A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

227 Arnold Truyen 11 226 however, as does the way in which the wood has been removed from the three sculptures that have been hollowed out. Unfortunately, the examination of workbench traces on the four sculptures could provide no additional support to the presumed stylistic kinship between the works. Indeed, three of the statues, including the reference work from Elsloo, apparently bear no workbench traces at all. In these cases, therefore, this research method is of little help in the attribution to a single master or workshop, nor does it lead to a better understanding of the use of workbenches in workshop practice. It is possible, however, that the specific marks found on the underside of the Amsterdam St Anne will eventually provide a link with other works associated with the Master of Elsloo. Thus the technical research did not lead to definite attributions of other statues to the maker of the key work in Elsloo. But, like other works that have been associated with the production of the Master of Elsloo, they are sculp- tures of high quality, making it fairly certain that more than one gifted wood- carver was simultaneously at work in the same area. Therefore it would seem appropriate to refer henceforth not to the Master of Elsloo but to an Elsloo group. The provisional character of these research results has already been empha- sised. Hopefully, further material and technical investigation of other impor- tant and hitherto unstudied sculptures from the Elsloo group will lead to new insights.