Virgin and Child

Entry

Not until 1994 was it learned that ivory carvings had been produced in the Low Countries during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, thanks to research conducted by the art historian Richard Randall.¹ Randall’s pioneering work demonstrated stylistic links between a group of ivories having a previously undetermined origin and fifteenth century Netherlandish book illumination and engraved metalwork. From this time forward, ivories preserved in international museum collections around the world could be identified as belonging to the same group. By contrast, very few representative examples of this Netherlandish ivory-carving are held in Dutch museum collections.² One exception is a small statuette of the Virgin and Child preserved in the Museum Catharijneconvent, which, on the basis of the treatment of the drapery folds and facial type, falls perfectly in line with the Netherlandish sculptural tradition of large wooden statues.³

In addition to a number of ivory reliefs, Randall also wrote about a statuette of a standing Virgin and Child (fig. a) in Williamstown (Mass.), a work freely carved in the round, which on the basis of stylistic consideration he convincingly described as a Netherlandish work, dated circa 1460-75.⁴ Remarkably, this small ivory is virtually identical to the present statuette preserved in the Rijksmuseum. Both figures are of the same height, stand on identical round bases ornamented with Tremolierung, with the same pose, the same schematic drapery folds, as well as similar details in the attire, identical facial types and hair, and finally, the same distinctive wreath of large flowers encircling the crown of the head. Unlike the American statuette, however, no remnants or traces of polychromy and gilding can be observed on the present piece. To this pair a third ivory Virgin and Child must be added, today held in the Wyvern Collection in London.⁵ Despite the obvious similarity in composition and size (height 11.8 cm), the facial type is different and the encircling flower wreath is missing from the head. Noteworthy is that this statuette, like the Rijksmuseum piece, also comes from the Professor Henny Goldschmidt collection in Eindhoven. All three statuettes probably originate from the same studio. Also in the Wyvern Collection is a somewhat smaller ivory carving of St Catherine of Alexandria, a work so similar to the three aforementioned Madonnas that one can only surmise it too came from the same workshop.⁶ A radiocarbon test of the Catherine’s ivory indicated a dating for the raw material of 1408-31 (with a 68% probability). The Rijksmuseum Madonna and her two equivalents all follow a compositional scheme characteristic of Marian figures produced in the Low Countries in the second half of the fifteenth century.⁷ Notably, the treatment of the drapery folds and the charming facial features recall those of the Mary Magdalene and St Agnes from Utrecht Cathedral, figures once possibly originally adorning the choir screen in the church. Dated circa 1450, these Cathedral statuettes have previously been linked to the sculptor Jan Ude (active 1446-94).⁸ A clear parallel can also be discerned with an oak Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon, described as a work of Utrecht manufacture on stylistic grounds (c. 1475).⁹

The ivory Virgin’s sweet facial expression, resembling that of a little girl, is comparable to a female saint, likewise wearing a flower wreath in her hair, attributed to Jan van Steffeswert (before 1465-after 1531) and dated 1501.¹⁰ The most convincing parallel is without doubt a monumental statue of the Virgin that has adorned the niche in the northern transept of the Grote Kerk in Haarlem since the late fifteenth century. The local sculptor Dirick Jacobsz was commissioned to carve this piece in 1496/97.¹¹ Despite the statue’s highly abraded condition, the similarity to the ivory’s pose and treatment of the drapery folds is evident. In both cases, Mary wears a wreath about her head, from which long freely hanging strands of hair descend. The most significant difference is the absence of the book. Together with the above-noted stylistic commonalities and the results of the radiocarbon analysis of the ivory from the St Catherine, this suggests all four ivories can reasonably be dated to the third quarter of the fifteenth century.
On the reverse of the Amsterdam ivory one finds an eighteenth-century label with a handwritten text inscribed in Latin – unfortunately only partly legible – along with the year 1786.¹² Old inscriptions of this nature are an important source for establishing the provenance and dating of ivories, particularly because nineteenth-century copies of medieval ivory carvings made in the neo-gothic style are sometimes scarcely distinguishable from the originals.

Frits Scholten, 2024