Object data
oak with traces of polychromy
height 45.3 cm × width 37.5 cm × depth 23.5 cm
Adriaen van Wesel
Utrecht, c. 1475 - c. 1477
oak with traces of polychromy
height 45.3 cm × width 37.5 cm × depth 23.5 cm
Carved and originally polychromed. The flat sides right and left have holes for pegs to attach adjacent parts. Small pieces of wood have been added to extend it on the right. The reverse is hollowed out. Dendrochronological analysis has not produced an absolute date. The wood does, though, appear to come from the same oak tree as Adriaen van Wesel’s Death of the Virgin (BK-NM-11859). It was also possible to establish that the wood has very similar growth characteristics to that in other parts of the Marian altar that Van Wesel made for the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in Den Bosch between 1475 and 1477.
Jaarverslag Nederlandse Rijksmusea 1979, pp. 26-27; P. Klein, ‘Hout en kunst. Houtanalytisch onderzoek van beeldhouwwerken’, in W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, pp. 45-53, esp. pp. 47, 49 and figs. 5, 7d.
Three of Joseph’s fingers, a lock of his hair, to which his head covering may have been attached, the right arm of the angel with the viol and other small parts are missing. The top left part of the wing of the angel with the clavichord has been replaced. The polychromy has been removed with a caustic.
? Commissioned by the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady [Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap], Den Bosch, 1475;1 installed in the Sint-Janskathedraal, Den Bosch, 1477;2 ? dismantled during the iconoclastic revolt, transferred to a safer, unknown location, 1566;3 ? reinstalled in the Sint-Janskathedraal, Den Bosch, 1567;4 ? transferred to the Confraternity House, Hinthamerstraat, Den Bosch, 1629;5 ...; sale, Jonkheer Donas Theodoric Albéric van den Bogaerde (1829-1895), Heeswijk Castle, sold on the premises (Frederik Muller), 24 September 1901, no. 202, fl. 1950, to the museum, with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt
Object number: BK-NM-11647
Copyright: Public domain
Adriaen van Wesel (Utrecht c. 1417 - Utrecht in or after 1490)
Adriaen van Wesel was the leading sculptor of the Northern Netherlands during the second half of the fifteenth century. The majority of his surviving oeuvre is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Van Wesel’s name and city of origin were discovered by Swillens in 1948 in the city archives of Den Bosch while researching two pieces from an altarpiece by Van Wesel formerly in the chapel of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in the Sint-Janskathedraal of that city.6 Before his identification he was known as the ‘Master of the Singing Angels’ and the ‘Master of the Death of Mary’, names of convenience derived from two altar groups in the Rijksmuseum.
Van Wesel is certain to have been born in Utrecht, as his name appears nowhere in the listings of new citizens after 1400. He is first mentioned in 1447, when elected alderman of the saddler’s guild, to which painters and sculptors also belonged. Since this important position could only be attained by men of at least thirty years of age, he was probably born in or slightly prior to 1417. Van Wesel was elected to this post nine times: four times serving as a member of the city council while holding several other public offices, thus affirming his status as an influential and highly respected figure.
A document from 1468 involving a life annuity indicates that Adriaen van Wesel had a wife named Margriet and a daughter named Belyen. Both probably died before 1491, as their names no longer appear in the life annuity records from this year. Adriaen himself must have died in or shortly after 1490, as this is the last time he appears in any documents. The year of Van Wesel’s death has been subject to some confusion stemming from the existence of a second ‘Adriaen van Wesel’ residing in Utrecht whose death is documented in 1500. This individual, though perhaps a family member, was a butter merchant not known to have held any public position.
