Virgin and Child

Entry

This Virgin and Child can be seen as a courtly and more monumental version of the characteristic Madonna-and-Child type produced in large numbers for private devotion in the city of Mechelen during the early decades of the sixteenth century. These so-called poupées de Malines, carved in oak or walnut and diminutive in size, share numerous characteristics such as round doll-like faces with high foreheads, pointed jeans, fine mouths, and sickle-shaped eyes. They wear richly varied, decorative clothing. They are also accompanied by an active Christ Child and a variety of attributes. The present sculpture of Mary displays most of these characteristics, albeit executed with much greater refinement and in the costly material alabaster.

The complex and highly linear scheme of the drapery folds on this Madonna statuette is commonly encountered around the year 1500 both in Mechelen and elsewhere in the Southern Netherlands. In this case, however, it is applied far more exuberantly and with a more complex, graphic quality compared to most of the sculptures produced in Mechelen.⁵ The sculptor employed ‘waterfalls’ of sharp zigzag folds, thus creating small triangular areas of shadow, that alternate with vertical folds that gently descend on the reverse and the left side. The ornamental pattern on the hem consists of a single carved band with a winding leaf tendril of alternating palmettes. A less elaborate decoration in sgraffito regularly adorns the polychromed poupées de Malines, but the clearest parallels are found on a number of Antwerp retable sculptures from around 1520-30, and on the hem of the archangel Gabriel’s cloak in a Brussels Annunciation of circa 1500-10.⁶

The statuette’s refined and luxurious execution is also manifest in the elaborate and consistent detailing. This applies to the aforementioned palmette motif adorning the hem of Mary’s raiment – carved in relief and subsequently gilded, though now abraded in sections – but also the subtle suggestion of her undergarment’s sleeves and the detailed finishing of the eye pupils, the eyelids and individual strands of hair. Beneath Mary’s alabaster skin, one can discern the collarbone and the tensed muscles of the neck. Traces of an original polychromy and gilding indicate the alabaster was enhanced by the application of subtle colour accents, likewise contributing to the statuette’s sumptuous appearance: a green earthly base, red and/or golden apples in Christ’s basket, and the gilt ornamental borders lining Mary’s mantle and dress. Such a colour scheme may perhaps convey an applied standard of alabaster polychroming that existed in north-western Europe – a standard that fully preserved the inherent qualities of the costly stone, while facilitating a certain striving towards naturalism.⁷

A notable characteristic of the Mechelen poupées is the variation in the positioning and activity of the Christ Child, who, for instance, plays with Mary’s collar, or holds an apple, a pear, grapes, a book or rosary, all attributes drawn from the devotional literature that was popular at this time.⁸ Yet the motif of Christ holding a small basket of apples – from which he takes one and gives it to his mother – is, as far as can be ascertained, unique in late medieval sculpture. In a small group of the Virgin and Child with St Anne (so-called Anna-te-Drieën) from Mechelen (c. 1520), the Christ Child plays with a small beehive, held in front of him by his grandmother.⁹ More similar to the present alabaster is a wooden Madonna and Child (c. 1500-25) regionally attributed to the Northern Netherlands. Here Mary holds a round wicker basket, from which the child, who sits on her arm, takes a piece of fruit.¹⁰

A basket with apples in connection with Christ and his mother also occurs as an independent motif in Netherlandish sculpture and painting from this period. An early example is the marginal decoration of a miniature accompanying the Office of the Death in the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, painted around 1440.¹¹ In Geertgen tot Sint Jan’s The Holy Kinship, a painted panel in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-500), a wicker basket with apples rests at Anne’s feet. Pinched between thumb and finger, she holds one of the fruits by its stem (fig. a). Two paintings by Colyn de Coter (c. 1450/55-1522/32) show an angel offering a small basket of fruit or flowers to Mary and her son.¹²

In the context of the Virgin and Christ, the apple’s meaning can be interpreted as a reference to Eve and the forbidden fruit, which through Mary’s purity regains its positive status as the apple of mercy.¹³ This aspect is depicted quite literally in an alabaster Madonna in Cracow, dated circa 1400 and likely of German origin. The Christ Child offers his mother an apple, which he has picked from the Tree of Paradise standing beside her. The same tree also signifies the cross on which Christ is later crucified.¹⁴ Here Christ and Mary are depicted as the ‘new Adam’ and the ‘new Eve’, i.e. as instruments in Salvation history.¹⁵ In the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, they appear in the same capacity, with Eve and the Virgin and Child standing on either side of the tree. Above the tree, an angel holds a scroll bearing the Latin inscription: Eve cause of sin, Mary cause of merit.¹⁶

