{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O122830"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O122830/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC5641/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CC5641/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CC5641","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CC5568","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AU2964","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AU2963","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O122830/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O122830","accessionNumber":"A.5-1952","objectType":"Towel-holder","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This unusual carving depicts the heads and shoulders of a fool and a grotesque older woman. The fool wears a distinctive cap with enlarged ears. The surface was once brightly painted, and both figures were depicted with  brightly coloured clothes. The fool has his left arm around the woman's neck, with his hand on her breast. Images of unequal lovers were a popular subject at this time and these probably provided the inspiration for this carving. The fool's left hand and the woman's right are now missing. Originally these would have held a pole over which a towel would have been draped. An inventory of Thomas Cromwell's possessions in 1527 reveals that his parlour, adjoining the kitchen, contained 'An image of a fole to hold a towel, painted.'","physicalDescription":"A carving which depicts the busts of a fool on the left, and an old woman on the right, both smiling with their heads inclined towards the centre. Below the two figures is a battlemented console.  The fool wears a cap with attached enlarged ears and a buttoned dress.  He has his left arm round the neck of the woman, and lays his hand on her bared sagging breast.  She wears a wimple, her right arm rests on his shoulder, and her hand is cupped beneath his chin. The fool's right hand and her left hand are now missing but would originally have held a pole over which a towel would've been draped.\r\n\r\nThe group is carved from one piece of wood, although the old woman's left arm is carved separately; the back has been hollowed out. A hook is attached to the centre of the back.   The surface is covered with several layers of paint.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oak","id":"AAT12264"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carved","id":"x30667"},{"text":"Gilded","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"Painted","id":"x30138"},{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},{"text":"gilded","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved oak","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Household objects","id":"THES48939"}],"styles":[{"text":"Medieval","id":"AAT111307"},{"text":"Renaissance","id":"AAT21140"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2009CC5641","2009CC5568","2006AU2964","2006AU2963"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"SR001","id":"THES395192"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Heads","id":""}],[{"text":"Towel Holder","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Germany","id":"x28873"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"Lower Rhine"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1520-1525","earliest":"1520-01-01","latest":"1525-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Dr W. L. Hildburgh","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Depth","value":"19","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"maximum","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"47","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"55.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"9.70","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"04/09/2024","earliest":"2024-09-04","latest":"2024-09-04"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for ther Medieval and Renaissance Galleries\r\nWeighed for LNO2163","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Before 1952, Sam Wolsey, London, said to have acquired the object in Cheshire; in 1952 acquired from Sam Wolsey by Walter L. Hildburgh and given to the museum in 1952. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOn acquisition the present group was classified as South German, early 16th century, and associated with the Moorish dancers by Erasmus Grasser (active 1474 to about 1526) in the Stadtmuseum at Munich. Departmental records suggested that it probably formed part of the decoration of a stage or theatre cart, or a roof boss for a secular building. However, the use of oak seems to point to an origin in  Northern Germany, probably in the Lower Rhine area. Guido de Werd (1981, pp.33-56; 1992-93, pp. 39-50) published two other towel-holders, which he ascribed to the sculptor Arnt van Tricht, active in Kalkar about 1530-70 (Barbara Rommé in Exh. Aachen 1996-97, pp.27-33; pp. 262-67, nos 40-41). The one now in the Städtisches Museum Haus Koekkoek at Kleve, formerly on the London art market (Sotheby's London, 17 April 1980, lot 110) depicts a couple of lovers embracing each other in high relief, the man with a fool's cap.  The other, on loan to the Museum Museum für Kunst und Gwerbe in Hamburg shows the Virgin with Christ Child and St Joseph.\n\nHistorical significance: It belongs to a small number of surviving towel-holders used in medieval households","historicalContext":"Jones notes (pp119-120) that an inventory of Thomas Cromwell's possessions taken in 1527 includes among items listed in the parlour adjoining the kitchen, 'An image of a fole to hold a towel, painted.' This example does not appear to have survived. It needn't have been English as it could easily have been imported.\r\n\r\nThe subject, representing Lust or Lechery, a composition based on the image of the Unequal Lovers - for example Quentin Massys's Old Man, Young Woman, and Fool of about 1522-23 in the National Gallery in Washington (Stewart 1977, p146, no.18)- was popular at this time, particularly in the Lower Rhineland and the Netherlands.\r\n\r\nThe distinctive and expressive facial features seen here recall the facial types of the drolerie-figures of the choir-stall of the former Franciscan church in Kleve, of 1474, by Arnt Beeldesnider.  He was active in nearby Kalkar from about 1460 to 1484, when he moved to Zwolle, but still worked for the church of St Nickas in Kalkar.  He died in 1492 (Meurer 1970, figs 22, 26, 27).  This seems to support an origin for the present piece in the Lower Rhine. The simplified forms of the V&A's towel-holder suggest a date of around 1500-1525, earlier than the other two towel-holders.\r\n\r\nA colour image of  the towel holder in the collections of the Museum Kurhaus, Kleve described previously, featuring a fool embracing a women, attributed to Arnt van Tricht, Kalkar, 1530s, can be found as Colour Plate 9 between pages 38-39 of Malcolm Jones' The Secret Middle Ages. Here it used to illustrate discussion about the role of the fool in medieval society.","briefDescription":"Towel-holder, painted and gilded oak, with two grotesque heads, from Northern Germany (Lower Rhine), ca. 1520-25","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"de Werd, G. 'Een handroekrek door de Kalkarse beelhouwer Arnt van Tricht (c.1540)', in Antiek, 16, 1981, pp. 33-56"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"de Werd, G. 'Ein Handtuchhalter mit der Darstellung der Heiligen Familie des Kalkarer Bildhauers Arnt van Tricht, um 1540', in Jahrburch des Museums für Kunst und Gewerbe, 11/12, 1992, pp.39-50"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Jones, Malcolm, The Secret Middle Ages - Discovering the Real Medieval World (Sutton, 2002) pp119-120"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Meurer, H. Das Klever Chorgestühl und Arnt Beeldesnider (Düsselddorf, 1970) figs 22, 26, 27."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Rommé, Barbara. 'Holzsichtigkeit und Fassung: Zwei nebeneinander bestehende Phanomene in der Skulptur des ausgehenden Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit', in Exh. Aachen 1996-1997 Gegen den Strom: Meiesterwerke niederrheinischer Skulptur in Zeiten der Reformation 1500-1550 (Suermondt-Ludwig Museum Aachen, 1996) pp 27-33, pp 262-267."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Stewart, A. G. Unequal Lovers: A Study of Unequal Couples in Northern Art, (New York, 1977)  p146"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Jopek, Norbert. <i>German Woodcarving 1430-1540: A Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria & Albert Museum</i>. London: V&A Publications, 2002, pp. 35-36, cat. no 4."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Antoine-König, Élisabeth and Le Pogam, Pierre-Yves (eds), <i>Figures du fou. Du Moyen Âge aux Romantiques</i>. Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, Musée du Louvre. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2024, p. 86, fig. 62, p. 355-56, cat. no cat. 63 ( Élisabeth Antoine-König)."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"jester","id":"AAT25663"},{"text":"wimple","id":"AAT212997"},{"text":"console","id":"AAT75330"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["A.5-1952"],"accessionNumberNum":"5","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1952,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2024NX4975","2019LW9829"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-22","recordCreationDate":"2006-04-07","availableToBook":false}}