Putto, Supporting Figure from the Pulpit in the Sint-Pauluskerk in Antwerp

Entry

This monumental putto comes from the Sint-Pauluskerk in Antwerp, where it originally functioned as a supporting figure on the early-baroque pulpit dismantled in 1874.³ As can be seen in a photo of the church’s interior taken around 1870, the barrel of this pulpit was upheld by the present statue, itself located adjacent to the steps, together with three additional putti (fig. a).⁴ Numerous other fragments from this pulpit are today stored in the repository of this former Dominican church: two of the four putti supporting the barrel (fig. b),⁵ four dolphins, and the two angels that once supported the sounding board (fig. c). In 1998, the barrel’s eight panels, adorned with cherubim (fig. d), escutcheons and figures of saintly Dominican monks – all carved in high relief – were integrated in the church’s new crossing altar.⁶ The two herms flanking the stairway, representing the Old and New Testament, were stolen from the rectory around 1993 and are today known only through photos (fig. e).⁷

The earliest depiction of the pulpit is found in Pieter Neeffs’s The Interior of the Dominican Church (the Sint-Pauluskerk), Antwerp, Looking East, with the Procession of the Holy Sacrament, dated 1636 (SK-A-288). Accordingly, the pulpit was completed in or prior to this year, making it an early example of a pulpit supported by sculpted figures as opposed to a non-figural support.⁸

The first pulpit following this new formula dated from 1627 and was located in the Jesuit Church of Antwerp (the Sint-Carolus Borromeuskerk), before it was destroyed in a fire. Rubens created numerous designs for the architectural decoration of the façade and the interior finishing of that church and was most likely the inventor of the pulpit’s innovative baroque design. As opposed to the former pulpit in the Sint-Pauluskerk, this pulpit was not supported by four putti, but four mature angels, as is passed down by a detailed description and several paintings of the church’s interior on which it is depicted.⁹ It marked the onset of the baroque evolution of the pulpit in the Southern Netherlands, which ultimately culminated in a furniture piece composed entirely of sculpture, with individual structural elements integrated in such a manner that they become scarcely discernible.¹⁰

The carvings of the former pulpits in Antwerp’s Sint-Pauluskerk and Jesuit church are both attributed to Erasmus Quellinus I (?1584-1640), albeit the latter only hypothetically.¹¹ This antycksnijder (woodcarver in the modern renaissance style) was one of the sculptors Rubens engaged after returning from Rome to realise his designs for the interior furnishings of various churches in the Southern Netherlands.¹² Only very few documented works by this Quellinus survive to the present day, among them a signed design drawing for a pulpit (RP-T-2017-6) and an oak pulpit in the Sint-Elisabethgasthuis in Antwerp,¹³ These pulpits are very conservative when compared to the more developed baroque type that had already entered the scene in the late 1620’s, and the former pulpit he executed around 1635-36 for the Sint-Pauluskerk. In the drawing, each of the individual elements – a support resembling a table leg, the barrel, stairs and a sounding board or canopy – is still clearly distinguishable. And the decoration of these pulpits consists solely of ornaments and reliefs, instead of free-standing sculptures. For a pulpit in the Sint-Gummaruskerk in Lier, Erasmus I was only responsible for the initial (discarded) design. Work on that pulpit was undertaken posthumously, in 1640-42, by his son-in-law, Pieter Verbruggen I (1610-1686), after a new design and under the supervision of Erasmus’s son, the famous sculptor Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668), who had assumed charge of the family workshop.¹⁴ It very doubtful that the pulpit for the Sint-Pauluskerk was designed by Erasmus I himself.

In style, composition and decorative idiom, the dismantled pulpit from the Sint-Pauluskerk, which was most likely produced in the Quellinus workshop under Erasmus when Verbruggen was among his assistants (Artus Quellinus was in Rome at the time), closely resembles the pulpit in Lier. Numerous parallels can be discerned, especially in the elements adorning the barrel. Even more similar to the Sint-Pauluskerk pulpit, however, is a design drawing in Bergues for an unknown pulpit that can be attributed to Erasmus Quellinus’s eldest son, the painter Erasmus Quellinus II (1607-1678), which also features a barrel supported by four very similar monumental-scale angels and putti in corresponding poses (fig. f).¹⁵ One might interpret this drawing as a preparatory design for the pulpit in the Sint-Pauluskerk, were it not for the insignia of the Jesuits (the ‘IHS’ monogram) on the barrel, implying it initially would have probably been intended for a Jesuit church. An association with the commission for the aforementioned pulpit in the Jesuit church of Antwerp dating from 1627, is also problematic, since Erasmus Quellinus II was probably still studying philosophy in Leuven at that time and would only become Rubens’s pupil in the early 1630's.

At least two hands were involved in the carving of the old pulpit in the Sint-Pauluskerk, a conclusion most evident when comparing the present figure to the two other surviving putti. Not only does the Amsterdam putto differ from its counterparts in terms of noticeable details such as the nude upper torso, the positioning of the arms and the cushion on his shoulder, clear differences can also be observed in the execution of the hair and face. Like the cherubim from the barrel (fig. d), the Amsterdam putto’s head has crude, pierced curls versus the dense, wavy hair of the others. Similarly, his mischievous, idealized face lacks the proclivity for naturalism evident in the other two putti. Possibly carved by Erasmus Quellinus himself, or Verbruggen when he was still an assistant, the Amsterdam putto has an overtly plump corporeal form and facial type similar to that of the marble Christ Child crowning the altar of the Holy Sacrament in the Sint-Pauluskerk, a documented work by Verbruggen from 1654¹⁶ and three wooden reliefs of standing putti – allegorical representations of the three theological virtues – attributed to him.¹⁷ In the decades that ensued Pieter Verbruggen would be entrusted with the execution of numerous other richly decorated church furnishings such as confessionals, altars and choir stalls, among them many for the same Sint-Pauluskerk.¹⁸ It is well-documented his brother-in-law Erasmus Quellinus II would occasionally provide the designs for the sculptors in his (extended) family, including Verbruggen. He may have also been the designer of former pulpit in the Sint-Pauluskerk, especially considering its close resemblance to the drawing in Bergues.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025