Object data
oak with polychromy
height 42.8 cm × width 51.8 cm × depth 13.2 cm
anonymous
The Entombment
Northern Netherlands, ? Utrecht, c. 1460 - c. 1480
Technical notes
Carved in relief and polychromed. The reverse is hollowed out. Dendrochronological research provided a tree-ring series with 132 rings, but crossdating with reference chronologies from central, eastern and northern Europe did not produce a reliable dating result.
Scientific examination and reports
- conservation report: A. Truyen (SRAL), RMA, June 1990
- dendrochronology: M. Domínguez Delmás (DendroResearch), RMA, DR_R2023126, 13 November 2023
Condition
The wood is in good condition, although there are some shrinkage cracks. There are some visible cracks in the wood in the figure of Joseph of Arimathea. His veil and possibly his head were replaced on his body with animal glue during an earlier conservation. Part of the woman on the right’s turban is missing. Some original polychromy survives on the faces and hands; the rest is modern.
Conservation
- A. Truyen, SRAL, 1990: loose paint layers stabilized; surface cleaned; losses in the paint layers retouched; oak strip on the bottom replaced with a layer of cork.
Provenance
...; collection A.P. Hermans-Smits (1822-1897), Eindhoven, in or before 1870;1...; from Jonkheer Jan Pieter Six (1824-1899), Amsterdam, fl. 100, at the instigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to the museum, 1891
Object number: BK-NM-9383
Copyright: Public domain
Entry
This Entombment was originally part of an altar, most likely one dedicated to the Passion of Christ. There are no fewer than ten figures in the group. Behind Christ, Mary, hands clasped, bends over her son’s lifeless body. She is supported by St John the Evangelist. To their right are two rather distracted women, probably Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome. The figure to John’s left is probably Simon of Cyrene, with the anonymous woman wearing a turban obliquely behind him. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, at Christ’s head and feet respectively, both – as is usual in scenes of the Entombment – wear elaborately decorated Jewish hats with turned-back peaks and a kerchief hanging down behind, and a dalmatic-style robe over a long-sleeved garment. Over this Joseph of Arimathea also wears a cape, and he has a purse hanging from his belt. Mary Magdalene kneels in the foreground, anointing the body with ointment from the jars beside her.
In the past the Entombment has been variously located in the Lower Rhine region and in the Northern Netherlands.2 Woelk pointed out the likeness to the famous Molsheim reliefs that came from the Charterhouse in Strasbourg.3 According to the latest insights these limewood reliefs were made in Strasbourg around 1480 to a Dutch model, likely a print.4 An Adoration of the Magi in Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht (fig. a) has a virtually identical composition to one of the Molsheim reliefs.5 In terms of the type of wood (oak) and the folds, the Amsterdam altar fragment can better be compared to this group. The distinctly busy and complex folds of the garments that characterize the Molsheim Adoration are considerably more subdued and slightly angular in this Utrecht version, and thus more in accord with those in the present sculpture. The Utrecht Adoration is dated to around 1460 and attributed to a predecessor of the prominent Utrecht master Adriaen van Wesel.6 The similarities between the poses and facial types of the figures in the Amsterdam relief and those of some pipeclay altar fragments, most probably made in Utrecht, such as an Entombment in Museum Catharijneconvent and a Swoon of the Virgin in the Rijksmuseum (BK-1972-156),7 provide additional grounds for attributing the altarpiece group to a Utrecht workshop.8
Bieke van der Mark, 2024
Literature
J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 46, with earlier literature; C. Périer-D’Ieteren and A. Born (eds.), Retables en terre cuite des Pays-Bas (XVe-XVIe siècles). Étude stylistique et technologique, Brussels 1992, p. 69; M. Woelk, Die Bildwerke vom 9. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert aus Stein, Holz und Ton im Hessischen Landesmuseum Darmstadt, coll. cat. Darmstadt 1999, pp. 254-55
Citation
B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, The Entombment, Northern Netherlands, c. 1460 - c. 1480', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.24314
(accessed 22 November 2024 15:42:39).