Object data
oak
height 40 cm × width 39 cm × depth 14 cm
anonymous
The Last Supper, from a Passion Retable
Northern Netherlands, c. 1515 - c. 1520
Technical notes
Carved and originally polychromed. The reverse is flat. This scene, together with Agony in the Garden (BK-NM-1228), belonged to the same Passion retable.
Condition
Christ’s right hand, the head and right hand of the apostle standing on his right, and Peter’s right hand are missing. Judas’s entire face, Christ’s nose, as well as parts of the chairs and the ornamentation on the sides and at the bottom corners left and right have been replaced. The polychromy has been removed.
Provenance
…; ? Bridgettine abbey Mariënwater, Koudewater (near Rosmalen), date unknown;1 ? transferred to the Bridgettine convent Maria Refugie, Uden, 1713-24;2 from which to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, with numerous other sculptures (BK-NM-1195 to -1243), fl. 2,000 for all, 1875; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Museum Krona (formerly known as the Museum voor Religieuze Kunst), Uden, inv. no. 0028, since 1973
Object number: BK-NM-1229
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
This retable group belongs to a group of more or less similar scenes of the Last Supper from the Low Countries, with the apostles seated around a square table on various types of chairs, benches and stools.3 Most of these images are ultimately derived from the Altarpiece of the Holy Sacrament (1464-68) by the painter Dieric Bouts (c. 1410/20-d. 1475) in the Sint-Pieterskerk at Leuven, with the emphasis placed on the Eucharist as Christ is depicted blessing the Host. The present scene, by contrast, centres on the moment when Christ announces he is to be betrayed, with St John subsequently leaning against his breast (John 13:20-25). The betrayer, Judas, can be identified by his money satchel, a reference to the thirty silver pieces he receives as remuneration for his betrayal. A comparable example previously held in the former Goldschmidt Collection (Eindhoven), superior in its execution and possibly originating from Utrecht, depicts the very same moment.4 For the present group, the broader designation ‘Northern Netherlands’ applies.
Another group preserved in the Rijksmuseum, the Agony in the Garden (BK-NM-1228), not only shares the same provenance as the present work but also certainly comes from the same altarpiece. Undoubtedly centring on the theme of Christ’s Passion, this retable was probably originally in the possession of the double abbey Mariënwater in the northern Brabantine village of Koudewater, the former residence of the Bridgettine nuns inhabiting the convent of Maria Refugie in Uden that sold these reliefs to the Rijksmuseum in 1875. On the basis of the distinct grouping of the figures, the gently falling folds of the robes and the rather thickset bodies, these retable groups can be localized in the Northern Netherlands. This may suggest that the inhabitants of the former double abbey also commissioned works from workshops beyond the borders of Brabant. As Van Liebergen suggests, one must also acknowledge the possibility that this Passion retable may initially have belonged to a daughter abbey located farther to the north that was dissolved during the Reformation, with its possessions subsequently transferred to the abbey in Koudewater or directly to the convent in Uden at a later time.5
Bieke van der Mark, 2024
Literature
J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 091a, 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. 58; 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. 81; A.C. Oellers, D. Preising, U. Schneider et al., In gotischer Gesellschaft: Spätmittelalterliche Skulpturen aus einer niederländischen Privatsammlung, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 1998, p. 118
Citation
B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, The Last Supper, from a Passion Retable, Northern Netherlands, c. 1515 - 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.24365
(accessed 13 November 2024 01:49:25).