A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

115 Famke Peters and Vincent Cattersel 5 114 Fig. 5.20 Neeroeteren Marianum, detail Fig. 5.21 Siersdorf Virgin and Child, detail Fig. 5.22 St Sebastian, Neeroeteren, St Lambert’s Church, detail Fig. 5.23 Military Saint, Paris, Musée du Louvre, detail Fig. 5.24 St Lawrence, Bocholt, St Lawrence’s Church, detail Fig. 5.25 Bishop Saint, Siersdorf, Church of St John the Baptist, detail Fig. 5.26 St Christopher, Neeroeteren, St Lambert’s Church, detail Fig. 5.27 Emperor Augustus, Siersdorf, Church of St John the Baptist, detail 5.27 5.25 5.23 5.26 5.24 5.22 5.20 5.21 workshop. The Christ Child of the Neeroeteren Marianum (choir side) has rather detailed jug ears with flattened lobes (fig. 5.20). Similarly shaped ears are encountered in the statuette of the Philip from the apostle beam, the Christ Child on St Christopher’s shoulders and the St Sebastian from Neeroeter en, 11 as well as in a Military Saint in the Louvre, the St Lawrence from Bocholt and the Bishop Saint in Siersdorf (figs. 5.22-5.25). The last two are also alike in the rendering of the faces, which are similar in shape and have eyes, noses and lips that are much akin. The face of the Louvre Saint can also be associated with that of the Neeroeteren Sebastian. Both feature a full under lip with an inden- tation on the centre, a cleft chin, almond-shaped eyes with a few fine lines underneath and a single crease in the full upper li ds, 12 arc hing eyebrows and a straight nose with a bridge that is rather wide at the top. The particular execu- tion of the Louvre Saint’s hand and the position of the thumb als o occur in the St Anthony from Neeroeteren and the St Lawrence from Boch olt. 13 Fu rther- more, the face of the emperor at the feet of the Louvre Saint (fig. 5.5) has a great deal in common with the faces of St James (fig. 5.4) and St Christopher ( fig. 5.26) from Neeroeteren and the emperor Augustus of the ‘rood screen’ in Siersdorf (fig. 5.27). They all have sunken cheeks, pronounced cheekbones and massy beards, for instance, as well as wide-opened eyes and deep vertical grooves just above the nose, and at least two of the figures have a significant bulge above each eyebrow. In the Louvre emperor the transition from cheek to beard is rendered as a series of zigzag cuts ( Tremolierung ), a device that is also used to define the start of the beard or hair in other figures from the group, including the Neeroeteren St Christopher’s Christ Child (hair) and Christ on the Cold Stone (beard) and the Bocholt St Lawrence (h air). 14 Besides the stylistic similarities, there might also be a technical correspond- ence between the Siersdorf and Neeroeteren sculptures. The marks of the workbench clamps found on the Bishop Saint from Siersdorf and a few apostles in Neeroeteren are comparable in shape and size and form pairs in