzantium and the Low Countries in the Tenth Century: Aspects of Art and History in the Ottonian Era, Hernen 1985, pp. 33-76, esp. pp. 41-51. More than a century later, Petronilla seems to have stressed the Counts of Holland’s claim to the territory by decorating Egmond Abbey with a tympanum in a Byzantinizing style that referenced the Ottonian court.²²²²A note in the Gravenregister, the register of counts preserved in the Liber Sancti Adalberti at Egmond Abbey, reveals that the relationship between Theophanu and the family of the Counts of Holland was still being mentioned in the first half of the twelfth century, see H.G.C.M. Klomp, ‘Het tympaan van Egmond: Kunst als instrument van propaganda’, in G.N.M. Vis and J.P. Gumbert (eds.), Egmond tussen kerk en wereld, Hilversum 1993, pp. 139-61, esp. p. 155 and note 54. A tenth-century miniature in the abbey’s treasury may have served as a model.²³²³K.N. Ciggaar, ‘The Dedication Miniatures in the Egmond Gospels: A Byzantinizing Iconography?’, Quaerendo 16 (1986), no. 1, pp. 30-62, esp. p. 52. He rejects Leeuwenberg’s earlier suggestion of a direct connection between the tympanum and the donation scene of Dirk II and Hildegarde in the Egmond Gospels, see J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 31.

In 1573 the complex was burned down by the Geuzen (the Beggars) on the orders of their leader, Diederik Sonoy (1529-1597). The tympanum was left behind in the ruins where it was rediscovered in the early eighteenth century and identified as one of the oldest works of art in the Netherlands. Unfortunately it was also wilfully damaged at that time by – of all people – the amateur historian Andries Schoemaker of Amsterdam. He included a drawing of the tympanum in his well-known historical and topographical ‘atlas’ (fig. b), casually noting: ‘In 1712, when I passed through that gate [of Egmond Abbey] over great heaps of stone and saw this St Peter, I took my key and chipped off a piece of the nose.’²⁴²⁴Als ik in den Jaare 1712 onder die poort over een grote meenigte van steen hoopen doorging: en desen St Pieter aansag: nam ik myn sleutel en sloeg hem een stuckye van de neus af. Amsterdam, Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, ms West-Vrieslandt, vol. 2, fol. 81. Back in Amsterdam he gave the souvenir to a ‘young Catholic woman who was much pleased with it’.²⁵²⁵Rooms gesinde juffrou dewelcke daar mede wel in haar schick was. At some point between 1801 and 1804, after the local civic guard company had, it is said, been using it as a target for years,²⁶²⁶A. Beekman, Catalogus der tentoonstelling ‘De abdij van Egmond’ in het Gemeentemuseum ’s-Gravenhage, exh. cat. The Hague 1934, p. 20. There are two holes (made by bullets?) in the relief. the tympanum was removed from the crumbling ruin.²⁷²⁷H. van Wijn, ‘Iets nopens de vernieling der Egmondsche Abtdije en Boekerije ...’, Huiszittend leeven, vol. 1, part 4, Amsterdam 1804, pp. 442-64. In 1820 the widow of the Lord of Egmond presented it to the Koninklijk Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schoone Kunsten, which was then housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam.²⁸²⁸E.H.P. Cordfunke et al., De abdij van Egmond: Archeologie en duizend jaar geschiedenis, Zutphen 2010, p. 73. This institute entrusted the piece to the Rijksmuseum which was also located in this mansion at that time. A drawing dating from 1845 shows the tympanum above the entrance of a small stone structure in the garden of the Trippenhuis (fig. c).

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 1, with earlier literature; J. Hof, De abdij van Egmond van de aanvang tot 1573, The Hague/Haarlem 1973, pp. 309-10, 332-33; E.H.P. Cordfunke, Opgravingen in Egmond, Zutphen 1984, pp. 80-81; K.N. Ciggaar, ‘The Empress Theophano (972-991): Political and Cultural Implications of her Presence in Western Europe for the Low Countries, in Particular for the County of Holland’, in K.N. Ciggaar and V.D. von Aalst, Byzantium and the Low Countries in the Tenth Century: Aspects of Art and History in the Ottonian Era, Hernen 1985, pp. 33-76, esp. p. 57; K.N. Ciggaar, ‘The Dedication Miniatures in the Egmond Gospels: A Byzantinizing Iconography?’, Quaerendo 16 (1986), no. 1, pp. 30-62, esp. pp. 51-52; E.H.P. Cordfunke, Gravinnen van Holland: Huwelijk en huwelijkspolitiek van de graven uit het Hollands Huis, Zutphen 1987, p. 59; H.G.C.M Klomp, Het tympaan van Egmond: Kunst als machtsautorisatie, Nijmegen 1992 (unpublished thesis, University of Nijmegen); H.G.C.M. Klomp, ‘Het tympaan van Egmond: Kunst als instrument van propaganda’, in G.N.M. Vis and J.P. Gumbert (eds.), Egmond tussen kerk en wereld, Hilversum 1993, pp. 139-61; D.E.H. de Boer and E.H.P. Cordfunke, Graven van Holland: Portretten in woord en beeld (880-1580), Zutphen 1995, p. 42; F. Scholten, Gebeeldhouwde portretten/Portrait Sculptures, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, p. 8, no. 1; H. van Os et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1400-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2000, pp. 11-15; E. den Hartog, De oudste kerken van Nederland: Van kerstening tot 1300, Utrecht 2002, pp. 101-02; B. Kruijsen, Verzamelen van middeleeuwse kunst in Nederland 1830-1903, Nijmegen 2002, p. 115, no. 38; 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. 9; F. Meijer in B. Natter and K. Zandvliet (eds.), De historische sensatie: Het Rijksmuseum geschiedenisboek, Amsterdam 2005, pp. 14-17; E.H.P. Cordfunke et al., De abdij van Egmond: Archeologie en duizend jaar geschiedenis, Zutphen 2010, pp. 73-74, 148-49; H. van der Velden, ‘The Quatrain of the Ghent Altarpiece’, Simiolus 35 (2011), pp. 5-39, esp. p. 20; G. van der Ham, The History of Holland in 100 Objects, Amsterdam 2013, no. 2; Van der Mark in F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 1; E. den Hartog, ‘De Griekse inscriptie op het timpaan van de abdijkerk van Egmond’, Holland: Historisch tijdschrift 55 (2023) no. 2, pp. 52-59

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, Egmond Tympanum, St Peter with Count Dirk VI of Holland (c. 1114-1157) and his Mother, Countess Petronilla (c. 1082-1144), County of Holland, in or after 1121 - in or before 1130', in F. Scholten (ed.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200115766