Taking Shape: Sculpture of the Low Countries, c. 1400-1600 is a major contribution to Early Modern sculpture studies, and Early Modern art in the Netherlands more generally. A gathering of eleven essays on particular subjects, some broad, some focused, the book begins with a synthetic introduction to the field of sculpture studies in the period, and concludes with an essay that proposes paths for future studies. As a whole, it directly confronts the idea that sculpture was less important, less present, less impactful, less worthy than painting in the Low Countries in these two centuries, a prejudice that persists in both popular and scholarly approaches even today. Furthermore, the attitude carries forward in perceptions about the art of the seventeenth century and beyond. This book aims to correct these ideas, making the case that sculpture indeed did matter in its time and must matter to us today. Certain broad themes emerge: the rupture caused by Iconoclasm, especially devastating for sculpture, and the underlying religious and social upheaval revealed by it; the previous pervasiveness of sculpture, much lost because of this destruction; the importance of sculpture and sculptors in the broader world of European trade; the materials of sculpture revealing natural resources and sculptors’ flexibility and collaborations with artists working in different media.
The study and appreciation of sculpture in these centuries raises central questions about the roles and networks of artists, the formation of workshops and the production of complex objects, and the function and meaning of objects in the civic, religious, and private lives of people. Materials, trade, commerce, and the export of works from the Netherlands throughout Europe, especially Northern Europe, help to reset understanding of the place of art in general and sculpture in particular in this broader context. This book serves as a primer in the history of sculpture in this period, presents the state of the field, and opens up future avenues for research. It makes a fundamental contribution to the field, and will stand as a primary point of reference. It is enormously useful in practical ways as well: bibliographies accompany each essay, creating an overview of recent research; the many photographs of works both familiar and unknown make the book a source for study, at least through images, of much of the sculpture surviving from this period. Perhaps the one area that might have benefitted from focused attention would have been a survey of the way that sculpture functioned in Catholic settings, in liturgical and devotional practice in both religious settings, including convents, and private homes in the period before iconoclasm.
Ethan Matt Kavaler’s masterful introduction presents a survey of the field, elucidating broad trends and citing specific examples that lay out for the reader issues common to the study of Early Modern sculpture more generally and specific issues for Netherlandish sculpture in the period. It is a particularly welcome introduction for those needing grounding in the field, acknowledged openly here as an area that had long been neglected, sidelined, and underplayed in the study and appreciation of Netherlandish art. The qualities that make sculpture special in the Netherlands also created some of the major problems, above all the loss of works and archives in periods of iconoclasm. The agency, immediacy, undeniable physical presence of sculpture, its power to impact the physical and emotional experience of its viewers, fueled destructive responses to it. Kavaler discusses the tactile reality and performative possibilities inherent in sculpture, as well as modern experience of these works, often in museum settings, where their power is neutralized by barriers, platforms, and cases. The bias of the field of Netherlandish art towards painting and away from sculpture and other works of three-dimensional art is noted. These works are often grouped into museum collections of decorative arts or as part of medieval collections. Kavaler opens up the conversation with explorations of patronage, facture, materials and materiality, networks of production, workshop practice, types and functions of sculpture. Many of the themes he raises will be explored in the essays that make up the heart of the book: the impact of iconoclasm; the emigration of artists from the Netherlands and its impact on local production; the loss of so many works and even types of sculpture, including microarchitecture, exemplified by the sacramental tower, a primary target of the iconoclasts; the export of works throughout Europe, especially altarpieces; major types like tomb sculpture, which emphasizes commemoration and lineage, and small scale works that encourage tactile experience. In short, this essay provides much-needed grounding in the world and experience of Netherlandish sculpture.
The essays are divided into three chapters (Use and Function of Sculpture, Patronage of Sculpture, Production and Workshop) but thematic links unite them across sections as well, as the authors take a wide range of scholarly approaches. The altarpiece and the tomb as sculptural types are the subject of several essays, allowing authors to explore ritual practice, spatial settings, workshop practice, networks of artists, export of works of art, patronage and commemorative practices, and the impact of iconoclasm. The functional nature of many works of sculpture is explored in several essays, expanding of the notion of what sculpture is and what it does, and how it operated in its original settings. Other authors focus on archival materials and primary sources that reveal aspects of the production, commissioning, transport, and material realities of sculpture in the Netherlands, filling in some of the gaps left by destruction and export from the region.
