Object data
oil on panel
support: height 182 cm × width 143 cm
Master of Rhenen
The conquest of Rhenen by John II of Cleves in 1499
Northern Netherlands, c. 1499 - c. 1525
Inscriptions
- inscription, lower sill of the frame: Die inneeminghe van reenen geschiedt int jaer anno 1499
Technical notes
The support consists of five horizontally grained oak planks (35, 27, 28.5, 26 and 26.5 cm), approx. 1.0-1.5 cm thick. The panel is fixed in the original frame. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring of the panels was formed in 1479. The panel could have been ready for use by 1490, but a date in or after 1504 is more likely. The white ground was probably applied when the panel was in the frame, as there is a barbe and the frame covers the unpainted edges. No underdrawing is visible with the naked eye. Infrared reflectography only reveals an underdrawing here and there. It consists of lines and hatchings, mainly in the foreground figures, probably in a wet medium. There are also minor alterations, one being the chinstrap of the soldier immediately to the left of the drawbridge, which was underdrawn but not executed in paint. There are also a few lines visible in the architecture.
Scientific examination and reports
- infrared reflectography: J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer, RKD, nos. AB 1169:23-24, 18 June 1990
- condition report: E. Smeenk-Metz, RMA, 12 February 2007
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 20 March 2007
- infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / M. Leeflang [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG503, 10 January 2008
Condition
Fair. The paint layer is abraded and there is locally lifting but stable paint and discoloured retouching along the joins, edges and over several abraded areas. The thick varnish was applied in the frame and is heavily discoloured and rather matte.
Conservation
- A. Levolger, 1898: complete restoration
- H.H. Mertens, 1937: complete restoration; overpainting removed
- C.H. Jenner, 1937
- C. Naud, August 1981: loose paint refixed; revarnished
- M. Bijl, 1982: loose paint fixed
Original framing
The panel is mounted in a stripped late-medieval oak frame. The cross-section of the profile is simple and shows a wide tenia, an asymmetric ogee followed by a bead along the sight edge (fig. a). The sill has a wide bevelled sight edge (fig. b). The frame has an open rebate and is constructed with mitred mortise and tenon joints secured with dowels. There are traces of red paint and a text with Gothic script in off-white paint on the sill, both of which are probably not original.
Provenance
? Commissioned by the Guild of St Cunera for the Cunerakerk, Rhenen;1 …; Town Hall, Rhenen;2 donated by the Municipality of Rhenen to the museum, as Dutch school, early 16th century, 1898; on loan to the Museum Het Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, 1999-2007
Object number: SK-A-1727
Credit line: Gift of the Rhenen Council
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Master of Rhenen (active in the northern Netherlands c. 1490-1520)
This northern Netherlandish master takes his name from the painting ‘The conquest of Rhenen by John II of Cleves in 1499’ (SK-A-1727). In 1934, after the purchase of the panels with the scenes from the life of St Elizabeth and ‘The St Elizabeth’s Day flood’ (SK-A-3145, SK-A-3146, SK-A-3147-A, SK-A-3147-B), Schmidt-Degener noted similarities between them and this work. The artist was accordingly identified with the Master of the St Elizabeth Panels for a long time, and sometimes went under that name or that of the Master of Rhenen. Both names continued to refer to the same artist until Buijsen demonstrated convincingly in 1988 that in fact they were two different painters. Partly on the basis of a ‘Christ shown to the people’, which is also attributed to the Master of Rhenen,3 he itemised the characteristics that clearly differ from those associated with the Master of the St Elizabeth Panels.
