A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

157 Kim Woods 7 156 The Audley End Carving The altarpiece scene now at Audley End comes from a large-scale narrative carved retable and apparently shows an exorcism performed by a bishop and a canon (fig. 7.4a). The non-standard subject matter demanded considerable design skills, while the substantial size of the scene, some 78 centimetres wide and 74 high, suggests that the entire altarpiece was at least 2.5 metres wide. Consistent with the technical findings of the Elsloo research project, the carving is made out of one massive piece of local oak – not Baltic oak ( fig. 7.4b). Although Brabantine altarpiece scenes might be carved out of a single piece of wood during the fifteenth century, by about 1515, the earliest date that this altarpiece is likely to have been made, they were assembled from several individual figure groups. The scale of the Audley End figures is also relatively large (c. 60 cm), whereas Brussels and Antwerp carved altarpieces had become increasingly intricate, with much smaller figures ( c. 40 cm). This suggests that this Elsloo sculptor’s design principles were distinct from those of ­Brabant. The size and rarity of subject matter suggest a bespoke commission of a very particular kind and a wealthy patron. Lord Braybrooke, owner of Audley End at that time, recorded that he bought it from a sale of Dutch furniture in 1826, so it could originally have come from Dutch-speaking Gueld ers. 39 U nfortunately, it has not yet been possible to trace its provenance further back. The subject matter is key to the original context of the Audley End scene but is very difficult to decipher. It appears to show an exorcism performed on a secular young man by a bishop and a canon working in partnership, observed by several bystanders. Saintly partnerships between bishops and canons are not particularly common in hagiography, and artistic representations of ­ exorcisms involving a bishop and a canon working together are very rare indeed. It has previously been suggested that it might be an exorcism per- formed by St Remigius in company with his canon St Vaast, and this remains a possible identificati on. 40 An other possibility, although even more tenuous, is worth exploring because if correct the implications for the patronage base of the Elsloo group are far-reaching. There are good reasons for considering it: the two saints genuinely worked together, are associated with each other and depicted together; there are artistic comparisons with the Audley End scene and there are specific historical circumstances that might explain the veneration of these unusual saints. Bishop Valero or Valerius of Zaragoza worked in conjunction with his ­ deacon, the more famous Vicente or Vincentius who, unlike his bishop, did enjoy a certain veneration outside Spain: he was patron saint of Portugal and titular saint of Bern Minster. Tapestries of the life of St Vincentius dating from 1515, close to the date of the Audley End carving, were commissioned for Bern Minster by local Latin master Henricus Lupul us. 41 Six of the eighteen scenes show narratives of the saint together with his bishop St Valerius, albeit not the episode depicted at Audley End, and St Vincentius is dressed more accurately as a deacon rather than in the canon-like robes of the Audley End figure. The