A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

109 108 * Art historian, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels. ** Conservator-restorer, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels. 5 In Search of the Elsloo DNA: Stylistic Study of Sculptures from the Elsloo Group Famke Peters * and Vincent Cattersel ** Until recently, study of the works of the so-called Master of Elsloo has been fairly modest, being largely limited to style analysis. In the present research project style analysis has for the first time been combined with technical examination. Indeed, style and technique are hard to disassociate. Technique can be defined as the way a sculpture has been executed, from the most basic carving to the most sophisticated decorative techniques , the artist’s intention being to create a certain visual effect. That result is what we call style. Together, technique and style make up the sculptor’s signature. That is why both stylistic aspects and technical elements will be discussed in this article. For the present research as many sculptures as possible have been observed in situ . The detailed high resolution photographs taken during that observation provided a crucial working instrument. What makes a sculpture an Elsloo work and which characteristics have made art historians attribute such a large number of sculptures to the Master of Elsloo? A number of formulas can be identified, these being the oeuvre’s ‘ glue’, so to speak. Some of them belong to a larger regionally- and temporally- bound pictorial tradition, while others are specific to the Elsloo style. The figures’ stance, with one leg thrust forward, allowing the foot to peep from under the hem of the garment, belongs to the former category (fig. 5.1). Likewise the pattern created by the drapery of the cloak, which is drawn across the front of the body and clamped under the arm, and at the front falls in a typical pattern of deep V- and U-shaped folds. And in some sculptures, such as the Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon in St James’s Church in Liège ( fig. 14.1) and the Virgin from the Calvary in St Martin’s Church in Beek ( fig. 6.19) , a long diagonal fold runs from the arm to the base. More specific to the Elsloo style is the typical coiffure of the female figures, and of Mary in particular: the middle parting, the more or less symmetrical series of rolls on either side of the face with the individual strands of hair clearly delineated, the long parallel tendrils of waving hair that hang down her back and one or two long locks on each shoulder (figs. 5.1-5.3). In several cases a triangle is created high on the forehead by the diagonal hairline and the horizontal headband. Although different facial types can be distinguished, many characteristics repeatedly occur in the female figures, these being a high forehead, a pursed mouth with lifted, deeply indented corners, a straight and slender nose, arched Fig. 5.1 Marianum (nave side), Neeroeteren, St Lambert’s Church Fig. 5.2 Virgin and Child, Gaesdonck, Collegium Augustinianum, detail Fig. 5.3 St Anne with the Virgin and Child, Maaseik, St Catherine’s Church, detail Fig. 5.4 St James the Great, Neeroeteren, St Lambert’s Church, detail Fig. 5.5 Military Saint, Paris, Musée du Louvre, département des sculptures, inv. RF 1649, detail Fig. 5.6 St Leonard, Paris, Musée du Louvre, département des sculptures, inv. RF 1650, detail Fig. 5.7 St Lambert, private collection, detail 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.3 5.5 5.7