Object data
walnut with polychromy
height 50 cm × width 11.5 cm × depth 9 cm
Master of Koudewater (follower of)
Archangel Gabriel, from an Annunciation
Northern Brabant, c. 1480 - c. 1520
Inscriptions
-
inscription: on the banderole, in red paint: [AVE] GRATIA PLENA
Technical notes
Carved and polychromed. The reverse is worked. The archangel’s back contains holes for attaching the (missing) wings.
Condition
The statue has been damaged in various places by woodworm and rot. The wings, the right hand, a part of the right shoulder and a part of the banderole are missing. The text on the banderole was overpainted later. The polychromy is in poor condition.
Provenance
? Commissioned by the Bridgettine abbey Mariënwater, Koudewater, near Rosmalen, c. 1480-1520;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. 0021, since 1973
Object number: BK-NM-1209
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 characterised 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
This rather damaged Archangel Gabriel was originally part of an Annunciation group. He is dressed in liturgical vestments: an alb, an amice, and a stole crossed over the breast. He wears a string of pearls around his head. Wrapped around his left arm is a banderole, hanging down to the ground, on which his words of welcome to the Virgin Mary are still partly legible: [AVE] GRATIA PLENA. His head is turned slightly to the left, towards the side where the statue of Mary would have stood. His glance is directed to the lower right, which could mean that the Virgin was to be found on that side, sitting or kneeling at a reading-desk as she often appears in Annunciation groups.
De Werd was the first to connect this statue of Gabriel with the style of the Master of Koudewater.4 This anonymous master 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 1713.5 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 Archangel Gabriel – from the immediate successor to this institution, the convent of Maria Refugie in Uden.
Even though the Archangel Gabriel is in fact connected – in terms of facial type, voluminous hair with a string of pearls, pose and general atmosphere – to the work of the Master of Koudewater, this statue is somewhat weaker with regard to the serene character, elegance and refinement typical of his figures (cf. BK-NM-1197). The archangel’s movement and interaction might have arisen, however, from the narrative context of the group to which he originally belonged: after all, Gabriel has just descended from heaven to announce the glad tidings to Mary. The archangel also deviates from tradition by virtue of the simple drapery of his alb. This is by no means in the Koudewater style, which is a strong indication that the maker did not have the Master’s examples at his disposal, and the statue is therefore more likely to have originated – contrary to what De Werd and Van Liebergen maintain – outside the Master’s workshop.6 Even so, the maker must have been well acquainted with the saints carved by the Master of Koudewater and was possibly even trained by him. The grooved folds of the drapery of a St Francis (BK-NM-1207) with the same provenance seem to have been based on an identical scheme, which strongly suggests that these statues were made in the same workshop.
Bieke van der Mark, 2024
Literature
J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 67, 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. 77; 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. 22
Citation
B. van der Mark, 2024, 'follower of Meester van Koudewater, Archangel Gabriel, from an Annunciation, Northern Brabant, c. 1480 - c. 1520', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24340
(accessed 29 December 2024 05:05:55).