Van Wesel’s first documented work is the aforementioned altarpiece for the Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in Den Bosch commissioned in 1475. By this time, however, he was already a sculptor of renown. Unfortunately, this altarpiece was dismantled and dispersed in the nineteenth century. Only two groups from this altarpiece have remained in Den Bosch, together with their original caisses. Another five groups from this altarpiece are today preserved in the Rijksmuseum.7 An additional seven have tenably been linked to these works, including a seated Virgin from an Annunciation in Bruges.8 On a final note, several hypothetical reconstructions of the original retable have also been devised (for the most recent, see fig. c in the entry BK-NM-11647).9
Adriaen van Wesel produced two other Marian altars: the first in 1470 for the Mariakerk in Utrecht, a work that fell victim to one of the city’s iconoclastic outbreaks in 1584; the second for the high altar of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, probably destroyed in a fire in 1528 (with BK-1979-94 possibly a fragment). Another altar, commissioned in 1487 for the monastery Sint-Agnietenberg in Zwolle, is likewise lost. Several surviving sculptures may originate from these altarpieces, e.g. a Descent from the Cross in Berlin, and a Holy Family in Utrecht.10
Van Wesel’s last documented works were made for churches in his hometown of Utrecht: three sculptures for the high altar of the Buurkerk in 1487 and seven groups for the predella of the high altar of Utrecht Cathedral in 1489.11
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; 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. 227-31; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, pp. 48-54; Scholten and Van der Mark in F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 30 (and fig. 30a); P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel, ca. 1420-(na) 1489’, Oud Holland 63 (1948), pp. 149-64; P.T.A. Swillens, ‘De Utrechtse beeldhouwer Adriaen van Wesel. Enige aanvullende mededelingen’, Oud Holland 66 (1951), pp. 228-33; W. Vogelsang in F.W.S. van Thienen (ed.), Algemene Kunstgeschiedenis, vol. 4, Utrecht/Antwerp 1949, p. 28
In the spring of 1475 the Utrecht sculptor Adriaen van Wesel was commissioned to make a new altar for the chapel of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in the Sint-Janskathedraal in Den Bosch. Thanks to surviving minutes and account books of the Brotherhood an unusual amount is known about this ‘Vrouwentaeffel’ and its creation.12 We know, for instance, that Van Wesel had completed the carving in the spring of 1477 and that he transported the altar unpainted and in pieces to Den Bosch by water. It was another fourteen years before enough money had been raised to apply the now largely lost polychromy to the sculptures. This was done between 1508 and 1510. In the meantime two, now lost shutters had been added, their exteriors painted by the renowned artist Jheronimus Bosch (c. 1450-1516).13
Although Den Bosch Cathedral did not escape the Iconoclasm of 1566, the Marian altar survived unscathed because the Brotherhood’s chapel was guarded by soldiers day and night for six days. It was then dismantled and taken to safety elsewhere. When order was restored the ensemble was replaced in the chapel in 1567. It probably remained there until 1629, the year Den Bosch became Protestant. The Brotherhood’s accounts for the 1629 to 1642 period are missing, so it is not entirely clear what happened to the altar during that time. It was probably stored in the Confraternity House in Hinthamerstraat and disposed of in pieces at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Only two groups and their original caisses remain in the Brotherhood’s possession and can be traced back to Van Wesel’s Den Bosch Marian altar with absolute certainty: Emperor Augustus with the Tiburtine Sibyl (fig. a) and St John on Patmos (fig. b).14
Around 1900 four fragments with Marian iconography surfaced in and around Den Bosch; it was later possible to attribute them to Adriaen van Wesel and they were linked to the Brotherhood’s altar in the cathedral. All of them are now in the Rijksmuseum: Joseph with Three Musician Angels (BK-NM-11647), Kneeling Virgin (BK-NM-11713), The Visitation (BK-NM-11394) and The Death of the Virgin (BK-NM-11859). Another eight fragments that have been linked to the same altarpiece were later found elsewhere, one of which (The Meeting of the Magi) was acquired by the Rijksmuseum (BK-1977-134-A).15 There is, though, no incontrovertible evidence of this provenance, and it has to be borne in mind that Van Wesel made at least two other Marian altars based on it: the high altar for the Mariakerk in Utrecht and the high altar for the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft.16 The chance of fragments of those altarpieces surviving is many times smaller than the survival chances of elements of the Den Bosch altar, protected as it was from the Iconoclasm. The Marian altar in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft was most likely destroyed in a fire in the church in 1525. The Utrecht altar must have perished during one of the three outbreaks of the Iconoclasm that the city suffered – in 1566, 1579 and 1580.17
Another argument supporting a Den Bosch provenance of a number of the altar fragments that have been analyzed in terms of materials and dendrochronology is that the oak used is very similar to that of the two groups still with the Brotherhood, so it can be said with considerable certainty that these pieces came from the altar commissioned by them.18
The incomplete and scattered state of the Marian altar notwithstanding, it can be regarded as an undisputed high point in the history of late-medieval sculpture in the Northern Netherlands. The elements that are now known, whole or fragmentary, give us the following Marian cycle: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Death of the Virgin, Emperor Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl, St John on Patmos and, lastly, the Tree of Jesse. Because only some of the elements of the altar have survived and there are no other indications, it is impossible to establish the original placement of all the fragments that have been found, although a partial reconstruction has been made (fig. c),19 from which it appears that the altar must have been an inverted T shape, with a maximum width of something over three metres. As Leeuwenberg had already observed,20 the Brotherhood’s two caisses were attached with hinges to the raised part of the central section, forming wings with which it could be closed.
In all probability the fragment of Joseph with Three Musician Angels and the Kneeling Virgin (BK-NM-11713) were part of the Nativity scene on the altar.21 The two figures were together in Van den Bogaerde’s famous collection, which was held and exhibited in Heeswijk Castle near Den Bosch. They were purchased by the museum at one of the sales of this collection in 1901.
Mary, Joseph and the angels turn towards the place where the newborn baby lay. In its spontaneity, originality and style the small group of Joseph and the angels displays all the characteristics of Van Wesel’s technique. Mouth open as if he is singing, the angel at the front plays the double row of keys on his clavichord.22 The angel behind him plays the lute as he leans forward curiously. The angel beside him holds a viol against his shoulder and probably had a bow in his missing right hand. All the instruments have been rendered with a striking eye for detail. The figures have Van Wesel’s typical heavy, wig-like hair, small mouths with delicate chins and distinctive almond-shaped eyes, with the slightly swollen lower lid emphasized. The sweet faces of the music-making angels are echoed in the face of the angel in the St John on Patmos group (fig. b). The quite complex, stylised draperies with the shallow, flat folds that Van Wesel liked to use occur in the group, particularly where the robes touch the ground.
