Virgin and Child, Fragment of a Frieze from a Chimney-Piece

Utrecht, c. 1510 - c. 1520

Object data

Balegem (?) limestone

height 21 cm × width 28 cm

Inscriptions

inscription, on the front, in a modern hand, in black ink: WM.71.

Technical notes

Carved in relief. Although Utrecht mantelpiece friezes are usually carved from Baumberg sandstone, a light clayey stone like Balegem limestone seems more likely here because of the high Rb content and the slightly lower Sr content in the stone.

Scientific examination and reports

X-ray fluorescence spectrometry: B. van Os, Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), 5 October 2015

Condition

The fragment has survived in two pieces. The break runs under the Christ child’s right leg and over his left knee.

Provenance

...; excavated in the garden behind the house of A.C.W. Berns in the Birgittenstraat, Utrecht at the former site of the house of the Brethren of the Common Life, c. 1888;¹...; donated by the heirs of Professor Willem Moll (1812-1879), Amsterdam, to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, 1890;² transferred to the museum, 1898

Object number: BK-NM-11304

The artist

Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head (active in Utrecht c. 1490-1530)

The Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head gets his name from his principal work, a remarkable female stone head in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht.³ The head likely belongs to a statue of the Virgin from an Annunciation group, with a second possibility being a mourning woman from a monumental Entombment group.⁴ The sculpture was first published in 1942 by Leeuwenberg, who then set out to define the master’s oeuvre on stylistic grounds, ultimately resulting in numerous attributions.

By comparing the shape of the head and the treatment of the hair, drapery of her head scarf and facial expression, Leeuwenberg also discerned the anonymous master’s hand in a number of wooden statues, including a St Ursula,⁵ Mary Magdalene,⁶ Salvator Mundi (BK-1964-1) and St Dorothy.⁷ Based on the provenance and chronology of these works, a period of activity in Utrecht from circa 1490 to 1530 was established. The master’s oeuvre was evidently eclectic in nature. In addition to statues of saints, he and his workshop produced altarpieces, epitaphs, chimney friezes (cf. BK-NM-11304) and fireplace bellows (BK-NM-66).

Leeuwenberg also discovered five altarpieces in Norway that were highly reminiscent of the master’s style, resulting in his conclusion that the workshop was large-scale, including the production of artworks destined for the export market.⁸ No tangible evidence exists to support this theory, however, though trading contacts between the Low Countries and Scandinavia via the Hansa make this quite tenable, with carved altarpieces even perhaps ordered in exchange for precious copper. These altarpieces are preserved in churches along the west coast (Hadsel, Röst, Leka, Grip and Örsta).

These export works are often of inferior quality, likely a consequence of the many workshop hands involved in their production along with the various kinds of wood employed in avoiding damage sustained in transit. The practice of carving in different kinds of woods was highly unusual for Utrecht. For this reason, it has been suggested that the Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head obtained his training in Mechelen, i.e. in the vicinity of a major port such as Antwerp, where an export trade would readily have been facilitated.

Marie Mundigler, 2024

References
J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, pp. 68-70; M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, pp. 188-89; M. Leeflang et al., Middeleeuwse beelden uit Utrecht 1430-1530/Mittelalterliche Bildwerke aus Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Museum Catharijneconvent)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2012-13, pp. 76-77, 78-87 and nos. 53-60; M. Leeflang and A. Lorne, ‘Het Stenen Vrouwenkopje, Identiteit gezocht voor vijfhonderd jaar oud Utrechts beeld’, Kunst en Wetenschap 18/3 (2009), pp. 33-4; J. Leeuwenberg in R. van Luttervelt et al., Middeleeuwse kunst der Noordelijke Nederlanden, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1958, pp. 210-15; W. Halsema-Kubes, ‘Een gebeeldhouwde blaasbalg in het Rijksmuseum’, Antiek 3 (1968), pp. 253-57 J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Een nieuw facet aan een Utrechtse beeldhouwkunst’, Oud Holland 70 (1955), pp. 82-95; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Een nieuw facet aan een Utrechtse beeldhouwkunst 2’, Oud Holland 72 (1957), pp. 56-58; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Een nieuw facet aan een Utrechtse beeldhouwkunst 3. Vijf Utrechtse altaarkasten in Noorwegen’, Oud Holland 74 (1959), pp. 79-102; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Die heilige Dorothea und der Meister des Utrechter steinernen Frauenkopfs’, Aachener Kunstblätter 34 (1967), pp. 175-93; J. Leeuwenberg, ‘Vier onbekende Noordnederlandse beeldhouwwerken’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 15 (1967), pp. 54-63

Entry

This relief is one of a group of typical Utrecht carved (fragments of) stone chimney-piece friezes dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.⁹ In other towns these lintels were usually plain or very simply decorated, but in Utrecht they were often elaborately ornamented with figurative reliefs, which were then polychromed. The rise in their popularity was probably prompted by the construction work on Utrecht Cathedral, which was adorned with a great deal of decorative and figurative carving.¹⁰ The chimney-pieces in the larger rooms of mansions sometimes assumed huge proportions. The finest example came from Huis Zoudenbalch in Donkerstraat, Utrecht, but is now in Huize Hiëronymus on Maliesingel in the same city.¹¹ The Centraal Museum in Utrecht has a contemporaneous Utrecht chimney-piece that is likewise still complete.¹² The frieze there is supported on either side by two jambs that go down to the floor.

The present fragment was found in the nineteenth century during excavations on the former site of the house of the Brethren of the Common Life in Utrecht and must have come from one of their chimney-pieces. Utrecht chimney-piece friezes usually contain three medallions with a saint in the centre, flanked by escutcheons that are sometimes held by supporters (shield-bearers). The Virgin appeared most often in the central medallion, as she does in this fragment. Before her, her smiling son sits naked on a cushion. He bends forward and to the left to wash his hands in a bowl, as Pilate would do after Christ was condemned. What remains of the Virgin are part of her cloak, her left hand, a clasp in the shape of a rosette and a few strands of hair. To the right of the medallion there is a small section of gothic blind tracery. This is a characteristic of Utrecht decorative art that was often used on chimney-piece friezes to fill the space between the medallions (cf. BK-NM-3290).

The fragment is stylistically akin to a chimney-piece frieze in the Centraal Museum, which is attributed on good grounds to the workshop of the Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head and dated to around 1510-20.¹³ The central medallion of that frieze contains a Virgin whose hair likewise falls in loose tresses over her shoulders and a son with a similar build whom she touches in very much the same way with the fingertips of her left hand. The blind tracery is also of the same type. Placing the fragment in question in the immediate circle of the Master of the Utrecht Stone Female Head or even in his workshop would consequently seem to be justified.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

Literature

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 35

Citation

B. van der Mark, 2024, ' or circle of Meester van de Utrechtse Stenen Vrouwenkop, Virgin and Child, Fragment of a Frieze from a Chimney-Piece, Utrecht, c. 1510 - c. 1520', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24301

(accessed 20 September 2024 05:45:34).