References
Schmidt-Degener 1934, p. 19; Buijsen 1988; Van der Sterre in Turner 1996, XX, pp. 754-55
(Margreet Wolters)
Entry
This painting shows how the town of Rhenen was captured by the army of John II of Cleves on 8 July 1499. The depiction of the town is fairly accurate. Soldiers from the Great Guard, chiefly German mercenaries, are storming the Utrecht Gate in the foreground. The attackers have forced their way into the town through the Berg Gate in the background and are plundering and setting fire to the buildings.4 In the right middleground is the Church of St Cunera with one of its walls left open to provide a view of the saint’s tomb with her effigy on it, which was a famous place of pilgrimage. Rhenen was the main centre of veneration of St Cunera, who was one of the 11,000 virgins who accompanied St Ursula on her pilgrimage. They were massacred in Cologne in 337, and Cunera was the only who escaped, being rescued by Radboud, the lord of Rhenen, who took her to his palace. His wife, however, became jealous, and strangled the pious Cunera with the saint’s own scarf. In the top left background of this painting is Cunera Hill with the chapel built over her grave before her bones were moved to the church.5
‘The conquest of Rhenen’ also illustrates two miracles which are described in a 16th-century booklet about the life of St Cunera.6 One was an event that took place during the first siege of the town in 1483. A citizen called Willem Hac, who was attacked by an enemy with a knife while on his way to church, called on St Cunera, who saved him, forcing the attacker’s knife to turn around in his hand three times. This is depicted just inside the town walls, where the man’s twisted knife is clearly visible. The other miracle occurred during this capture of Rhenen in 1499. During the looting of the Church of St Cunera, two mercenaries who were digging up the floor in search of valuables were buried under a gravestone by St Cunera herself. The mercenaries were then ordered to stop plundering on hallowed ground, and the saint’s tomb was spared. This is shown to the right of the tomb, where a man is standing in an opened grave.7
There is an inscription on the original frame around the panel that identifies the scene as the capture of Rhenen in 1499, but there are doubts about the authenticity of that date.8 It was for that reason that Hoogewerff assumed that the panel depicts the earlier capture of the town by Engelbert of Cleves in 1483. However, the fact that the painting shows a miracle that took place in 1499, together with the clear depiction of the town being torched, makes it likely that this is the conquest of 1499.9 So the painting was not made before 1499, and this is confirmed by the dendrochronology, which gives a date of shortly after 1500.10
It is exceptional that a painting of this period should record such a recent event.11 A comparable one is the depiction of the St Elizabeth’s Day flood (SK-A-3147-A and SK-A-3147-B), although in that case a far longer interval had elapsed. It is now also clear that both works cannot be attributed to the same artist, as was previously thought.12 For one thing, the underdrawings in both paintings are very different in nature. In contrast to the clear line drawing on the St Elizabeth panels (also including SK-A-3145 and SK-A-3146), which were laid down very freely in paint, there is barely any underdrawing at all in ‘The conquest of Rhenen’. The little that there is contains hatchings, which are strikingly absent on the St Elizabeth panels.
This painting, which is so closely associated with Rhenen, was undoubtedly made for the town, and could have been commissioned by the church or the town authorities. Another possible candidate is the Guild of St Cunera, a religious body which met twice a week at its altar in the church. Since the miracle that spared St Cunera’s shrine is shown in the middle of the painting, it is very possible that the panel was the altarpiece in the church.13
‘The conquest of Rhenen’ was kept in the old town hall of Rhenen until it was transferred to the Rijksmuseum in exchange for a state contribution towards the rebuilding of the church tower, which had been destroyed by fire. One reason was that the painting was in ‘a pitiful condition’ and would be better conserved in a ‘state collection’. A full-scale copy made for Rhenen at the time is still in the old town hall there.14
MW
Literature
Van Riemsdijk 1899, pp. 11-13; Hoogewerff I, 1936, pp. 508-09; Boschma 1961, p. 91; Deelen 1967; Buijsen 1988; coll. cat. Utrecht 2002, pp. 74-75, with earlier literature; Dijkstra in coll. cat. Utrecht 2003, pp. 66-68, no. 13
Collection catalogues
1903, p. 8, no. 60 (as Dutch school); 1934, p. 8, no. 60; 1960, p. 198, no. 1538R1 (as Master of Rhenen, sometimes also called the Master of the Elizabeth Panels, The siege of the town Rhenen by Engelbert of Cleves, governor of the bishopric Utrecht, 14th February 1483 ?); 1976, p. 633, no. A 1727 (as Master of the Elizabeth Panels)
Citation
M. Wolters, 2010, 'Meester van Rhenen, The conquest of Rhenen by John II of Cleves in 1499, Northern Netherlands, c. 1499 - c. 1525', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.7482
(accessed 29 March 2025 22:40:41).Figures
Footnotes
- 1 Deelen 1967, p. 93.
- 2 Note RMA.
- 3 Formerly The Hague, Galerie Hoogsteder; illustrated in Buijsen 1988, p. 135, fig. 2.
- 4 Boschma 1961, pp. 91-92; Dijkstra in coll. cat. Utrecht 2003, pp. 66-68, no. 13; see Kemperink 1958 for the Great Guard and a description of the capture of Rhenen.
- 5 See Dijkstra in coll. cat. Utrecht 2003, pp. 66-68, no. 13; Van Buuren 1997; Staal 2000, pp. 164-65, 172-73. St Cunera is also depicted on the right wing of the triptych by the Master of Delft (SK-A-3141).
- 6 Combrink 1988, pp. 24-25.
- 7 Deelen 1967, p. 91; Dijkstra in coll. cat. Utrecht 2003, p. 66.
- 8 Van Riemsdijk 1899, p. 10, thought that it was a 17th-century Gothic letter, while Dijkstra in coll. cat. Utrecht 2003, p. 68, note 1, says that there are traces of an earlier inscription under the present one.
- 9 See Hoogewerff I, 1936, pp. 508-09; coll. cat. 1960, pp. 198-99, no. 1538R1; Deelen 1967, p. 91; Combrink 1988, p. 25.
- 10 See Technical notes.
- 11 See Dijkstra in coll. cat. Utrecht 2003, p. 68.
- 12 See the biography.
- 13 Deelen 1967, p. 93; see also Dijkstra in coll. cat. Utrecht 2003, p. 68.
- 14 Van Riemsdijk 1899, p. 10.