St Paul

Entry

Restoration work in the tower of the Oude Kerk in Soest in 1905 uncovered in a bricked-up area an important treasure trove of statues, albeit in a deplorable condition.² It is assumed that the figures were hidden there either in 1566 at the outbreak of the Iconoclasm or in December 1580, when Calvinists in the Eemland region endeavoured to destroy every last remnant of religious art.³

Among the statues were two typical figures of saints of virtually identical height, which were obviously conceived as pendants. One figure, with his short fisherman’s beard and broad nose, is easy to identify as St Peter (BK-NM-12006-9). Since the apostles Peter and Paul were traditionally the two patron saints of the Oude Kerk,⁴ the other figure, shown here, is in all likelihood St Paul.

St Peter stands on a rounded base with his right leg bent and his head turned slightly to his left and bent forward. He has a gentle smile. His hair and beard are mid-length with tight curls. Over his cassock and amice he wears a cloak swept to his left, from which his right foot and part of the cassock protrude. St Paul stands on a similar base and holds an open book in his right hand. With his left he grasps a fold of his cloak, which is swept to his left and covers a great deal of his cassock. Remnants of sgraffito decoration can be seen on the hem of his cloak. He gazes over the book to look directly at the viewer. His hair and beard are long and curly. As well as the different hair styles and beards, the carver also gave the two apostles individual features. Peter has a snub nose, for instance, whereas Paul’s is quite long and narrow.

Leeuwenberg believed that he could recognise the same hand in the apostles as in the fragments of the Soest Altarpiece found in the church in Soest at the same time.⁵ He saw similarities in the general character of the statues, as well as in the eyes, the face and the rather squat forms. However, the difference in the style of the folds in the garments and the treatment of the hair and beards – gentle waves in the altarpiece fragments as opposed to tight curls in the apostle figures – does not support this attribution.

As Klinckaert rightly observed, the statues are, though, closely akin to the St John the Baptist (BK-NM-12006-4) that was also found in Soest.⁶ From what remains of the right side of his severely damaged face it can be seen that he had the same stylised curls, thin-lipped mouth with slightly downturned corners, narrow eyes with wrinkles in the corners and pronounced cheeks as Peter and Paul. Klinckaert considered this enough to attribute the three figures to a single hand. Although the significantly slimmer proportions of John’s body do not directly support a shared authorship, the works – all around 83 centimetres high – undoubtedly come from the same workshop, which may have used standardised dimensions.⁷

The statues have a great deal in common with the late-medieval woodcarving style of Utrecht, the centre of sculpture not far from Soest. The features of figures in this style are reminiscent of those of the St Peter, St Paul and St John the Baptist described above and the treatment of their hair and beards is comparable to the work of the woodcarver Jan van Schayck (c. 1470-in or before 1527) (cf. BK-KOG-669-A). The poses and the folds of the draperies, however, are more casual and more voluminous respectively and have more in common with the work of the Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head (active c. 1490-c. 1530), if a little less true to life and skilfully finished (cf. BK-1964-1).⁸ The statues must have come from a Utrecht workshop that supplied rather more simple work influenced by these eminent masters.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024