Object data
oak with polychromy
height 68.5 cm × width 18 cm × depth 15 cm
Master of Koudewater (follower of)
St Elizabeth of Hungary
Northern Brabant, c. 1480 - c. 1490
Technical notes
Carved and polychromed. The reverse is nearly flat.
Condition
A part of the right hand and the front of the triple crown are missing. The polychromy is not original.
Provenance
? Commissioned by the Bridgettine abbey Mariënwater, Koudewater, near Rosmalen, c. 1480-90;1 transferred to the Bridgettine convent Maria Refugie, Uden, 1713-24;2 from where, with numerous other sculptures (BK-NM-1195 to -1243), fl. 2,000 for all, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Museum Krona (formerly known as the Museum voor Religieuze Kunst), Uden, inv. no. 0018, since 1973
Object number: BK-NM-1204
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Master of Koudewater (active in northern Brabant c. 1460-80)
The name of convenience ‘Master of Koudewater’ was introduced by Leeuwenberg in 1958 to define the production of a sculptor active in the period 1460-80, whose oeuvre chiefly comprises carved wooden statues of saints formerly originating from two Bridgettine abbeys. The first one, Mariënwater, was located in the northern Brabantine village of Koudewater. In 1460, this ‘mother abbey’ founded a second abbey in the vicinity of Cleves, called Marienbaum. When evicted from their abbey in 1713, the Bridgettine nuns at Mariënwater moved to a convent in the vicinity of Uden, together with all of their possessions. In 1802, when the abbey at Marienbaum was dissolved, a portion of its inventory was likewise transferred to Uden. Facing financial difficulty, the Bridgettine nuns at Uden were ultimately forced to sell off the bulk of their art holdings. In 1875, a large number of saintly statues carved by the Master of Koudewater and followers of his style were subsequently acquired en bloc by the Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, a forerunner of the Rijksmuseum.
There are strong indications that the Master of Koudewater produced statues for both Mariënwater and Marienbaum. Collectively, these works – together with other similar figures produced in the northern part of the Duchy of Brabant – are today known as the ‘Koudewater Group’. The Rijksmuseum holds sixteen of the Koudewater statues in its collection. Based on the shared static but elegant poses, calm facial expressions, and matching drapery schemes characterized by deeply cut folds, however, only six of these works can be securely attributed to the master himself. The remaining ten are likely to have been produced by workshop assistants, pupils or followers of the master’s style.
The centre of the Master of Koudewater’s activity was initially thought to be in the Lower Rhine region. When acknowledging the documented provenance of the works and the stylistic similarity to Brabantine sculpture, however, the northern part of the Duchy of Brabant emerges as the most likely area of production. Attempts have been made to link the master’s carving to the flourishing artistic climate in Den Bosch and even to a documented woodcarver active there, Jan Jansz van Gheervliet.3 Nevertheless, nothing in the Master of Koudewater’s oeuvre suggests a knowledge of the artistic innovation occurring in this northern Brabantine city. On the contrary, it appears he led a rather solitary life. His artistic origin must therefore be sought in monastic surroundings in or near Mariënwater.
Marie Mundigler, 2024
References
G.C.M. van Dijck, ‘De meester van Coudewater opgespoord? Een interessante theorie’, Bossche bladen 3 (2001), pp. 75-77; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, pp. 86-94; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, pp. 61-64; J. Leeuwenberg in R. van Luttervelt et al., Middeleeuwse kunst der Noordelijke Nederlanden, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1958, pp. 192-93; G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Beelden uit Brabant: Laatgotische kunst uit het oude hertogdom 1400-1520, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1971, pp. 17-26; J.W. Steyaert et al., Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands, exh. cat. Ghent (Museum of Fine Arts) 1994, n. 84; W. Vogelsang, De oude kerkelijke kunst in Nederland: Gedenkboek van de Nationale Tentoonstelling te ’s-Hertogenbosch in 1913, Den Bosch 1914, p. 98
Entry
The Master of Koudewater owes his name of convenience to the fact that most of his statues of saints presumably came from the Bridgettine abbey of Mariënwater in Koudewater, which was dissolved in 1713.4 In 1875 the museum acquired three core pieces by the master (BK-NM-1195, -1196 and -1197) – together with a large number of stylistically related statues of saints, including this St Elizabeth of Hungary, in the dress of the tertiaries – from the immediate successor to this institution, the convent of Maria Refugie in Uden.5
St Elizabeth of Hungary, also known as Elizabeth of Thuringia, was a paragon of heroic Christian charity at Wartburg Castle during the famine of 1226. After the death of her husband, she became a tertiary: a follower of the Third Order of Francis of Assisi. Driven out by her brother-in-law, she fled to Marburg, where she founded a Franciscan hospital. Here she devoted the rest of her life to caring for the sick. Because of the path taken by her life, she became the patron saint of beggars and the sick. This statue, therefore, probably stood in the infirmaries of the abbey of Koudewater and later Uden. In her left hand she holds a triple crown, symbolic of her three virtues: for her atonement, purity and edifying example, she earned the triple crown of martyrs, virgins and preachers.6
Although the woodcarver must have been well acquainted with the work of the Master of Koudewater, and might even have been trained in his workshop,7 his St Elizabeth is somewhat inferior to the Master’s statues of saints in terms of elegance, refinement and serene appearance (cf. BK-NM-1196). Instead of the bowl-shaped drapery created by lifting the upper garment with one hand – a drapery scheme characteristic of this master – he chose much simpler folds with a vertical orientation. This is a strong indication that the maker did not have any of the Master’s examples at his disposal while carving the image, which makes it unlikely that the statue was made within the Koudewater workshop.
The sculpture has traditionally been attributed to the same follower of the Master of Koudewater who carved the Virgin and Child with St Anne (BK-NM-1211), which also came from the convent in Uden.8 Anne and Elizabeth display the same type of oval head with half-closed eyes, a long, straight nose and slightly protruding chin. The head and chin cloths are very similar in design and their long gowns are nearly identical at the front, where they display deep, projecting vertical folds that flare out over the base but leave exposed the tip of the shoe on her right foot. It is striking that Anne and Elizabeth reflect each other’s contrapposto and that the statues are almost equal in height. Meis interprets the two statues as pendants,9 but this is by no means certain, since an iconographic connection between the two saints is lacking. The similarities could also be the result of working to standardized formulas. In 1996 Meis succeeded convincingly in linking – on the basis of the comparable head types, the resemblance of the head and chin cloths, and the shape of the hands – two walnut statues of seated saints, representing St Catherine and St Bridget, which were made by the same follower.10 These statues were transferred around 1843 from the convent of Maria Refugie to the new daughter convent of Maria-Hart in Weert. Given their provenance from the nunnery in Uden, they probably also belonged originally to the convent’s predecessor in Koudewater.
Bieke van der Mark, 2024
Literature
J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 63, with earlier literature; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Birgitta van Zweden 1303-1373. 600 jaar kunst en cultuur van haar kloosterorde, Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1986, no. 66; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij. Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, no. 17; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, ‘Meesters met Noodnamen’, Kunstschrift 6 (2004), p. 34
Citation
B. van der Mark, 2024, 'follower of Meester van Koudewater, St Elizabeth of Hungary, Northern Brabant, c. 1480 - c. 1490', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24336
(accessed 28 December 2024 02:48:00).