Kneeling Virgin, from a Nativity

Entry

In the late Middle Ages, simple pipeclay (white-firing clay) sculptures such as this were serially produced in the Netherlands using moulds.² Utrecht was unquestionably an important centre for the production of pipeclay devotional objects, as the large number of moulds and misfires unearthed there attest. However, archaeological research shows that this production also occurred in cities such as Amsterdam, Leiden, Deventer, Kampen, Antwerp, Liège and Cologne.³ This fairly small figurine, depicting a kneeling Virgin Mary from a Nativity, was discovered in the nineteenth century during the demolition of a foundation of Teylingen Castle in Voorhout. It was perhaps sealed into the wall as some kind of dedication gift.

Although discovered in Voorhout, this figurine could quite conceivably have been produced in the nearby city of Leiden, where a heyligenbacker (saint-firer) was located on the Varkenmarkt in the late Middle Ages. Among the discarded remnants of pipeclay production unearthed on this site was also a large, kneeling angel with very similar drapery folds.⁴ Together with an albeit stylistically less similar pipeclay figurine of a kneeling Angel Playing a Lute in the Rijksmuseum collection (BK-KOG-1272-K), excavated in Utrecht, all three would have belonged to simple house altars featuring scenes of the Nativity or the Adoration.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024