5th Annual Ards Scholar’s day Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht Nov. 15-Nov 16 2018

1. Made for liturgy and permanent veneration:
a Christ in tomb and an Entombment group
in the Louvain M Museum
Raf Verstegen
Em. prof. KU Leuven

2. Christ in the tomb
Brabant / ca 1500 / oak
Great Beguinage Louvain
M Museum Louvain (Loan OCMW Louvain)
© M - Museum Leuven foto Paul Laes

5. Christ in the tomb
Brabant / ca 1500 / oak
St Genoveva church Oplinter
M Museum Louvain (Loan OCMW Louvain)
© M - Museum Leuven, foto Paul Laes

6. Christ in the tomb
Brabant / Bartel van Kessel / ca 1500
Sint Sulpiciuskerk Diest

7. Dode Christus op de grafsteen
Mechels atelier / 1604
Sint Sulpiciuskerk Diest

8. Niche in the church of the Great Beguinage in Louvain
Background: The tree Mary’s, painting, XVIIth century

9. I. Christ in the tomb
1. The sculpture of Christ in the tomb
- in fact death Christ (upon the tombstone) –
is very popular in the Netherlands around 1500.
2. Accessible for veneration and prayers, the whole year round
first function of these sculptures: Andachtsbild
3. Used in Good Friday liturgy
Adoratio crucis
crux gemmata
cross with movable arms / descent of the cross
a Christ in the tomb sculpture near the altar
processional entombment

10. Corpse of the death Christ
North Brabant / beginning XVIth century/ oak
Loan Birgittines Uden
Museum voor religieuze kunst / Uden

11. I. Christ in the tomb
1. Sculptures of Christ in the tomb
2. Accessible for veneration the year round (Andachtsbild)
3. Used in Good Friday liturgy
4. Made for Good Friday liturgy
Procession to the tomb
- on a litter
- in a shroud: Christ in the tomb / Great Beguinage

12. Christ in the tomb
Brabant / ca 1500 / oak
Great Beguinage Louvain
M Museum Louvain (Loan OCMW Louvain)
© M - Museum Leuven foto Paul Laes

14. I. Christ in the tomb
1. Sculptures of Christ in the tomb
2. Accessible for veneration the year round (Andachtsbild)
3. Used in Good Friday liturgy
4. Made for Good Friday liturgy
Procession to the tomb / in a shroud
Context: popular in drawings and paintings
(end XVth beginning XVIth century)
- follower of Rogier van der Weyden
- Rafaël 1507
- Dürer 1521
- Andrea Mantegna 1470-1475
- Follower Mantegna 1475-1500

15. The entombment
Follower of Mantegna /
Bernardo Parentino ?
Oil on panel /
1475-1500
Bonnefantenmuseum
Maastricht

17. Christ in the tomb
Nether Rhine / Oak / ca 1500
Museum Catharijneconvent
(M. Van Vlierden, Hout- en steensculptuur, 328-329)

18. Christ in the tomb
Nether Rhine / Oak / ca 1500
Museum Catharijneconvent
(M. Van Vlierden, Hout- en steensculptuur, 328-329)

19. Entombment group / Christ
Louvain ? Oak ca 1500-1525
Church of St Jacques Louvain
Loan M Museum Louvain
© www.lukasweb.be - Art in Flanders vzw, foto Dominique Provost

20. Entombment group / Christ
Louvain ? Oak ca 1500-1525
Parish of St Jacques Louvain
Loan M Museum Louvain
© www.lukasweb.be - Art in Flanders vzw,
foto Dominique Provost

21. Entombment group / Christ
detail
Louvain ? Oak ca 1500-1525
Church of St Jacques Louvain
Loan M Museum Louvain
© www.lukasweb.be - Art in Flanders vzw,
foto Dominique Provost

