Object data
walnut with polychromy and gilding
height 38 cm × width 13.5 cm × depth 8 cm
Master of Koudewater,
St Dorothy
Northern Brabant, c. 1470
Inscriptions
- label, socle: KU 1213
Technical notes
Carved and polychromed. The reverse is slightly worked. On the top of the head is a hole for the attachment of a (missing) crown.
Scientific examination and reports
- condition report: A. Lorne, December 1995
- condition report: A. Lorne, August 2004
- conservation report: A. Lorne, October 2004
Condition
The crown is missing, as are large parts of the polychromy.
Conservation
- A. Lorne, 2004: several loose wax fillings removed; polychromy consolidated; surface cleaned; minimal retouches applied.
Provenance
? Commissioned by the Bridgettine abbey Mariënwater, Koudewater, near Rosmalen, c. 1480-1520;1 ? transferred to the Bridgettine convent Maria Refugie, Uden, 1713-24;2 from where, with numerous other sculptures (BK-NM-1195 to -1243), fl. 2,000 for all, to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Museum Krona (formerly known as the Museum voor Religieuze Kunst), Uden, inv. no. 4639, since 2005
Object number: BK-NM-1213
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Master of Koudewater (active in northern Brabant c. 1460-80)
The name of convenience ‘Master of Koudewater’ was introduced by Leeuwenberg in 1958 to define the production of a sculptor active in the period 1460-80, whose oeuvre chiefly comprises carved wooden statues of saints formerly originating from two Bridgettine abbeys. The first one, Mariënwater, was located in the northern Brabantine village of Koudewater. In 1460, this ‘mother abbey’ founded a second abbey in the vicinity of Cleves, called Marienbaum. When evicted from their abbey in 1713, the Bridgettine nuns at Mariënwater moved to a convent in the vicinity of Uden, together with all of their possessions. In 1802, when the abbey at Marienbaum was dissolved, a portion of its inventory was likewise transferred to Uden. Facing financial difficulty, the Bridgettine nuns at Uden were ultimately forced to sell off the bulk of their art holdings. In 1875, a large number of saintly statues carved by the Master of Koudewater and followers of his style were subsequently acquired en bloc by the Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, a forerunner of the Rijksmuseum.
There are strong indications that the Master of Koudewater produced statues for both Mariënwater and Marienbaum. Collectively, these works – together with other similar figures produced in the northern part of the Duchy of Brabant – are today known as the ‘Koudewater Group’. The Rijksmuseum holds sixteen of the Koudewater statues in its collection. Based on the shared static but elegant poses, calm facial expressions, and matching drapery schemes characterized by deeply cut folds, however, only six of these works can be securely attributed to the master himself. The remaining ten are likely to have been produced by workshop assistants, pupils or followers of the master’s style.
The centre of the Master of Koudewater’s activity was initially thought to be in the Lower Rhine region. When acknowledging the documented provenance of the works and the stylistic similarity to Brabantine sculpture, however, the northern part of the Duchy of Brabant emerges as the most likely area of production. Attempts have been made to link the master’s carving to the flourishing artistic climate in Den Bosch and even to a documented woodcarver active there, Jan Jansz van Gheervliet.3 Nevertheless, nothing in the Master of Koudewater’s oeuvre suggests a knowledge of the artistic innovation occurring in this northern Brabantine city. On the contrary, it appears he led a rather solitary life. His artistic origin must therefore be sought in monastic surroundings in or near Mariënwater.
