St John of Capistrano Exorcizing Demons (?)

Entry

Together with the two accompanying panels, BK-NM-6074 and BK-NM-6076, this polychromed relief was found on the first attic of the Moreau-organ in the Sint-Janskerk (Grote Kerk) in Gouda. According to tradition they were once part of an altar in that church.² If this is accurate, the devastating fire of 1552 in which the most of the church’s interior was destroyed, is a probable terminus post quem for their creation.³ The panels may derive from the new high altar, erected in 1561-63, that was dedicated to St John the Baptist. Alternatively, recent authors have argued the panels could derive from the hexagonal barrel of the church’s sixteenth-century pulpit, which was decorated with five carved and polychromed medallions, one of them representing Pentecost.⁴ It is unclear if this is the preeck-stoel (pulpit), which, according to an eye witness testimony, was saved from the fire in 1552,⁵ or a new one that was erected after the disaster.

It cannot be said for certain which scene is depicted on this panel. Initially, it was thought to be a (non-specific) confession scene,⁶ and later the representation was identified as Clement Discovers Sisinnius Spying on Theodora.⁷ According to legend, Theodora converted to Christianity without the knowledge of her husband, Sisinnius. Sisinnus followed Theodora and hid in the church he had seen her enter, where Pope Clement I was celebrating mass. When Clement discovered him, Sisinnius was struck blind and deaf. The panel supposedly depicts the moment of discovery. It is more plausible, however, that this panel depicts the legend of St John of Capistrano.⁸ This Franciscan friar and Catholic priest, who was canonized in the seventeenth century, reportedly carried out a legendary exorcism in 1426.⁹ The cross on the priest’s habit and the banner of the cross (labarum) hanging over the pulpit, indicate that he must be a Franciscan friar, or Minorite. Other elements that support this interpretation are the brazier on the ground, in which playing cards and other ‘vanities’ were burned during exorcisms, and the contorted face and almost claw-like hand of the man at right. According to an account of the exorcism, a woman was also present who was possessed by a demon and roared like a wild animal.¹⁰ It is possible that she is the repentant woman praying in the background, accompanied by two dignitaries. In that case, Capistrano has already cured her.

If the identification of the scene as St John of Capistrano exorcizing demons is correct, then it is likely that the panels were made for a Franciscan patron, possibly to decorate an altar. Of the numerous altars in the Sint-Janskerk, one was dedicated to St Francis.¹¹ It is unclear whether that altar was erected by a Brotherhood of St Francis or by the men of the woodcarvers’ guild, of which Francis was the patron saint. Another possibility is that the panels were commissioned by the Friars Minor of Gouda. They preached the Passion in the Sint-Janskerk,¹² but also had their own abbey and abbey church, in which one of the smaller altars was dedicated to St Francis.¹³ Even though this contradicts tradition, the possibility that the panels came from the local Franciscan abbey and not from the Sint-Janskerk must also be taken into account. Although Gouda escaped the Iconoclastic Fury of 1566, during the reformation of 1572 the abbey was plundered and demolished in 1576.

The three reliefs have been linked stylistically to the work of Jan Swart van Groningen (c. 1500-in or after 1553), who probably spent some time in Gouda. Although his known work consists only of prints and paintings, Swart has even been named, with some reservation, as the maker of the panels.¹⁴ The style of the panels may well be reminiscent of Swart, but they more closely resemble the work of Jan van Scorel (1495-1562) and Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574).¹⁵ For example, the figure type of the woman appearing on the panels is closely related to Scorel’s Mary Magdalene in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-372). Compare, for instance, the hair style with plaits at the side of the head and the stray locks of hair at the temples, in combination with a head-cloth. Furthermore, the Christ Child in the panel with the Adoration (BK-NM-6076) is comparable to the Child in Heemskerck’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Child in Scorel’s Madonna and Child with Wild Roses in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.¹⁶ Finally, the pose of the figures, who display a bent left or right leg, also occurs in many of Scorel’s and Heemskerck’s paintings. In short, the panels were made by an anonymous woodcarver who was familiar with the work of these early Renaissance painters. He succeeded in allowing the figures to follow, where necessary, the curve of the medallions in a natural way. The muscular putti in the corners have lower bodies that split into acanthus leaves, which then turn into animal heads. They are reminiscent of the marvellous grotesque ornamentation of the carved oak choir screen in the Grote Kerk in Enkhuizen dating from 1542.

The iconographic connection between the scenes depicted on the three remaining panels is difficult to explain. The two scenes from the life of Christ, the Adoration and the Baptism, are suggestive of a longer cycle. This might have been combined with a perhaps equally large series of (Franciscan) saints, of which the present panel seems to be an example. If indeed the panels were once part of an altarpiece, as tradition would have it, the altar in question was perhaps comparable to Jan Mone’s 1533 sacraments retable of alabaster, likewise with a series of relief medallions each incorporated in a square panel, in the Sint-Martinuskerk in Halle (fig. a).¹⁷ From an iconographical point of view it seems to be less likely they were part of the church’s pulpit, which had only five panels – one of which depicted yet another scene related to the life of Christ (Pentecost). This combination of scenes doesn’t seem to agree with the inclusion of the rather unusual depiction of St John of Capistrano. However the pulpit-theory should not be dismissed entirely because, in terms of their shape and size, the panels are very comparable to those of other sixteenth-century hexagonal pulpit barrels.¹⁸

Bieke van der Mark, 2024