Joseph with Three Musician Angels, from a Nativity

Entry

In the spring of 1475 the Utrecht sculptor Adriaen van Wesel was commissioned to make a new altar for the chapel of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady in the Sint-Janskathedraal in Den Bosch. Thanks to surviving minutes and account books of the Brotherhood an unusual amount is known about this ‘Vrouwentaeffel’ and its creation.¹² We know, for instance, that Van Wesel had completed the carving in the spring of 1477 and that he transported the altar unpainted and in pieces to Den Bosch by water. It was another fourteen years before enough money had been raised to apply the now largely lost polychromy to the sculptures. This was done between 1508 and 1510. In the meantime two, now lost shutters had been added, their exteriors painted by the renowned artist Jheronimus Bosch (c. 1450-1516).¹³

Although Den Bosch Cathedral did not escape the Iconoclasm of 1566, the Marian altar survived unscathed because the Brotherhood’s chapel was guarded by soldiers day and night for six days. It was then dismantled and taken to safety elsewhere. When order was restored the ensemble was replaced in the chapel in 1567. It probably remained there until 1629, the year Den Bosch became Protestant. The Brotherhood’s accounts for the 1629 to 1642 period are missing, so it is not entirely clear what happened to the altar during that time. It was probably stored in the Confraternity House in Hinthamerstraat and disposed of in pieces at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Only two groups and their original caisses remain in the Brotherhood’s possession and can be traced back to Van Wesel’s Den Bosch Marian altar with absolute certainty: Emperor Augustus with the Tiburtine Sibyl (fig. a) and St John on Patmos (fig. b).¹⁴

Around 1900 four fragments with Marian iconography surfaced in and around Den Bosch; it was later possible to attribute them to Adriaen van Wesel and they were linked to the Brotherhood’s altar in the cathedral. All of them are now in the Rijksmuseum: Joseph with Three Musician Angels (BK-NM-11647), Kneeling Virgin (BK-NM-11713), The Visitation (BK-NM-11394) and The Death of the Virgin (BK-NM-11859). Another eight fragments that have been linked to the same altarpiece were later found elsewhere, one of which (The Meeting of the Magi) was acquired by the Rijksmuseum (BK-1977-134-A).¹⁵ There is, though, no incontrovertible evidence of this provenance, and it has to be borne in mind that Van Wesel made at least two other Marian altars based on it: the high altar for the Mariakerk in Utrecht and the high altar for the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft.¹⁶ The chance of fragments of those altarpieces surviving is many times smaller than the survival chances of elements of the Den Bosch altar, protected as it was from the Iconoclasm. The Marian altar in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft was most likely destroyed in a fire in the church in 1525. The Utrecht altar must have perished during one of the three outbreaks of the Iconoclasm that the city suffered – in 1566, 1579 and 1580.¹⁷

Another argument supporting a Den Bosch provenance of a number of the altar fragments that have been analyzed in terms of materials and dendrochronology is that the oak used is very similar to that of the two groups still with the Brotherhood, so it can be said with considerable certainty that these pieces came from the altar commissioned by them.¹⁸

The incomplete and scattered state of the Marian altar notwithstanding, it can be regarded as an undisputed high point in the history of late-medieval sculpture in the Northern Netherlands. The elements that are now known, whole or fragmentary, give us the following Marian cycle: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Death of the Virgin, Emperor Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl, St John on Patmos and, lastly, the Tree of Jesse. Because only some of the elements of the altar have survived and there are no other indications, it is impossible to establish the original placement of all the fragments that have been found, although a partial reconstruction has been made (fig. c),¹⁹ from which it appears that the altar must have been an inverted T shape, with a maximum width of something over three metres. As Leeuwenberg had already observed,²⁰ the Brotherhood’s two caisses were attached with hinges to the raised part of the central section, forming wings with which it could be closed.

In all probability the fragment of Joseph with Three Musician Angels and the Kneeling Virgin (BK-NM-11713) were part of the Nativity scene on the altar.²¹ The two figures were together in Van den Bogaerde’s famous collection, which was held and exhibited in Heeswijk Castle near Den Bosch. They were purchased by the museum at one of the sales of this collection in 1901.

Mary, Joseph and the angels turn towards the place where the newborn baby lay. In its spontaneity, originality and style the small group of Joseph and the angels displays all the characteristics of Van Wesel’s technique. Mouth open as if he is singing, the angel at the front plays the double row of keys on his clavichord.²² The angel behind him plays the lute as he leans forward curiously. The angel beside him holds a viol against his shoulder and probably had a bow in his missing right hand. All the instruments have been rendered with a striking eye for detail. The figures have Van Wesel’s typical heavy, wig-like hair, small mouths with delicate chins and distinctive almond-shaped eyes, with the slightly swollen lower lid emphasized. The sweet faces of the music-making angels are echoed in the face of the angel in the St John on Patmos group (fig. b). The quite complex, stylised draperies with the shallow, flat folds that Van Wesel liked to use occur in the group, particularly where the robes touch the ground.

One remarkable aspect of the composition is that Joseph is not, as was customary, placed with his wife and child. He is shown as an onlooker kneeling behind the group of angel musicians. It is from this spot that he watches events with serious concern. He wears a long, wide travelling cloak. He holds his right hand above his head to remove some form of head covering, now lost,²³ or as a gesture expressing surprise.²⁴ The figure of Joseph has been identified as a shepherd in the past.²⁵ This is not, however, an obvious interpretation, since such figures are usually portrayed as folk types dressed in a short coat.²⁶

In the late Middle Ages, Nativity scenes almost always included a number of angels. However, they were either positioned apart from the main figures, or between them but proportionately smaller.²⁷ The way he integrated the figure of Joseph almost as an equal into the little group of musician angels is highly innovative, reflecting the tendency towards iconographic innovation that is regarded as an important characteristic of Adriaen van Wesel’s art.²⁸

Bieke van der Mark, 2024