A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

207 206 *  Conservator-restorer, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels. 10 Methodology and Results of the Technical Research of Seventy-seven Statues from the Elsloo Group, Mainly Preserved in Belgium Vincent Cattersel * Introduction In the framework of the KIK-IRPA research project on the sculptures attrib- uted to the so-called Master of Elsloo in Belgian ownership, some seventy-five works underwent technical examination, of which sixty-five have been retained as belonging to the Elsloo gro up. 1 To these can be added eight sculptures ( a Virgin and Child and seven saints) in the Church of St John the Baptist in Siersdorf in Germany and a Christ the Saviour and three apostles in the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht. The figures and percentages cited in this article are based on this body of seventy-seven works. One of the greatest difficulties in dealing with the large Elsloo group is the lack of information about the hands responsible for its production. All the sculptures were made anonymously: none of those that were studied bear any marks that could lead to the identification of a particular sculptor, workshop, guild or reg ion. 2 Th us far, they have been grouped only on the basis of style. It was already clear that the Elsloo production was not the work of a single artist or workshop. The very diversity of style makes attribution to hands and workshops rather difficult – hence the use of a multidisciplinary approach, in which each work has been examined from a stylistic, art-historical and techni- cal point of view. In studies such as those on the sculptors Niklaus Weckmann (1993), Hans Multscher (1997), Jan van Steffeswert (2000) and, more recently, Niclaus Gerhaert (2011), the technical examination produced some very inter- esting res ults. 3 Th e aim of the present research on the ‘Master of Elsloo’ was to elicit the maximum amount of technical information from each sculpture in order to determine the artists’ or workshops’ unique characteristics. To collect this large amount of data and facilitate comparison between sculptures, a standard document was created, made up of three sections (cover- ing the construction and carving, the traceological resea rch 4 an d the poly- chromy) and some fifty research points. This was used for every sculpture studied, whether its examination was carried out in situ or at the KIK-I RPA. 5 Construction and Carving The support of the Elsloo sculptures was examined visually in order to gain as much information as possible about the working process, ranging from the Fig. 10.1 St Anthony Abbot, Neeroeteren, St Lambert’s Church, detail