A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

149 148 *  Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean, The Open University, Milton Keynes. 7 Sculpture from the Elsloo Group in England KimWoods * Scholarship on the so-called Master of Elsloo has so far tended to focus on the mystery surrounding his identity or identities, the uncertain geographical ­ location of the workshop(s), the problems surrounding the attribution of the surviving work to a primary Elsloo workshop or a series of satellite workshops, and most recently on detailed technical analysis. The sculptors’ patronage base has attracted rather less attention. The large number of surviving sculptures associated with the ‘Master of Elsloo’ demonstrates the importance of this workshop, or workshops, to customers in Guelders and in the Limburg and Meuse region. Because of the distribution and character of the work still in the Guelders and Limburg area, it is tempting to classify the Elsloo sculptors as essentially local craftsmen undertaking relatively routine ecclesiastical com- missions. This would be a mistake, however, and it is the carvings now in England that demonstrate this most incisively. There are no fewer than five Elsloo-attributed works in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, an altarpiece scene at Audley End, and another work of sculpture in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (fig. 7.1). This in itself testifies to the foresightedness of English dealers and clients: the first significant exhibition of work associated with the Master of Elsloo was in 1974, but English collectors evidently valued this sculpture as early as the 1830s and 1840s. Three of these sculptures are reinterpreted here, and each casts new light on the kind of sculpture the workshop(s) produced and the range of customers it may have served. These three works in England suggest that Elsloo patrons included individuals from the higher echelons of society, who commissioned secular as well as religious subjects for private as well as public viewing. Samson Breaking the Lion’s Jaw The small statue of Samson Breaking the Lion’s Jaw in the Victoria and Albert Museum has all the hallmarks of a collector’s item (fig. 7.2). 1 Ma de of boxwood and only 13 centimetres tall, it is small enough to be picked up in the hand and invites individual close scrutiny. It is carved to be seen from all sides, and is ideal to be placed on a desk or dresser in a private house. The very genre of a small, boxwood collector’s piece was still a relative novelty around 1520, when this statue was made; although the art form later devolved to the merchant classes, during the first quarter of the sixteenth century it was usually associ- ated with high-status patrons and artists. The tiny boxwood busts of Margaret of Austria and her deceased husband Philibert carved by Conrad Meit for Fig. 7.1 Knight, Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, inv. 6215