Virgin and Child

Carved fully in the round and originally polychromed. Dendrochronological analysis acquired a tree-ring series of 95 rings. Crossdating with reference chronologies from central, eastern and northern Europe did not produce a reliable dating result.

The polychromy has been removed; traces can be found on the reverse.

…; ? Grote Kerk, Alkmaar; Sint-Joriskerk, Spierdijk-Berkhout; donated to a private individual in exchange for painting work in the church, late 19th or early 20th century;¹¹Early provenance handed down by the dealer J. Polak to Jan Piet Filedt Kok in a note dated 16 May 1997 and orally confirmed by Mr Polak to Frits Scholten on 26 February 2021. …; from the dealer J. Polak, Amsterdam, fl. 120,000, to the museum, 1987

ObjectNumber: BK-1987-22

Stylistically this elegant Virgin and Child ties in particularly well with a number of statues that are traditionally associated with Utrecht in the second half of the fifteenth century. A Utrecht origin of this kind is supported by information provided by the art dealer from whom this figure was acquired. He stated that the statue was given by the Sint-Joriskerk in Spierdijk-Berkhout to the father of the last owner, as compensation for painting work in the church; before that it was said to have come from the Grote Kerk in Alkmaar.¹⁰¹⁰Early provenance handed down by the dealer J. Polak to Jan Piet Filedt Kok, in a note dated 16 May 1997 and orally confirmed by Mr Polak to Frits Scholten on 26 February 2021. According to an earlier statement, the statue came from a church near Hoorn, see ‘Keuze uit de aanwinsten’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 36 (1988), no. 4, p. 343 (no. 1). In 2014 Mr Polak stated that the figure was said to have come from a church or monastery dedicated to St George in Opmeer, and confirmed that it was supposed to have come from Alkmaar before that (communication to Frits Scholten, 14 February 2014). As St George has been the patron saint of the Roman Catholic parish in Berkhout, under which Spierdijk comes, since 1858, Spierdijk-Berkhout is the most likely provenance. The confusion with nearby Opmeer, which lies 8 km to the north of Spierdijk and Berkhout as the crow flies, is understandable. In view of the influence of late medieval Utrecht woodcarving in the county of Holland, the appearance of a Utrecht statue in or around Alkmaar is not surprising.

The Virgin’s graceful pose, with her slightly tilted head, is typical of Utrecht. The high, bulging forehead, small almond-shaped eyes, narrow mouth, short, round chin and delicately waved hair pulled back from the Virgin’s face are likewise characteristic. Such style features are also found, for instance, in the work of some of the most important Utrecht woodcarvers of the later fifteenth and early sixteenth century, such as Adriaen van Wesel (c. 1417-in or after 1490),¹¹¹¹W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417-ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, nos. 17-19, 21. and the anonymous Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head (c. 1490-c. 1530), who was working a generation later,¹²¹²M. 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, nos. 53, 77. as well as in some anonymous Utrecht Virgins, among other things on stone mantelpiece reliefs and in pipeclay.¹³¹³W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417-ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, nos. 46, 55; 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, nos. 70, 75, 92. Although the stylistic similarities point strongly towards Utrecht, it is not possible to identify the hand of a specific maker in this statue. In particular, the way the woodcarver arranged the folds of the Virgin’s gown has little in common with these statues.

There is a greater kinship with the work of the Master of the Emmerich Saints, the name of convenience of an anonymous woodcarver now believed to have trained in Utrecht and subsequently moved to the Lower Rhine region (Emmerich?), where he made his principal works around 1490.¹⁴¹⁴M. 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, nos. 13, 15-17. Karrenbrock identifies the Master of the Emmerich Saints, with reservations, as the woodcarver Raebe Lambert Luetensoen, who was granted burgher rights in Emmerich in 1478 and evidently came from elsewhere, see ibid., pp. 137-39. This affinity is expressed in the ‘flowing’ treatment of the hair, in the device of allowing one of the knees to show against the fabric of the robe, and in the drapery schemes, where a certain sharpness and angularity – for instance the Virgin’s right elbow – alternate with long, elegantly falling draperies with vertical folds. This is particularly evident where Mary holds up her cloak. On the ground and against the Virgin’s right shoulder the fabric falls in subtle horizontal and overlapping fields. To a greater or lesser extent, these characteristics also occur in the principal works in the Master of the Emmerich Saints group, which were made in the Lower Rhine region around 1490. All in all, these stylistic parallels suggest that this Virgin was made in the circle of the Master of the Emmerich Saints in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. It is unclear as to whether the woodcarver responsible for it was working in Utrecht or the Lower Rhine region (Emmerich?) at that time. Given its size and the fact that it was finished in the round, the statue probably came from a relatively small altar, possibly as the pinnacle of the altarpiece under a canopy.

Frits Scholten, 2024

‘Keuze uit de aanwinsten’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 36 (1988), no. 4, pp. 343, 347, fig. 1; ‘Recent Acquisitions at the Department of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’, The Burlington Magazine 132 (1990), no. 1047, pp. 443-48, esp. p. 443, no. 1

F. Scholten, 2024, 'circle of Meester van de Emmerikse Heiligen, Virgin and Child, Utrecht, c. 1470 - c. 1500', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.197408