Adam Dircksz (active 1500–1530) [1] is the name ascribed by some art historians to a highly influential Dutch sculptor whose workshop is often attributed with the creation of around 60 [1] of the c. 150 extant Gothic boxwood miniature micro-carvings. Other historians prefer to attribute various unrelated artists who are given individual or grouped notnames. It may be that the master was the innovator in this style of sculpture, and that similar works were directly inspired. According to the British Museum, Dircksz may have served "elite patrons in the circle of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, with a strong link to Delft." [1]
Almost nothing is known about his life, except from some dates and signatures left on carvings, which indicate only that he was associated with the art works, the real life person may have been a woodcutter, sculptor, medallist, or a patron. [1] Dircksz is thought to have been active between 1500 and 1530, and responsible for some sixty of the surviving examples. [1] He may have led a workshop in the southern Netherlands, [2] given that Flemish inscriptions appear on some of the carvings. [3] Alternatively, it was located more northerly, possibly in the north of Brabant or at Delft in Holland. [4] In any case, apart from Henry VIII and Catherine, all of the original owners come from the Netherlands. [5]
The more complex boxwood miniatures may have taken decades of work to complete, over a period equivalent to the entire career of a medieval master carver. [6] Thus, production must have been organised between workshops of specialised artisans, [7] and because the works are so intricate, only a small number of workshops were likely involved in their production. [8] That a majority of the miniatures share technical, stylistic and thematic similarities, they are often considered as a near homogeneous group. This view was first noted by the art historian Jaap Leeuwenberg, [9] who cited such stylistic traits as broad and densely populated animated scenes, which are often placed, in the words of the art historian William Wixom, on "steeply angled ground planes of tiled floors". [3]
Other shared features include spatial devices, figures in contemporary dress, and draperies arranged in angular folds. On this basis Leeuwenberg attributed a large number of the objects to Dircksz, around 35–40, although that estimate has been revised down in more recent years. [3]
Because of shared characteristics, including common use of horror vacui, approaches and use of depth, [10] as well as similar hinges and methods of construction, [11] the art historian Jaap Leeuwenberg suggests that production of a number of the miniatures was overseen by a single master named Adam Dircksz. [12] [13] Dircksz was first identified through a signature on a prayer nut now in the Statens Museum Copenhagen, reading "Adam Theodrici me fecit" (Adam Dircksz has made me). [14]
The Latin name "Adam Theodrici" may be translated into English as "Adam of Theodoric", but art historians usually use the Dutch version of his name, Adam Dircksz. [9] [15] Although it was rare in the 16th century for artists to sign a work, when done, it usually took the "me fecit" (made me) form, in effect of making the object speak. [16]
Regardless of the number of works that Dircksz or his workshop can be attributed with, art historians often debate what the artistic and technical precedents for the miniatures might be. Dutch art historian Frits Scholten observes how, to a large extent, it seems "as if this exquisite sculpture was born ex nihilo around 1500", but points out that "giant strides are rarely made in art history", pointing to affinities with silversmith's art, especially the miniature architectural elements often found in ecclesiastical silver and ornaments. [17]
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The Master of Delft was a Dutch painter of the final period of Early Netherlandish painting, whose name is unknown. He may have been born around 1470. The notname was first used in 1913 by Max Jakob Friedländer, in describing the wings of a Triptych with the Virgin and Child with St Anne with the central panel by the Master of Frankfurt, which is now in Aachen. This has donor portraits of an identifiable family from Delft, that of the Burgomaster of Delft, Dirck Dircksz van Beest Heemskerck (1463–1545), with his wife and children.
Prayer Bead with the Adoration of the Magi and the Crucifixion is a small south Netherlandish prayer nut, carved in fine-grained boxwood, dated c 1500–10. It is now in the collection of The Cloisters, New York. Originally the bead would have been part of a complete rosary set, and its size suggests its use as an Ave bead, where the supplicant would recite the "Hail Mary". Objects of this type were in great demand in the early sixteenth century. Apart from use in private veneration, they could be worn as necklaces or hung from belts as fashionable accessories. The exceptional craftsmanship of this example indicates that it was intended for a member of the high nobility. J. P. Morgan donated the bead to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1917.