One remarkable aspect of the composition is that Joseph is not, as was customary, placed with his wife and child. He is shown as an onlooker kneeling behind the group of angel musicians. It is from this spot that he watches events with serious concern. He wears a long, wide travelling cloak. He holds his right hand above his head to remove some form of head covering, now lost,23 or as a gesture expressing surprise.24 The figure of Joseph has been identified as a shepherd in the past.25 This is not, however, an obvious interpretation, since such figures are usually portrayed as folk types dressed in a short coat.26
In the late Middle Ages, Nativity scenes almost always included a number of angels. However, they were either positioned apart from the main figures, or between them but proportionately smaller.27 The way he integrated the figure of Joseph almost as an equal into the little group of musician angels is highly innovative, reflecting the tendency towards iconographic innovation that is regarded as an important characteristic of Adriaen van Wesel’s art.28
Bieke van der Mark, 2024
C.M.A.A. Lindeman, ‘Sint Agnes door Jacob van der Borch’, Jaarverslag K.O.G. 81 (1938-39), pp. 52-54, esp. p. 52; W. Vogelsang in F.W.S. van Thienen (ed.), Algemene Kunstgeschiedenis, vol. 4, Utrecht/Antwerp 1949, p. 28; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Beeldhouwkunst I’, Facetten der Verzameling 8 (1967; 1st ed. 1957), pp. 1-2; D.P.R.A. Bouvy, ‘Nederlandse beeldhouwkunst’, in T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Sprekend verleden. Wegwijzer voor de verzamelaar van oude kunst en antiek, Amsterdam 1959, p. 55; D.P.R.A. Bouvy, Kerkelijke Kunst, vol. 2, Bussum 1966, p. 48; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 16a, with earlier literature; W. Halsema-Kubes et al., Adriaen van Wesel. Een Utrechtse beeldhouwer uit de late middeleeuwen (ca. 1417/ ca. 1490), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, no. 1; W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Twee onbekende retabelfragmenten van Adriaen van Wesel’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 28 (1980), pp. 155-66, esp. pp. 155, 157; W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Ontmoeting der drie koningen 1475-1477’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 37 (1989), pp. 163-65; R.W.A.M. Cleverens, Kasteel Heeswijk en de geslachten Van den Bogaerde van Terbrugge en De Looz-Corswarem, Middelburg 1991, p. 143; H.L.M. Defoer, ‘Een laat-middeleeuws schoorsteenfries uit Utrecht met de bekoring van Antonius’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 45 (1994), pp. 300-23, esp. pp. 311-12, 318; R. Karrenbrock, ‘Unbekannte Werke des Utrechter Bildhauers Adriaen van Wesel’, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 57 (1994), no. 3, pp. 336-46, esp. p. 342; H.L.M. Defoer, ‘Chimney Friezes in Late-Medieval Utrecht’ in E. de Bièvre (ed.), Utrecht, Britain and the Continent: Archaeology, Art and Architecture. The British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions 18, Leeds 1996, pp. 236-41, esp. p. 238; J.W. Klinckaert, ‘Adriaen van Wesel and the Sculpture of the Mariakerk in Utrecht’, in E. de Bièvre (ed.), Utrecht, Britain and the Continent: Archaeology, Art and Architecture. The British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions 18, Leeds 1996, pp. 242-45, esp. p. 243; J. Klinckaert, De verzamelingen van het Centraal Museum Utrecht, vol. 3, Beeldhouwkunst tot 1850, coll. cat. Utrecht 1997, p. 93; M. Woelk, Die Bildwerke vom 9. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert aus Stein, Holz und Ton im Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, coll. cat. Darmstadt 1999, p. 255; Scholten in H. van Os et al., Nederlandse Kunst in het Rijksmuseum 1400-1600, Amsterdam/Zwolle 2000, no. 6b; Scholten in F. Houben et al., Deftige Devotie, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 2003, p. 108; M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent, ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 195, 212; E. van der Weijden, ‘Behouden voor het land’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 53 (2005), pp. 300-15, pp. 304-05; K.W. Woods, Imported Images: Netherlandish Late Gothic Sculpture in England c. 1400-c. 1550, Donington 2007, p. 82; E. den Hartog, ‘Van ons slag zijn er nog veel in de wereld gebleven’, in P.C. van der Eerden and M.A. van der Eerden-Vonk (eds.), De Wijkse toren. Geschiedenis van de toren van de Grote Kerk in Wijk bij Duurstede (1486-2008), Hilversum 2008, pp. 113-14; 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, p. 261; Scholten and Van der Mark in F. Scholten (ed.), 1100-1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2015, no. 30b
B. van der Mark, 2024, 'Adriaen van Wesel, Joseph with Three Musician Angels, from a Nativity, Utrecht, c. 1475 - c. 1477', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24257
(accessed 9 November 2024 02:21:20).