A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

Notes 1 D uring this research project some of the works that underwent dendrochrono- logical analysis were excluded from the Elsloo group because of the great differences in style, such as the St Anne with the Virgin and Child in St Michael’s Church of Bree and the small Altarpiece of the Virgin in St Willibrord’s Church in Eisden. On this selection, see also Famke Peters, article 4 in this volume. 2 S ee, for example, Klein 1983; ­Schöfbeck and Heussner 2008; Tyers 2010. Publications focusing on altarpieces are, for example, Lavier 2002; Haneca et al. 2005; Fraiture 2013a. 3 T he author, however, has already taken part in a similar project in 1998-2000, for an exhibition on the Master of Waha. See Fraiture 2000. 4 T he results presented at the conference A Masterly Hand. Interdisciplinary Research on the Late-Medieval Sculptor Master of Elsloo in an International Perspective organised by the KIK-IRPA in 2011 were obtained using the Dendron II system ( Lambert 2006; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – Laboratoire de Chrono-Écologie de l’Université de Franche-Comté – UMR 6249). In 2012, all synchronisations and dates were revised following upgrade to Dendron IV, a new, more robust version of the software (G.-N. Lambert, Université de Liège, unpublished). 5 The measurement itself is performed by a specific procedure in Adobe TM Photo- shop TM . The data is then reconstructed and converted to ‘Besançon’ format with the TakeMeasuresFromAdobePhotoshop tool, version 20120113 (G.-N. Lambert, K IK-IRPA, unpublished). 6 H illam, Morgan and Tyers 1987. 7 F raiture 2009a. 8 I dem 2000. 9 T he only exception is the small Eisden a ltarpiece, of which the two analysed sequences have no fewer than hundred fifty and hundred eighty rings. This work has been excluded from the Elsloo group, however. See n. 1. 10 S chweingrüber 1988; Trénard 1992. 11 Q uercus robur or petreae are not distin- guished by the wood itself but by the leaves and fruits. 12 L avier and Lambert 1996. 13 I ndeed, in the Southern Netherlands in t he fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, painting supports, sculptures, furniture, construction fittings as well as structural elements in buildings were almost invariably made of oak. See, for example, on painting supports and furniture: Verougstraete and Van Schoute 1994; Fraiture 2009a; idem 2009b; on sculptures: Haneca et al. 2005; Fraiture 2000; idem 2013a; on construc- tion fittings: idem 2013b; on structural work in buildings: Hoffsummer 1995; Houbrechts 2008. 14 F or the first two apostles, see KIK-IRPA photograph s X032230 a n d X032405, for the other three see photograph s X032202, X032216 a nd X032245. 15 F raiture 2007; Depuydt-Elbaum, Fraiture and Rosier 2010; Beuting 2011. For these statuettes, see KIK-IRPA photographs X039737 (unidentified apostle), X039745 (James the Great), X039770 (Bartholom ew), X0398 08 ( unidentif ied apostle ) , X039828 ( Andrew), X039850 (unidentified apostle) , X039868 ( unidentified apostle). 16 S ee Famke Peters and Vincent Cattersel, article 5 in this volume. 17 I bid. 18 I n July 2012, all synchronisations and d ates were verified by the new Dendron IV software (see above), which confirmed 80% of the results, provided 8% addi- tional results and rejected the remaining 12%. This paper therefore presents some adjustments vis-à-vis the oral presentation at the conference. 19 ‘ Complacency’ is defined by Kaennel and Schweingrüber (1995) as ‘low variability among consecutive tree-ring parameters ( e.g. ring width , maximum density) which theoretically indicates that the growth of a particular tree is relatively unaffected by interannual variations of ecological factors’. 20 T wo sculptures have an older dated last ring (1469 for an apostle in Ellikom and 1474 for the Bishop Saint in Siersdorf). As the first is part of an ensemble and the Bishop Saint can be made in the same campaign as the other Siersdorf sculptures, it is the more recent date within these ensembles which is taken into account. A third sculpture, the St Anne with the Virgin and Child in Bree, also has an older last ring, 1479, b ut was excluded from the Elsloo group. 21 S everal publications address this subject in detail. See, for example, Eckstein, ­ Baillie and Egger 1984; Vandekerchove et al. 2012. 22 T he cambium, between the bark and the s apwood, is the reproductive tissue that produces new wood cells on the inside of the trunk. 23 The number of rings in the sapwood is relatively stable for a given population. See, for example, Hollstein 1978 for western Germany; Lambert 2006 and Durost and Lambert 2007 for central France, Switzerland, eastern Belgium; Sohar, Vitas and Läänelaid 2012 for Baltic countries and Finland. 24 F or the other apostle, see KIK-IRPA photograp h X039870. 25 E stimation according to Durost and Lambert 2007. 26 I bid. 27 L ambert et al. 1988; Rybníček, Vavrčík and Hubený 2006. 28 D urost and Lambert 2007. The only exception is the small Eisden altarpiece, excluded from the Elsloo group, in which the sapwood ranges from six to nineteen rings. Sohar, Vitas and Läänelaid 2012. 29 F raiture 2009a. 30 T his subject was addressed by Ian Tyers during the conference A Masterly Hand. Interdisciplinary Research on the Late- Medieval Sculptor Master of Elsloo in an International Perspective ( oral presenta- tion, 21 October 2011). He showed the biological necessity for using green wood, and supported this with many examples both in the Elsloo group and outside it. I warmly thank him for his useful presentation and for allowing me to use his observations. 31 S ee Arnold Truyen, article 11 in this volume. 32 S ee Famke Peters, article 4 in this volume. It must be added that the large sculptures in Neeroeteren could also have been made during these works as their last rings are dated 1488 and 1496. Indeed, given the greater age of the trees from which these pieces were carved ( over 100 years), it is possible that they contained a larger number of sapwood rings than the minimum included in the proposed termini post quem . 33 S ee n. 20. 34 F or details concerning constructions of d endro-groups with a potential geo- graphic significance, see Hillam and Tyers 1995; Fraiture 2009b.