St John, from an Ambo

Entry

This relief of the apostle John and its companion piece of the apostle James (see the entry BK-NM-8438 or fig. a), were found by the architect Pierre Cuypers in 1878 during the extensive restoration and partial rebuilding of the seriously dilapidated Romanesque church of Sts Wiro, Plechelmus and Otgerus in Sint Odiliënberg (near Roermond). In 1887 the pastor of the church sold the apostle reliefs and some other objects found during the renovation works, including several fragments of an ambo,² to the Rijksmuseum.

The apostles are carved in quite high relief. The two figures are depicted frontally and stand under a profiled border bearing their name. James’s head is turned slightly to the right, and he holds an open book in both hands bearing the Latin inscription: AMIC[US] S[AE]C[U]LI HVIUS INIMICUS DEI CO[N]STITVIT[UR] (A friend of the world is the enemy of God [James 4:4]). The way the sculptor tried to reinforce the effect of depth by rendering the top and bottom of the book’s spine in distorted perspective is a striking feature. John’s head is turned slightly to the left and he holds a scroll aloft in his left hand. With his right he points to the Latin words: : DILIGAM[US]. I[N]VICE[M]. Q[U]IA. KARITAS. EX. D[E]O. E[ST] (Let us love one another: for love is of God [1 John 4:7]). John stands on a base of boulders or rocks. In all likelihood James stood on a similar natural base, but this part has been broken off. No traces of polychromy or gilding have been found on the reliefs.

In the past there was no consensus about the original purpose of the reliefs, but the continuous profiled frieze at the top and the securing holes on the reverse mean that they would certainly have been an integral architectural element. Suggestions included part of an altarpiece, a pulpit, elements of a choir screen or ornaments on the church porch.³ However, Den Hartog’s interpretation of the archeological finds in the church convincingly demonstrates that the two reliefs must have decorated the two ambos projecting from the wall of the Romanesque choir screen.⁴

The Centraal Museum in Utrecht has a similar relief, attributed to the same workshop but dated some twenty-five years later.⁵ This relief, which came from the Sint-Janskerk in Utrecht and was probably also part of an ambo, depicts a standing John the Baptist (fig. b). Like the Sint Odiliënberg apostle reliefs it is carved out of carboniferous sandstone, which was quarried chiefly in the region around Maastricht. Stylistically, too, the three reliefs can be associated with Maastricht. There are good parallels for the rigid facial expressions and the way the draperies are rendered in the sculpture made around 1150 for the Sint-Servaaskerk and the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Basiliek in the city.⁶ The sculptors in Maastricht maintained good contacts with their confrères in Northern Italy, which explains certain stylistic similarities.⁷

Bieke van der Mark, 2024