A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

Fig. 5.32 Diagram overlaid on the faces of three figures a St Barbara, Reppel, St Willibrord’s Church b Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon, Bocholt, St Lawrence’s Church c Mary, Beek, St Martin’s Church preserved) tend to be long and narrow with hardly any widening at the end. The hands of the Reppel St Barbara and the Bocholt Virgin and Child also have similar tendons and veins. The hair of these last two figures has also been rendered in more or less the same way, dividing into two strands that undulate over the shoulders and breast to end in a little curl. In contrast to this rather naturalistic approach, the hair that curls down the back of the Erpekom Virgin has been executed very schematica lly. 15 Th e hair framing the face of all three figures of the Virgin – those of Bocholt, Gerdingen and ­ Erpekom – also differs in execution. In the drapery, too, there are differences. The way the garments of the Erpekom and Reppel figures have been rendered is very dissimilar, and the bulky folds of the lower part of the Erpekom ­ Virgin’s cloak appear unnatural compared to the more realistic drapery of the Reppel St Barbara’s gown. Because of the complexity of this group, with its combination of persuasive similarities and marked differences, an alternative method of comparing the sculptures has been tried out. It is based on Albrecht Dürer’s study of human proportions as set out in the Vier Bücher von Menschlicher Proportion (1528), in which geometric diagrams of different human physiques and physiognomies are presented. One of Dürer’s diagrams of a child’s face corresponds remark- ably well with the faces of both the Christ Child and the Serpent on the choir side of the Neeroeteren Marianu m. 16 Th is led us to create a diagrammatic template of facial proportions for this subgroup within the Elsloo oeuvre based on the distance between specific points on the mouth, nose and eyes. The faces of the Reppel St Barbara, the Virgin from both Bocholt and Erpekom and certain other figures such as the Virgin from the Beek Calvary all seem to have been made according to the same pattern (fig. 5. 32). 17 Th is observation supports the presumed link between these sculptures, though it does not enable us to be more specific about their relationship. These sculptures have all been preserved in churches in the vicinity of Bree, which raises the question of whether a workshop might have been active in that to wn. 18 5.32 a 5.32 b 5.32 c