Object data
oak with traces of polychromy
height 67 cm × width 22.5 cm × depth 17.5 cm
Master of the Emmerich Saints (circle of)
Virgin and Child
Utrecht, Lower Rhine region, c. 1470 - c. 1500
Technical notes
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.
Scientific examination and reports
- dendrochronology: M. Domínguez Delmás (DendroResearch), RMA, DR_R2023147, 19 December 2023
Condition
The polychromy has been removed; traces can be found on the reverse.
Provenance
…; ? 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;1 …; from the dealer J. Polak, Amsterdam, fl. 120,000, to the museum, 1987
Object number: BK-1987-22
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Master of the Emmerich Saints (active in Utrecht and ? the Lower Rhine region c. 1475-90)
The Master of the Emmerich Saints’ name of convenience is derived from two statues in the Sankt-Aldegundiskirche in Emmerich, depicting St Catherine and St Agnes.2 A St Agnes in the Bode-Museum in Berlin,3 two statues of the Virgin and Child, respectively in the Louvre and the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht,4 and a St Ursula and her Virgins in Münster.5
Dendrochronological analysis indicates the Master of the Emmerich Saints was active in the years 1475 to 1490. Characteristic of his work are the high quality of the carving, the elegant poses and highly refined ‘courtly’ faces. The master was probably from Utrecht, an explanation for why his style closely resembles that of Adriaen van Wesel (c. 1417-in or after 1490), the leading sculptor in that city during the second half of the fifteenth century. Two carved beam supports in the Duitse Huis (German House) in Utrecht, convincingly attributed to the master on stylistic grounds, likewise substantiate the master’s association with this city.6
The two statues of saints in Emmerich are generally thought to have been carved in Utrecht and subsequently exported to Emmerich, a city that at this time fell under the same diocese.7 Karrenbock, however, tentatively identified the master as Raebe Lambert Luetensoen, a sculptor granted citizenship in Emmerich in 1478.8 Accordingly, in his estimation the two saintly statues are late works produced after the master’s relocation from Utrecht to the Lower Rhine region and perhaps Emmerich itself.9
Marie Mundigler, 2024
References
W. Halsema-Kubes, G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Adriaen van Wesel: Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, nos. 43-45; R. Karrenbrock, ‘Eine Utrechter Madonna der Spätgotik in westfällischem Privatbesitz’, Aachener Kunstblätter 58 (1989-90), pp. 111-14; R. Karrenbrock, ‘Utrechtse beelden van de laatgotiek. Export en uitstraling’, in M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 128-39, esp. pp. 137-39; R. Karrenbrock and M. Peez, ‘Die beiden Emmericher Heiligen: Agnes und Katharina’, Jahrbuch der rheinischen Denkmalpflege 43 (2013) pp. 122-70; M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 72-73, and nos.13-17; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Een nieuw facet aan de Utrechtse beeldhouwkunst’, Oud Holland 75 (1960), pp. 195-205; U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 37, Leipzig 1950, p. 90; M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 187-88
Entry
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.10 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),11 and the anonymous Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head (c. 1490-c. 1530), who was working a generation later,12 as well as in some anonymous Utrecht Virgins, among other things on stone mantelpiece reliefs and in pipeclay.13 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 1490.14 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
Literature
‘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
Citation
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
(accessed 27 November 2024 02:55:26).