The Resurrection and the Three Marys at the Sepulchre

Entry

This altarpiece fragment combines two scenes from the Resurrection of Christ. The Resurrection itself is depicted in the foreground, with Christ stepping out of an obliquely placed tomb adorned with medallions, without waking the three sleeping soldiers keeping guard over the tomb. In the background is the event that follows the Resurrection: the three Marys (Mary Magdalene, Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome) coming to the tomb to anoint Christ’s body in the morning of Easter day. Arriving at their destination, the women find an empty grave and an angel, who tells them that Christ has risen. The women and the angel are at the same level, side by side. Two of the Marys hold an ointment jar; the third woman’s head is missing. On the far right the angel sits on the corner of the lid of the tomb. With upraised hand, he appears to be addressing the women. Every element has been finished with the utmost attention to realistic detail. For instance, there are fine veins in relief on the soldiers’ hands.

The group is so closely akin in every respect to an Entombment of virtually the same size in Sint-Martinuskerk in the village of Herk-de-Stad in Belgian Limburg (fig. a) that there can be no doubt that they were successive scenes in the same Passion altarpiece.² The reversed placement of the tombs, which have exactly the same round medallions and mouldings, meant that in the altar the groups would have been each other’s compositional counterparts to the right of the central Crucifixion. Regrettably, nothing is known about the early provenance of the two groups so it cannot simply be assumed that the altar from which they came originally belonged to the Sint-Martinuskerk in Herk-de-Stad.

On the grounds of the stylistic connection with paintings from Utrecht and Holland, such as a Resurrection by the late fifteenth-century Delft Master of the Virgo inter Virgines (active, c. 1475-c. 1510),³ the Northern Netherlandish origin of the group long went unchallenged.⁴

In 1973, however, De Werd connected the Entombment, and by association also the Resurrection in Herk-de-Stad, with a walnut Lamentation ([BK-1974-1](/en/collection/ BK-1974-1/catalogue-entry)) that he believed should be dated slightly earlier.⁵ That altarpiece fragment was purchased by the Rijksmuseum shortly before as Southern Netherlandish work dating from around 1440-50 and is in turn very closely related to a likewise walnut Descent from the Cross in the Bode-Museum in Berlin.⁶ In 1977, with reservations, Didier and Krohm placed these four enigmatic works – which they praised for their personal style, superior quality, expressive powers and restraint – in the central Meuse area on the grounds of the stylistic resonance echoed in the work of the Master(s) of Elsloo, in particular in a Lamentation from around 1520.⁷ They even thought it possible that the four groups were created in the same workshop.⁸ The use of two types of wood in one and the same studio is unusual, however,⁹ and the stylistic similarity between the two pairs is not close enough to justify an attribution to the same workshop, or even the same region. The figures of the men in the walnut groups, for instance, have wrinkles, luxuriantly curling hair and long, curly beards, whereas the foreheads of their oak equivalents are unlined and they have just a slight wave in their hair and beards. The facial type of the women is different, too: the ones in the walnut reliefs have smaller noses and less prominent chins.

The most telling difference between the two pairs is expressed, however, in the dramatic means used and the style of the carving. Where the walnut scenes are characterized by virtuoso pathos and emotional expressions that are typical of the Southern Netherlands, the works in oak, although poignant, are relatively restrained. They also have a direct, narrative manner with a touch of humour,¹⁰ which is generally associated with the Northern Netherlands. The oak groups are also finished much more sharply and smoothly. It is clear from comparison with contemporaneous altarpiece fragments from the Southern Netherlands, also carved from oak, that this is not just a characteristic of the harder type of wood used.¹¹

In 1980, albeit with some reservations, Halsema-Kubes was the first to relocate the oak groups in the Northern Netherlands; she was thinking primarily in terms of Utrecht, at that time the most important centre of woodcarving in the north.¹² In 1990, thirteen years after he had tentatively placed the groups in the central Meuse area, Didier took another position and described the ‘faces and the treatment of the beards and hair as sufficiently characteristic’ to designate the oak groups as early works by Adriaen van Wesel (active in Utrecht c. 1417-in or after 1490) dating from around 1450-60.¹³ Although the attribution to this artist does not convince – the graphic workmanship of the groups does not accord with his more painterly manner, the expressions on the faces of the figures, despite the absence of wrinkles, are rather more serious than his, while their hair is not executed in the wispy fashion typical of Van Wesel (cf. BK-NM-11859) – given the affinity with Van Wesel in conjunction with the type of wood used,¹⁴ a Northern Netherlandish origin (probably in Utrecht) seems the most likely. There are parallels enough to be found in Northern Netherlandish woodcarving of this period for the facial type of the female saints and the angel’s springing curls and diadem,¹⁵ and the Christ type with the short, forked beard (BK-18041, BK-NM-9383 and BK-1964-1).

Despite the differences outlined above, the stylistic parallels that exist between the four walnut and oak groups – such as the similar figure types, Mary Magdalene’s ‘Utrecht’ hair and headdress in the Lamentation and the compressed, relatively crowded composition (more on these aspects at BK-1974-1) – can probably be explained by the artistic exchange between the Southern and Northern Netherlands (particularly between Brabant and Utrecht) that came about as a result of the mobility of both artists and works of art (Utrecht pipeclay sculpture is a case in point). Telling evidence of this includes a seated Virgin and Child, a Virgin on the Crescent Moon and a Virgin Reading a Book from an Annunciation: three oak carvings with Antwerp or Mechelen guild marks whose style unmistakably points towards the Utrecht of Adriaen van Wesel.¹⁶

Bieke van der Mark, 2024