Marie Mundigler, 2024
References
G.C.M. van Dijck, ‘De meester van Coudewater opgespoord? Een interessante theorie’, Bossche bladen 3 (2001), pp. 75-77; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, pp. 86-94; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij: Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, pp. 61-64; J. Leeuwenberg in R. van Luttervelt et al., Middeleeuwse kunst der Noordelijke Nederlanden, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1958, pp. 192-93; G. Lemmens and G. de Werd, Beelden uit Brabant: Laatgotische kunst uit het oude hertogdom 1400-1520, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1971, pp. 17-26; J.W. Steyaert et al., Late Gothic Sculpture: The Burgundian Netherlands, exh. cat. Ghent (Museum of Fine Arts) 1994, n. 84; W. Vogelsang, De oude kerkelijke kunst in Nederland: Gedenkboek van de Nationale Tentoonstelling te ’s-Hertogenbosch in 1913, Den Bosch 1914, p. 98
Entry
In 1971 De Werd recognized this small St Dorothy as an autograph work by the so-called Master of Koudewater, an attribution that has found unanimous acceptance.4 The Christian martyr stands on a moulded pedestal and clasps with her left hand her special attribute: a basket of apples and other fruit. This refers to a story in the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend), which relates that shortly before Dorothy’s execution, an angel handed her a basket of blooming roses and apples, even though it was the dead of winter. She sent the basket with its wondrous contents to the scribe Theophilus, who had mockingly told Dorothy, shortly before her execution, that he would convert to Christianity if she sent him flowers and fruit from the heavenly kingdom. The scribe fulfilled his promise and later became a martyr himself.
The Master of Koudewater owes his name of convenience to the fact that most of his statues of saints come from the abbey of Mariënwater in Koudewater, which was dissolved in 1713.5 In 1875 the museum acquired the master’s three core pieces, statues of St Barbara (BK-NM-1195), St Catherine of Alexandria (BK-NM-1196) and St John the Evangelist (BK-NM-1197), – together with a large number of stylistically related statues of saints, as well as this small Dorothy less than 40 centimetres in height – from the direct successor to this abbey, the convent of Maria Refugie in Uden. Given its provenance and format, this statuette probably stood in the cell of a Bridgettine nun, where it was used for private devotion,6 in contrast to the more robust statues by the Master of Koudewater, which would have been intended for the abbey church or the common rooms of the convent.
The statuette probably stems from the same period as the three core works by the Master of Koudewater. Like the two monumental female saints in this group (BK-NM-1195 and BK-NM-1196), Dorothy’s hair style consists of three large curls on either side of her head and a number of long locks of hair falling to her shoulders. Her waist is tightly laced in and her bodice features ribbed pleats. Only her skirts are different: unlike the female saints in the previously mentioned examples, who lift their skirts with one hand, Dorothy lets hers hang, causing the appearance of several vertical folds.
A statuette that is more nearly comparable to Dorothy in format is the figure of a female saint that was sold at auction in Brussels in 1964 as a French work but was likewise recognized by Lemmens and De Werd as an autograph work by the Master of Koudewater.7 A second statuette of almost identical dimensions was with the Amsterdam art dealer Vecht in 1972.8 The head is slightly fuller than Dorothy’s but otherwise displays all the stylistic charateristics of the Master of Koudewater. Koldeweij also linked the statuette to a third saint in this small format, in the Noordbrabants Museum (Den Bosch).9 Although he attributes this sculpture to a follower of the Master of Koudewater and dates it to thirty years later, he does not exclude the possibility that this female saint was later made as a pendant to this Dorothy. This theory seems rather far-fetched and in any case it is not supported by the differing drapery scheme, since the folds in Dorothy’s skirt display a much more vertical orientation.
Bieke van der Mark, 2024
Literature
J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 59, with earlier literature; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Birgitta van Zweden 1303-1373. 600 jaar kunst en cultuur van haar kloosterorde, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1986, no. 68; A.M. Koldeweij (ed.), In Buscoducis 1450-1629. Kunst uit de Bourgondische tijd te ’s-Hertogenbosch. De cultuur van de late middeleeuwen en renaissance, exh. cat. Den Bosch (Noordbrabants Museum) 1990, no. 99; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen, Beelden in de abdij. Middeleeuwse kunst uit het noordelijk deel van het hertogdom Brabant, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1999, no. 11; M. van Vlierden et al., Hout- en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent ca. 1200-1600, coll. cat. Utrecht 2004, p. 214(under construction) European Sculpture
Citation
B. van der Mark, 2024, 'Meester van Koudewater or , St Dorothy, Northern Brabant, c. 1470', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24332
(accessed 20 September 2024 03:27:12).