Panel with a Griffin Supporting an Escutcheon, from the Organ of the Sint-Vituskerk, Naarden

Entry

This oak relief comes from the late-gothic organ in the Sint-Vituskerk (Grote Kerk) in Naarden. The organ was dismantled in 1862 and fifteen (possibly all) of the carved reliefs that adorned it were subsequently sold. On the ten narrow, openwork panels are knights standing on a console with an escutcheon at their feet; this they hold on a strap (BK-KOG-669-A, -669-B, -669-C, -670-A, -670-B, -670-C, -664, -665, -666 and -667). The other four panels have a griffin, a wild man, an eagle and a lion, each likewise holding an escutcheon (BK-KOG-668-A, -668-B, -668-C and -668-D).⁸ Lastly, there is a half-length figure of a woman praying (BK-KOG-668-E) that belonged to the organ. Traces indicate that the carving was originally wholly or partially polychromed.

In 1996 Klinckaert was able to convincingly identify the maker of the organ panels, who had already been sought on stylistic grounds among the followers of Adriaen van Wesel,⁹ as the important Utrecht sculptor and woodcarver Jan Eerstensz van Schayck.¹⁰ He based his identification on the stylistic resemblance to two commissions Van Schayk undertook in 1497 for the cathedral in Utrecht: the oak sacristy with fine tracery and escutcheons, which is still in situ, and eight sandstone keystones from the library, four with symbols of the Evangelists (Victoria and Albert Museum, London), three with the Church Fathers Augustine, Jerome and Gregory (Centraal Museum, Utrecht) and one with God the Father (Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht).¹¹

Van Schayck’s very distinctive graphic hand emerges from these documented works. His figures have relatively small heads with fine features and rather melancholy expressions, swollen eyelids and stringy hair: characteristics that also occur in the shield-bearers on the organ panels. It was not the only time Van Schayck was involved in decorating an organ. In November 1502 he was paid for carvings on the organ, now lost, in Utrecht Cathedral.¹²

Unfortunately there are no surviving records of the background of the organ in Naarden. We do not know who commissioned it, nor exactly what the instrument originally looked like. The disposition of the organ has been radically altered and extended many times over the centuries, so that the drawing made by Gerard Arentzen shortly before the organ was taken to pieces (fig. a) bears little resemblance to the original sixteenth-century situation. Only eight of the fifteen surviving elements are shown in this drawing. It is not clear whether the missing pieces have ‘vanished’ in the perspective or had already been physically removed from the organ at that time.

Arentzen noted on the back of the drawing that the date that the organ was made had been found as it was being dismantled, but neglected to mention the year. The instrument is generally dated to around 1520,¹³ but given the praying woman’s dress (BK-KOG-668-E) and the overall style of the decorative panels, the carving could actually have been done ten years earlier.¹⁴

In 1907 and 1921 respectively, Vogelsang and Bierens de Haan attempted to reconstruct the original position of the panels.¹⁵ They based this in part on other gothic organ cases, such as those from the churches of Scheemda (c. 1526) and Harenkarspel, both in the Rijksmuseum’s collection (BK-NM-8184 and -8685). The four large panels with the shield-bearing creatures and the wild man (BK-KOG-668-A, -668-B, -668-C and -668-D) could, they suggested, have formed the arched wings of the organ that protected the pipes of the manual above the gallery, as in the Scheemda organ.¹⁶ The narrow panels with the knights decorated the railing. It is not clear whether they were placed in a straight field side by side, or at right angles. The low position of the knights relative to the shield-bearing creatures is confirmed by the fact that they contain far more details. The small figure of the praying woman was probably the terminal of a dripstone.

The way the knights are positioned in very different poses, finely dressed, with prominent heraldic symbols in an architectural setting is rooted in the pictorial tradition of series of rulers. This series, however, is not clear. The painted devices on the escutcheons which would have helped identifying the knights have been lost along with the rest of the original polychromy.

It has been suggested more than once in the past that these oak reliefs represent the Nine Worthies, with an added tenth hero.¹⁷ This series of nine historical, scriptural and legendary personages, very popular in the late Middle Ages, consists of three good pagans, Hector, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar; three good Jews, Joshua, David and Judas Maccabeus; and three good Christians, King Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon.¹⁸ Although rarely, the originally French tradition of adding a tenth hero to the series also occurs in the Netherlands.¹⁹ This ‘Tenth Worthy’ was variable. As a rule a great contemporary hero who was well known locally would be chosen. In the case of the Naarden organ panels, a possibility could be the then Governor of the Netherlands, and from 1519 the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. His arms and likeness appear in the Sint-Vituskerk in one of the barrel vault decorations (1518) and the choir screen (1531) respectively.²⁰ Although this ruler was not particularly renowned for his heroism, in the Naarden context he would appear to be a more appropriate candidate than Meyers’s suggestion, the army commander Bertrand du Guesclin (1320-1380), who was the best-known Tenth Worthy in French-oriented circles.²¹ None of the knights on the Naarden panels has the outward characteristics of this Habsburg monarch, however, so the hypothesis remains highly speculative.

Because of the unusual presence of a Tenth Worthy in the Low Countries, Schmidt rejects the identification of the knights as the Worthies. He also points out that none of the figures wears a clearly recognizable crown with high arches, whereas Charlemagne was seldom pictured without one.²² According to Schmidt the Counts of Holland are a more likely series. In that case, the knight with the Tau cross around his neck (BK-KOG-669-A) might be Albert of Bavaria, supposedly the founder of the Order of St Anthony.²³ There are, though, no conclusive parallels in the series of counts we know of with which the other knights could be identified.²⁴ We are also faced with far too few men. At the time the organ was built a complete set of counts of Holland consisted of no fewer than twenty-eight counts, plus countesses.²⁵ All in all, none of the theories about the identity of the Naarden panels so far put forward is really satisfactory.

We know of no other Northern Netherlandish organs with a similar series of princes or knights. It is therefore remarkable to find it in a church rather than in the context of a castle or government building, where one would expect it.²⁶ There was a set of counts on the rood-loft in the counts’ chapel in the Binnenhof in The Hague,²⁷ but in that case there was an obvious connection with the founders and users of the chapel. The iconographic programme of the Naarden organ case was probably similarly linked to the identity of the person or people who commissioned it. Their heraldic devices would originally have appeared on the escutcheons held by the four shield-bearing creatures on the large panels. The four blazons Gerard Arentzen reproduced in colour in his 1862 drawing were most likely seventeenth- or eighteenth-century overpaintings and not the original coats of arms.²⁸ The arms with the eyes on an azure field held by the wild man belongs to the Heshuysen family, a member of whom was first appointed Naarden church warden in 1693.²⁹

In the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford) there is a three-dimensional copy of one of the organ panels (BK-KOG-667) which Hugh Paget, director of the British Council, acquired in an Amsterdam antique shop in the late 1950s as an authentic medieval work.³⁰ It is most likely a deliberate forgery made specifically for the trade.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024