The saint’s face, with its affable expression and soft features, is framed by a characteristic mesh head covering, embellished with numerous pearls around the edges and two floral clasps that fasten the ribbon securing it beneath the figure’s chin.

This wooden sculpture, worked in the round and still substantially polychrome (albeit with some later additions, especially on the face), bears evident signs of a troubled conservation history. Towards the bottom, in addition to the noticeable xylophagous insect damage, we can see that the right foot, the tip of which once protruded from beneath her dress, is now missing. The figure is also missing her left hand, which probably used to hold an attribute that would make it possible to identify her. Evident traces of a metal pin can be seen where the hand once was, although it is difficult to establish whether this is original (imagining a hand with the attribute sculpted separately) or whether it is the result of restoration work designed to repair an earlier break. The modern addition of a circular wooden base should also be mentioned. 

The saint’s face, with its affable expression and soft features, is framed by a characteristic mesh head covering, embellished with numerous pearls around the edges and two floral clasps that fasten the ribbon securing it beneath the figure’s chin. Two thick locks of hair emerge from beneath the bonnet, falling down over her forehead, while two very long plaits hang down and are knotted in an intricate and inextricable manner around the figure’s left forearm. The young woman wears a sumptuous V-necked red dress, which hugs her figure at the top before spreading out and descending to the ground, with a large golden “girdle” around her hips and beneath her belly. Her wide puffy sleeves are also drawn in around her elbows and wrists by golden straps. 

This work, which has not been the object of any studies, poses some difficult questions of a historical and artistic nature, as well as regarding its chronology and iconography. In terms of the latter aspect, it is worth reiterating that the absence of any attributes makes any identification of the saint hypothetical, although her red dress and long golden locks could at first glance suggest Mary Magdalene (but Barbara or Catherine of Alexandria could also fit). 

In reference to the original cultural context of this carving, the fashion is particularly striking. Combined with the style, this allows us to date it to the first decades of the 16th century, while also indicating the geographical area of provenance for this piece. You would have to look to the north for figures with similar hairstyles and long plaits such as these, particularly in the southern Netherlands. Examples include the sumptuous wooden Mary Magdalenes from the Brussels area, one of which is in Paris today, at the Musée de Cluny,¹ while the other - connected to an unidentified female saint with plaits, now on display at Oxburgh Hall² - is at the Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels, where it is attributed to the sculptor Jan Borman and dated to the very end of the 15th century.³ Another striking example is the finely carved Mary Magdalene set within the Dreifaltigkeitsretabel (or Altar of the Trinity) in St Nicolai in Kalkar (in the Rhineland, on the border with the Netherlands), associated with the sculptor Arnt van Tricht,⁴ who was active from the 1520s until his death in 1570.⁵ It has to be stated that the quality of the sculptures is far superior to that of this saint. We should at least mention the fact that a similar head covering to the one in question is worn by three companions of St Ursula in the carved and gilded reliquary busts that, together with a fourth companion, are now at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. As discovered by scholars, these four elegant sculptures resemble a series of other reliquaries whose origin can be reliably traced back to the southern Netherlands, with a date of around 1520-30.⁶ Although the quality of the carving remains extraordinarily high in the case of the reliquary busts, the socalled “Poupées des Malines”, wooden figures of Madonnas and female saints whose name derives from their place of origin - the Belgian city of Malines/ Mechelen, to be precise - are far less sophisticated (less so than the sculpture in question). They include a number of different figures with hairstyles very similar to this one.⁷ Despite having a more colourful and lively expression than was standard for this type of production,⁸ the saint in question shares the focus on the decorative detail of the clothing and the soft-featured face with full cheeks. The rhythmic and angular drapery also reveals an intonation that markedly echoes the carvings from that area and, more generally, from the southern Netherlands, supporting the idea that the mysterious female saint in the Cerruti Collection originally came from that region. 

Stefanie Paulmichl 

¹ Noireau 1999, p. 67; Antoine, “Sainte Marie Madeleine”, in Antoine et al. 2003, p. 116.

² Woods 2007, pp. 462-465, assumes an identification in St Barbara.

³ Jansen 1965, pp. 5a-5b; cat. 40, in Huysmans 2000, pp. 102-103.

⁴ See B. Rommé, “Die Bildschnitzkunst in Kalkar in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts”, in Aquisgrana 1997, pp. 27-33; Rief, Rommé, in Aquisgrana 1997, pp. 135-138, cat. 2.

⁵ B. Rommé, “Die Bildschnitzkunst in Kalkar…” cit., pp. 27-33.

⁶ See Additions 1959, p. 58; R. F. C. 1962, pp. 121-122; Rorimer 1963, p. 184; Krohm 1976, pp. 32-33; Wixom 1988-89, pp. 40-41; Drake Bohem 1997, p. 11; Drake Bohem, in New York 2006-07, pp. 188-190, cats. 77 and 78.

⁷ See Ferrão de Tavares e Távora 1975; J. Steyaert, in Holladay, Ward 2016, p. 248, cat. 151.

⁸ See Ferrão de Tavares e Távora 1975; de Borchgrave D’Altena 1976, pp. 69-80; Williamson 2002, pp. 118-130; Wixom 2007, p. 45.