A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

13 12 Introduction and Acknowledgements three countries were invited to take a close look at the dismantled screen in the workshop. Fruitful contacts with Elmar von Reth, buildings and art ­ advisor to the ­Diocese of Aachen, and Reinhard Karrenbrock, supervisor of heritage conservation for the Diocese of Münster, ensured access to a number of German churches. In Belgium the kik - irpa team examined some eighty sculptures in Limburg churches and museums, one in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, and three in private ownership. All these works were studied from an art-historical and technical point of view (by Famke Peters and ­ Vincent Cattersel respectively). Particular attention was paid to matters of methodology, such as the systematic photography and technical examination of the sculptures. The huge amount of photographic material produced ( Katrien Van Acker, Jean-Luc Elias, Marleen Sterckx, Jacques Declercq) became an important tool and was also made available to external researchers and other interested parties vi a BALaT, t he kik-irpa online photo library. As was also the case in the Netherlands, the technical examination laid par- ticular emphasis on the identification and measurement of workbench marks in order to gain an idea of how the sculptures were made and how the work- shops were organized. Approximately fifty works underwent dendrochrono- logical analysis (Pascale Fraiture) with the aim of identifying, dating and localizing the wood used. Opportunities for dendrochronology on such a scale are few and far between. In a number of the rather rare cases where original polychromy remains, detailed visual studies and laboratory analyses were carried out (Emmanuelle Mercier, Delphine Steyaert, Jana Sanyova, Cécile Glaude). As far as possible, work was done in situ , making logistical help indispensable (Saïd Amrani, Alain Nisen). However, three works were brought to the kik-irpa polychromed wood sculpture workshop for a more fundamental investigation of their ­construction and polychromy, with the aid of purpose-made X-radiographs (Catherine Fondaire) among other things. One of these sculptures was the Crucified Christ from Ellikom, which still retains much of its original polychromy and whose masterfully carved head features on the cover of this book. The results of these technical analyses were juxtaposed with the stylistic analysis of the sculptures. The main aim of the stylistic study – in addition to discerning stylistic similarities and differences – was to describe the difficulties inherent to this complex group. An additional part of the art-historical research was the exploration of the archives of those places where Elsloo sculptures are preserved, in the hope of discovering data about the works and their makers. The Belgian research project was supported by the Province of Limburg ( Anne Milkers), which among other things enabled a documentary film to be made (Hervé Verloes). In turn the Province received from the kik-irpa the new photographs and art-historical and technical data relating to the sculptures to add to their online database Erfgoedplus (www.erfgoedplus.be) . The Limburg section of the Onroerend Erfgoed agency (Christine ­Vanthillo) and the universities of Leuven (Leo de Ren), Namur (Michel Lefftz) and Liège ( Benoît Van den Bossche) were likewise actively involved.