A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

Neeroeteren, intentionally sculpted from an elongated trunk. That the sculptor sought the shape of his future statue in the tree he selected might indicate that the material was exploited to the maximum. The maximal use of the wood implies economisation of the raw material. It is therefore not surprising that several sculptures are made from the same trunk. This is particularly true of the iconographic ensembles. For example, in Neeroeteren an unidentified apostle and the apostle with a tree branch who might be Judas Thaddeus or James the Less were sculpted from quarters of the same trunk, and the Apostles Philip and Simon and a third unidentified apostle were made of boxed heart sections of a very young oak or a thick bra nch. 14 In Ellikom, at least seven apostles come either from a single trunk or from trees growing very close to each ot her. 15 O ther sculptures originating from the same tree appear in the groups of large figures in Neeroeteren ( James the Great and St Roch), Siersdorf (St Catherine and the Virgin and Child) and Utrecht (Judas Thaddeus (?) and Christ the Saviour), providing an additional argument in favour of the homogeneity of each of these sub-groups. Comparisons of the ring series also made it possible to link the Christ the Saviour from Neeroeteren to John the Baptist from Siersdorf (fig. 8.8), supporting the stylistic similarities between the Neeroeteren and Siersdorf gro ups. 16 In this case it can be seen that the ring sequence of the Christ figure is missing forty of the most recent rings. This implies that it was not made from a narrower part of the trunk or a smaller branch, but that a part of the original trunk or branch was discarded. Perhaps the rejected part was unsuit- able for sculpture (damaged) or was used for something else. The last example is the Virgin of the Ellikom Calvary and the Virgin and Child with a Bunch of Grapes from Bocholt. They share the general Elsloo features but no specific similarit ies, 17 ye t both sculptures come from a single tree (fig. 8.9). This raises questions about the procurement strategies and internal organisation of sculpture workshops. Could artists with different styles be part of the same workshop? Could a log be bought jointly by different workshops or bought chunk by chunk? Archival research may help resolve such questions. Dating of the Elsloo Sculpt ures 18 Excellent dating results were obtained despite the expected difficulties. Indeed, of the fifty-two sculptures analysed, twenty-nine could be dated with certainty and hypothetical dates could be adduced for seven additional works (see table in appendix) . Sixteen statues remained undated. Among the sculptures with an uncertain date or with no date, half have fewer than seventy rings or even fewer than fifty, while several others have obvious growth distortions that blur the climatic signal needed for dating or show complace ncy, 19 w hich means that the trees used were relatively unaffected by climate. Moreover, all sculptures have a rather limited number of rings and the complacent character suspected a priori for several trees was clearly confirmed. In such conditions, the successful dating of nearly 60% of the sculptures is rather exceptional. The appended table shows the dating of each sculpture. In brief, the dates of the last rings measured range between 1484 and 1 513. 20 T his does not mean Fig. 8.6 St Anne with the Virgin and Child, Sint-Truiden, Provinciaal Museum Begijnhofkerk, showing the bifurcate part of the trunk used for the sculpture Fig. 8.7 Apostle Judas Thaddeus (?), Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, inv. ABM bh291, attribute made from a knot 8.6 8.7