23. I. Christ in the tomb
1. Sculptures of Christ in the tomb
2. Accessible for veneration the year round (Andachtsbild)
3. Used in Good Friday liturgy
4. Made for Good Friday liturgy
Procession to the tomb /carrying in a shroud
5. A standing position for a lying Christ
a ‘democratic’ “Descent of the cross”?
6. Conclusions

24. I. Christ in the tomb Conclusions
1. The lying Christ sculpture, popular in the Netherlands around 1500,
had a double function:
a. veneration and processional entombment of Christ in the
context of the Good Friday liturgy
b. permanent object of veneration of the Crucified in a niche or
chapel in the church
2. Nearly all these sculptures were conceived and designed
with regard to permanent veneration.
- A remarkable exception in the Louvain Beguinage:
designed for actual use in liturgy:
a processional transfer to the tomb in a shroud.
- I suggest that the position of the feet and a ring in the back of some
sculptures also refer to actual use in Good Friday liturgy.

25. Entombment group
Louvain ? / Oak / ca 1500-1525
Church of St Jacques Louvain
Loan M Museum Louvain
© www.lukasweb.be - Art in Flanders vzw, foto Dominique Provost

26. Entombment group / Louvain ? / Oak / ca 1500-1525
Restauration J. Vereecke, report 31.10. 1998

27. Entombment group
mid 15th century / stone
Church of St Matthew / Salers (Cantal) (Martin, 280)

28. Entombment group
Louvain ? / Oak / ca 1500-1525
Church of St Jacques Louvain
Loan M Museum Louvain
© www.lukasweb.be - Art in Flanders vzw, foto Dominique Provost

29. Entombment group
detail
Nicodemus

31. I. Christ in the tomb
II. An entombment group
1. In the (technical) tradition of the altarpieces
- from altarpiece to separate sculpture groups and
sculptures
Michel MARTIN,
La Statuaire de la Mise au Tombeau du Christ des
XVe et XVIe siècles en Europe occidentale,
Paris: Picard 1997

32. Altarpiece
Infancy and Passion
Antwerp ? Ca 1520-1525
Oak
M Museum Louvain
Loan OCMW Louvain
©M Museum Leuven

34. Mary and St John
fragment entombment group
wood, ca 1500,
Liebighaus Museum
Frankfurt am Main
(Martin, 155)

35. Entombment group, stone, end XVth century
Church of Hautrage (Hainaut),
Cinquantenaire Museum, Brussels (Martin, 150)

37. Entombment group in niche
Church St Jacques Louvain
© KIK - IRPA

38. Chapel of the Cross
Church St Jacques Louvain
© KIK – IRPA

39. I. Christ in the tomb
II. An entombment group
1. From altarpiece to separate sculpture groups.
2. Partly active use of an entombment sculpture group
The passive, static structure of the entombment group is broken
open towards an active use in Good Friday liturgy:
a. The corpse of Christ is actively integrated in liturgy; fusion of
the entombment group tradition and the Christ in the tomb
b. At the end of the ceremony the sculpture of Christ was
deposed in the niche between Joseph and Nicodemus and, in
one way or another, difficult to imagine exactly, the upstanding
arms of both sculptures were in the same time moved down,
part of a solemn re-enactment of the entombment.

40. I. Christ in the tomb
II. An entombment group
1. From altarpiece to separate sculpture groups.
2. Partly active use of an entombment sculpture group
3. Easter morning

41. Emerunt aromata
ut ungerent Jesum
Mark 16, 1

42. Mark 16: 1-6
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the
mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might
go and anoint him. Very early when the sun had risen, on the
first day of the week, they came to the tomb. They were saying
to one another, "Who will roll back the stone for us from the
entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the
stone had been rolled back; it was very large.
On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right
side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed. He
said to them, "Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth,
the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the
place where they laid him.

43. Altarpiece of the passion, death, resurrection and ascencion of Christ
Alabaster / 1341-1342 / detail
Sant Juan de los Abadesses (Catalunya)
Museu Episcopal de Vic