A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

10.2 10.3 Fig. 10.2 Apostle, Ellikom, Church of St Harlindis and St Relindis, honeycomb checking on the underside Fig. 10.3 St Reineldis of Saintes, Neeroeteren, St Lambert’s Church, surface checking choice of wood and the negotiation of its various properties, and the construc- tion of the sculpture and the various tools and techniques used in its produc- tion (fig. 10.1), to the most delicate decorative techniques employed for the surface ­finishing. First, each sculpture was measured both with and without any non-original elements. In this comparative study, only the measurements excluding non- original elements have been used. Since the application of certain working methods and techniques is related to a work’s size, sculptures were grouped according to this criterion. A sculpture of 50 centimetres or less in height is catalogued as small, a sculpture of between 50 and 100 centimetres as medium- sized, and a sculpture of over 100 centimetres as large. Of the seventy-seven sculptures included in the KIK-IRPA study, almost three-quarters were carved from a single piece of wood. This was the case for all the small statues, for over three-quarters of the medium-sized, and just under half of the large sculptures. This appears to be proportional to the sculpture size, which is logical. The larger the sculpture, the greater the likelihood that it will exceed the dimen- sions of the log or that the composition will make it technically impossible to work in a single block. Added elements such as hands, attributes and ­ accessories are often limited in size and are attached by means of glue, dowels or forged nails. Such additions are rather rare, however. This is an interesting observation, since in Lower Rhenish workshops, for example, small pieces of wood were added to the main volume of the sculpture very of ten. 6 All the sculptures of the Elsloo group studied by the KIK-IRPA research team are carved out of oak. 7 In most cases the identification of the wood ­ species was easy, thanks to oak’s distinctive characteristics: the coarse straight grain, the ray flecks on radial surfaces and the ring-porous distribution of the pores within the tree rings. The common use of oak wood in northern regions such as the Lower Rhine area with centres as Kalkar and Cleves, and the area between the Meuse, Rur and Wurm has already been remar ked. 8 In the entire Elsloo oeuvre only a few exceptions were fou nd: 9 a s tatuette of the Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon (37.5 ≈ 13.3 ≈ 12  cm) at the Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago and a small Samson and the Lion (13 cm) in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, both made of boxwood ( Buxus sp.),