In “Accommodating Altarpieces: The Impact of Circumstantial Factors on the Design of Altar Decorations in Medieval Churches,” Justin Kroesen focuses on the fact that most altarpieces were designed for specific spaces, reflecting the needs and devotions set forth in commissions, along with regional and local criteria. The author presents altarpieces that still survive in situ in places outside the Netherlands, stressing the importance of original contexts, to push back against the museum setting of many surviving works. This helps to recapture the broad reach of exported Netherlandish altarpieces, and calls attention to the fact that so few altarpieces are still in their original locations in the Netherlands, because of iconoclasm.
Douglas Brine’s “Working Sculpture: The Forms and Functions of Netherlandish Brass Lecterns” explores a particular group of functional sculptures, focusing on brass lecterns but calling attention to the prominence of works in shining brass, a number of which remain in their original church settings, where they continue to be used. These “working sculptures” tell the story of how function often clouds the idea of what sculpture is and can be. In museum settings these works might be classified as decorative arts, losing their sculptural context, making them rarely part of the discussion about sculpture in the period. Most exciting is Brine’s discussion of the brilliance of the surfaces of these works, that polish up to a shining gold finish, bringing the material qualities of preciosity and lustre into a discussion of the function, activation, and iconography of these lecterns, which often take the form of eagles. The brilliance of the material enhances the Christological meanings inherent in the subject. Finally, patronage and commemoration emerge as part of the story, fleshed out through the inscriptions on the lecterns. These functional works are shown to be rich subjects for a broad approach, challenging restrictive definitions for what sculpture is.
Wendy Wauters’s chapter, “The Church’s a Stage: Late Medieval Altarpieces as Part of an Ever-Changing Environment,” explores the settings of altarpieces in churches where they interact and participate in a broadly sensory experience for the viewers and devotees. Precious materials and craftsmanship are enhanced by the richness of material splendor around them, providing contexts for altarpieces that included richly colored vestments, textiles, and shining ritual vessels. Thrilling descriptions of the proliferation of textiles and tapestries, some with secular themes, create a sense of what is lost to modern viewers, as church interiors functioned for ceremony and festivities. Altarpieces themselves changed, as wings opened and closed. Restoring these aspects to the way altarpieces are studied and understood, through descriptions and images, and considering other kinds of works like textiles and ritual objects in far-flung collections, is essential for our understanding of this major form of sculpture in the period.
As Julie Beckers demonstrates in “The Stem of a Once Ornate Fountain: The Use of a Table Fountain Fragment at Museum Mayer Van den Bergh in Antwerp,” at the other end of the spectrum, the small-scale functional sculpture also has many stories to tell: here, a fragment of a table fountain expands the notion of what sculpture is and what it can do. A whole range of microarchitecture, including fountains and automata, reveal the interior word of the period, especially in elite and courtly settings, where such works entertained and delighted guests at feasts and celebrations. Though few survive, those that do give a sense of how wonder and the natural world could ignite imagination through ingenious design.
In his chapter titled simply “Patronage,” Jeffrey Chipps Smith presents a lucid survey of his subject, stressing the widespread range of commissions in civic, religious, and domestic settings, while stressing the market for works produced on speculation and for export. City halls provided opportunities to express local civic identity and political power, and guild commissions allowed for individual participation in further shaping images of identity for artists and craftspeople. Tombs and epitaphs conveyed messages about rulership and lineage. Individual collectors commissioned or bought small scale works of sculpture, and decorated gardens with outdoor sculpture and fountains. The devastating impact of iconoclasm and the resulting loss of many works of church furnishings and microarchitecture is made clear through an examination of one splendid surviving sacramental tower.
Ruben Suykerbuyk’s “Noble Expectations of Memorial Sculpture: Commissioning the Jauche Monuments in Brugelette (c. 1527-1573)” focuses on a single commission for tomb monuments for the de Jauche family in Brugelette, exploring the commission and the motivations of a noble family for commemoration and for the spiritual goals of such an endeavor. The importance of such monuments in the religious life of a family is especially welcome, because the ruptures of iconoclasm often put into the shadows the deep spiritual and pious meanings of sculptures in this period. The kneeling positions of the effigies modeled a particular form of worship and prayer, one that was sometimes seen as idolatrous, fueling violence against statuary.