On one level, this Madonna is stylistically in line with developments in Brussels in the late fifteenth century. A number of Madonnas soundly linked to the sculptural production of that city radiate the same courtly refinement and elegance observable in the alabaster Virgin and Child, and also share the long, slender neck, the doll-like face with its high forehead, and delicate, sickle-shaped eyes and mouth. Two figures are attributed to Jan Borman II (both depicting Mary Magdalene),¹⁷ but also anonymous works, including two seated Madonnas with Child;¹⁸ and a standing Virgin and Child in the Rijksmuseum (BK-2011-2).¹⁹ This Brussels type is perhaps the direct precursor (or model?) of the more serial production of poupées in Mechelen.

At the same time, however, a stylistic connection exists between the present alabaster and the sculptural production of a group of Flemish alabaster-carvers hired to work on the monumental tombs of Philibert II of Savoy, Margaret of Bourbon (his mother) and Margaret of Austria (his wife) in the church of the Monastère royal de Brou in Bourg-en-Bresse (France).²⁰ Initially, the work carried out on these monuments, which began around 1517, was chiefly a Flemish enterprise, with Jean Perréal (c. 1455/60-1530)²¹ and Jan van Roome (active 1498-1521) as the designers, and Lodewijk van Bodeghem (c. 1470-c. 1540) as contractor/project manager. Known are the names of various sculptors involved in the project, including Gillis van Belle (active c. 1500-25) and Jan van Loven or Leuven (active c. 1500-25). Unclear, however, is the exact contribution of these men in respect to the sculpture produced during this first project phase.²² Alabaster statues of the Virtues that adorn both Philibert’s tomb (e.g. fig. b)²³ and the Retable of the Seven Joys of the Virgin, both in the church of the Monastère royal de Brou, possess drapery folds that are strikingly similar to those of the Amsterdam alabaster Madonna.²⁴ In style, the sculpture could very well have preceded the alabaster sculpture adorning these works. Besides the agreement in the treatment of the drapery, other shared similarities with the Virtues include the dimensions, the positioning of the foot and the base. One clear deviation, however, is the physiognomic type of the Virgin. Lodewijk van Boghem is also linked to the alabaster tomb monument of Henri van Witthem (d. 1515) and his wife, Isabelle de Spout (d. 1503), in the Sint-Lambertuskerk in Beersel. Notwithstanding differences in scale and pose, these effigies display clear parallels to the Rijksmuseum Virgin. The drapery folds of the recumbent female figure are also similar to those of the Madonna, whose hair, in turn, is treated in a manner highly comparable to that of the male effigy.²⁵ Lastly, a striking agreement can be observed when comparing the face of the Christ Child to that of a Christ in an alabaster house altar dating from the second quarter of the sixteenth century. Today preserved in Brussels, this example of Mechelen alabaster was produced under Jean Mone’s (c. 1485-?1554) immediate sphere of influence.²⁶

These stylistic similarities legitimize an attribution of the Amsterdam alabaster to an alabaster-carver working in Lodewijk van Boghem’s team for the project at Brou during the second decade of the sixteenth century. These sculptors were presumably recruited from various Flemish cities, individuals who perhaps also worked on behalf of or in close proximity to Margaret of Austria’s court in Mechelen. Such artists were ideal candidates for executing sculpture in the elegant courtly style – a style rooted in the spirit of late fifteenth-century Brabantine sculpture. The alabaster Madonna’s exquisite quality also suggests it was made for a patron circulating in the highest circles.²⁷ A regional attribution in Mechelen is likewise affirmed by the alabaster’s height (55.8 cm), virtually the exact equivalent of two Mechelen feet (2 x 27.8 cm). In this sense, the sculpture marks the onset of the cleynstekers tradition, which later evolved into a veritable industry of renaissance alabaster sculpture primarily in the second half of the sixteenth century.

Frits Scholten, 2024