Adoration of the Magi is an oil on panel painting from the early 1520s by the Dutch Renaissance artist Jan Mostaert in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, where in 2020 it was on display in room 0.1. The panel measures 51 cm × 36.5 cm, and the painted surface a little less at 48.5 cm × 34 cm. It is often called the Mostaert Amsterdam Adoration in art history, to distinguish it from the multitude of other paintings of the Adoration of the Magi.
Gothic boxwood miniatures are very small Christian-themed wood sculptures produced during the 15th and 16th centuries in the Low Countries, at the end of the Gothic period and during the emerging Northern Renaissance. They consist of highly intricate layers of reliefs, often rendered to nearly microscopic level, and are made from boxwood, which has a fine grain and high density suitable for detailed micro-carving. There are around 150 surviving examples; most are spherical rosary beads, statuettes, skulls, or coffins; some 20 are in the form of polyptychs, including triptych and diptych altarpieces, tabernacles and monstrances. The polyptychs are typically 10–13 cm in height. Most of the beads are 10–15 cm in diameter and designed so they could be held in the palm of a hand, hung from necklaces or belts, or worn as fashionable accessories.
Prayer nuts or Prayer beads are very small 16th century small Gothic boxwood miniature sculptures, mostly originating from the north of today's Holland. They are typically detachable and open into halves of highly detailed and intricate Christian religious scenes. Their size varies between the size of a walnut and a golf ball. They are mostly the same shape, decorated with carved openwork Gothic tracery and flower heads. Most are 2–5 cm in diameter and designed so they could be held in the palm of a hand during personal devotion or hung from necklaces or belts as fashionable accessories.
Miniature Altarpiece with the Crucifixion is a very small and complex early 16th century Netherlandish microcarved miniature sculpture in boxwood, now in The Cloisters, New York. The central carvings of the upper triptych show the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, each outer wing contains two scenes from the biblical Old Testament. The complex base contains a round carving which opens like a boxwood prayer nut.
Frits Scholten is a Dutch art historian specialising in art of the Netherlands from the late Middle Ages until 1800, and sculpture from the 15th to 19th centuries. Currently he is Head of Department of Sculpture and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Previously he was senior curator of sculpture at the Rijksmuseum from 1993, prior to which he worked at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Scholten has published extensively on applied arts and European sculpture. He is editor of the Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum Jahrbuch.
Half of a Prayer Bead with the Lamentation refers to a pair of Gothic boxwood miniature medallions originating from Flanders around the early 16th century, probably between 1490-1530. Made from boxwood and silver, they were originally the interiors of a prayer nut.
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The miniature altarpiece in the British Museum, London, is a very small portable Gothic boxwood miniature sculpture completed in 1511 by the Northern Netherlands master sometimes identified as Adam Dircksz, and members of his workshop. At 25.1 cm (9.9 in) high, it is built from a series of architectural layers or registers, which culminate at an upper triptych, whose centre panel contains a minutely detailed and intricate Crucifixion scene filled with multitudes of figures in relief. Its outer wings show Christ Carrying the Cross on the left, and the Resurrection on the right.
The Adoration of the Magi altarpiece is a small Gothic boxwood miniature, made in the Netherlands c. 1500–1530, attributed to the workshop of Adam Dircksz. Such rarefied and highly ornate objects were intended for private devotion, and took, by modern art historian estimates, decades to complete, periods equivalent to the entire career of a medieval master carver. Just around 150 of these sculptures from the late 15th and early 16th centuries remain today, and the elite echelons of collectors in the 19th century placed a high value on them despite the fact that it is unknown how many of them were manufactured.
The Miniature Altarpiece in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is a small, 9.3 cm high, Gothic boxwood miniature triptych completed in the Netherlands c. 1500-1520. The central carving is made from boxwood and shows a relief of the Virgin and Child attended by two saints, thought to be Anne, who is shown with wings and holding a large crucifix, and James the Great who wears a hat and holds a staff. The outer semi-circular wings and shell are lined with silver and decorated with foliate designs. It stands on a silver plinth with pierced quatrefoils, and topped by a cherub's head and a statuette of God the Father. It is thought the silver-work was added between 1550-1570.
The Miniature Altarpiece is a Gothic boxwood miniature in the form of a small altarpiece, made in the Netherlands c.1520-1530, probably by the workshop of Adam Dircksz, about whom almost nothing is known. It has been held by the Louvre since 1901, but is not on public display. It was displayed with other boxwood miniatures in 2016–17 in an exhibition that visited the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rijksmuseum.