Focusing on “The Chapel Space and Interiority in the Ringsaker Altarpiece,” Lynn F. Jacops takes the reader deep inside an altarpiece with many narrative scenes, exploring the structure of Netherlandish altarpieces produced in great number in Antwerp. Seeing the individual scenes as little chapels, she explores ideas about the interiority of religious experience encouraged by these works, noting how altarpieces themselves opened and closed as their wings were manipulated for particular purposes and occasions. This quality of interior exploration would direct pious interaction with these scenes as imaginative places where affective response could occur. She likens the altarpiece’s potential for engaging the devotee to the experience of looking into the rooms of dolls’ houses, the miniature drawing the viewer into the scenes in particularly intimate ways.
Elizabeth Rice Mattison looks at “Prestige and Display: Noble Patronage of Sculpture in the Low Countries”: the patronage of sculpture by the nobility as a form of self-definition and self-presentation, from private enjoyment, the sharing and gifting of small-scale works of sculpture, to large public demonstrations of lineage and power in tombs and town halls. She explores ways that retrospective styles are grounded in the exploration of noble lineage and how social networks might exist across time though portraiture. The importance of small devotional sculptures in private collections is noted, as is the idea that these works were kept alongside works on secular and ancient themes.
Aleksandra Lipińska explores “Continuity and Discontinuity in the Sculpture Workshop Practice” in a precise and probing analysis that begins in the materials and natural resources that are fundamental to the creation of sculpture. Specialization per force followed availability of materials in the region, with local specializations shifting accordingly. The guild systems and specialization of sculptors followed local criteria as well. The importance of networks and cooperative methods of production give a sense of how sculptors worked in the competitive markets of towns. This contrasts with working patterns for sculptors working in court settings. A fascinating exploration of the various materials available for sculpture, the essay shows how they are linked to environment and carry meaning. The emigration of artists from the Netherlands is noted, as is the fact that by the early seventeenth century, sculpture once again flourished after the break of iconoclasm.
Marjan Debaene’s essay on “The Leuven Connection: A New Look at the Social and Artisanal Network of Leuven Late Gothic Sculptors (c. 1475-1525)”is a poignant and powerful explication of the importance and potential of archival research in this field where much of the material was destroyed by iconoclasm. The archival sources related to the sculptural commissions for the town of Leuven include guild records and judicial records. Documents reveal social and professional networks, family businesses, and the locations of works of sculpture, especially in religious settings. The sculptural scene in this center of production and patronage comes to life through documentary resources.
In “Te maken ende te leveren: The Transport of Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces,” Hannah De Moor also exploits archival materials to elucidate the complexities of travel and transport for the Netherlandish altarpieces that play such a large role in sculpture production of the period and in this collection of essays. The export (and survival) of many altarpieces across Europe outside the Netherlands left an archival trail of the practicalities and challenges of this business. The types of commissions, costs, artists’ involvement in the installation of altarpieces, conditions of contracts and perils of travel for sculptures give a real sense of the lives of these objects in their own time.
The “Epilogue: Seeing Sculpture” by Stephanie Porras takes a broad view of the field, again stressing the importance of sculpture and the expansion of the possibilities for what sculpture was in the period, which the essays in the book explored. She presents an inspiring view of the ways that Netherlandish sculpture studies can develop and grow, carrying the field of early modern art beyond current boundaries and expectations. The functions and materiality of some sculptures allow for different narratives, as does their portability and tactility, making it possible to explore physical interaction with sculpture in different ways, giving the objects particular agency. She stresses that these very qualities, of presence and power, led to iconoclasm. Finally, Porras follows the theme of export to its widest range, noting that the travel of sculpted objects to the Baltic Sea, the Spanish Americas, and the Philippines led to particular interactions with their local settings. In and for all these places, new avenues for scholarship open up. From its local roots in Gothic traditions to its expansion throughout the Early Modern world, the impact of Netherlandish sculpture finally can take its central role in scholarship and appreciation. This book as a whole goes a long way towards this goal.