The Lamb of the Apocalypse on the Book with the Seven Seals

Entry

The Lamb of God with a cross and banner lies on the book with the seven seals. Two plump angels hover on either side. The one on the left is about to kiss the front foot of the lamb, the symbol of Christ. The iconography refers to the description of the Apocalypse in St John’s Revelations, in which he tells of his vision of the ultimate victory of good over evil signifying the end of the world as we know it. By breaking the seven seals one by one, the lamb will precipitate the Apocalypse.

The downward gaze of both the lamb and the angel on the right indicates that the fragment would have originally been attached high up. The semicircular shape of the ensemble suggests it might have been part of an altar crown, where the iconography of the Apocalyptic Lamb can often be found, for example at two other altars: in the H.H. Petrus en Pauluskerk in Amsterdam and the H.H. Maria en Ursulakerk in Delft.¹

The fragment was purchased in 1947 from a collection in Rotterdam. In view of the provenance it is conceivable that it came from the Sint-Laurentius en Maria Magdalenakerk of 1698 which was destroyed during the bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940. A few remnants of the church interior could be salvaged from the rubble, including a fragment of the central part of the communion bench by Willem Kerricx I (1652-1719),² one of the foremost Antwerp carvers of the day.³ It is perhaps no coincidence that the style of the present fragment ties in well with that sculptor’s late-baroque art, although the angels’ poses are less graceful and their faces and bodies less idealized than in Kerricx’ repertoire and contemporary Antwerp sculpture in general.⁴ Although in those days there was a considerable import of religious works of art from the Southern Netherlands especially Antwerp, it would seem plausible that the maker of the present piece was local and derived his inspiration from examples (imported?) from the neighbours in the south.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025