All works in European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum

anonymous

Altar Caisse

Southern Netherlands, c. 1440

Object data

oak with polychromy

height 97.8 cm × width 58.9 cm × depth 22.5 cm

Inscriptions

  • number, in the right front corner of the top, carved: V [?] location number
  • number, in the left front corner of the top, carved: XV location number
  • number, between the other numbers, carved: IIIII location number
  • inscription, on the back, in black paint: mark in the shape of a Christ aureole or wheel

Technical notes

Carved and sawn. The sides and top of the caisse is painted oxblood red. The back of the caisse is constructed from three oak planks approximately 1.3 cm thick. The sides are joined to the top and bottom with dovetail joints. According to dendrochronological analysis by M. Domínguez Delmás the planks of caisses BK-1964-2-D and -E originate from two different oak trees that grew in the eastern Baltic. The felling date of one of the trees is ‘after 1408’ (because of the absence of xylem it is not possible to give a more accurate felling date). The felling date of the other tree is ‘between 1438 and 1450’.

Scientific examination and reports

  • dendrochronology: M. Domínguez Delmás (DendroResearh), RMA, DR_R2023117, 22 December 2023

Provenance

...; anonymous sale, Munich (Weinmüller), 7 December 1961, no. 828, fig. 50, with BK-1964-2-C to -E, to the dealers Graf und Gräfin Pourtalès, Prien am Chiemsee (Bavaria);1 from whom purchased by the dealer P. Drey, New York, 1962;2 from whom, with BK-1964-2-A to -E, $ 14,400 for all, to the museum, 1964

Object number: BK-1964-2-D

Copyright: Public domain

Literature

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 8, with earlier literature; P. van Boheemen and P. Dirkse (eds.), Duivels en demonen. De duivel in de Nederlandse beeldcultuur, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent) 1994, no. 42, pp. 60-62 and fig. 51; K.W. Woods, ‘Questions d’attribution stylistique. Retables inédits en Angleterre’, in S. Guillot de Suduiraut et al., Retables brabançons des XVe et XVIe siècles: Actes du colloque organisé par le musée du Louvre les 18 et 19 mai 2001, Paris 2002, pp. 345-76, esp. p. 355; S. Marti et al. (eds.), Karl der Kühne (1433-1477): Kunst, Krieg und Hofkultur, exh. cat. Bern (Bern Historical Museum)/Bruges (Groeningemuseum) 2008, p. 205

Citation

F. Scholten, 2024, 'anonymous, Altar Caisse, Southern Netherlands, c. 1440', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24240

(accessed 22 November 2024 15:27:47).

Footnotes