A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

269 Emmanuelle Mercier and Delphine Steyaert 14 268 lettering in sgraffito on a brown glaze background. This brown glaze is very different from the red glaze on silver leaf used on the headdress. And there are foliage patterns executed in sgraffito in this same brownish glaze on the edges of the garments worn by the figures of the Teaching of the Virgin by St Anne in the Musée provincial des Arts anciens du Namurois in Namur (inv. 82), a group dated to around 15 00. 21 The St Odile (?) in the Royal Museums of Art and History is an example of the evolution of the second scheme of composition (fig. 14.1 0a). 22 Th is figure, with the signature ian va[n] weerd and the date 1509 carved in the wood, wears a gilded gown whose lining is covered with a brown glaze on silver leaf ( fig. 14.10b). On her (largely repainted) red cloak are traces of isolated decora- tions, possibly local applied brocades. It is lined with azurite on a black under- layer. The polychromy of this figure has some details in common with the Liège Virgin, such as the use of brown glaze and punched rosettes that decorate the gilded borders of the cloak and the undergown. Furthermore, in the­ central dot of the rosettes is the same kind of six-branched star (fig. 14.10c). They were not carried out using the same punch, however, as the stars on the Virgin are smaller (3.2 mm in diameter, whereas those on the St Odile measure 4 mm). Dot-and-star punches were also used in the border ornamentation on sculptures from the Lower Rhine region, as evidenced by the traces of punch- ing found in the wood of the Virgin and Child in St Martin’s Church in Pfalzdorf, now without polychromy, attributed to Henrick van Holt and dated around 1 515. 23 Th ere are also punched stars in the centre of rosettes on the gilded borders of the garments of several early-sixteenth-century apostles in St Nicholas’s Church in Kalkar, such as St Matth ew. 24 Th is sculpture exem­ plifies a type of polychromy found in that period in the Lower Rhine region, in which garment borders are decorated with a combination of sgraffito and motifs carved into the wood. The very wide borders are arranged in­ parallel bands, however, and the robe is decorated with motifs engraved in the ground, a technique that is not found in Brabant and the Meuse region. It is interesting to note that dot-and-star punches also belong to the repertory of decorative patterns on some leather bindings on Mosan manuscripts from the same peri od. 25 The presence of brown glaze on the borders or lining of the garments of several other statues, shows that its use was more common than first thought. Is it a result of the discoloration of a red glaze or does this brownish tone belong to the palette used in this period? A comparative study including the identification of the organic colorant of the brown glazes observed would be very useful to a better understanding of the original appearance of these sculp- tures. In the Virgin from Liège this delicate tone subtly softens the effect of the gilding without compromising the intensity of the blue. The resulting camaïeu effect can be compared with decorations found in contemporary illuminated manuscripts such as the Mayer van den Bergh Breviary (fig. 14.11). The covering sgraffito on the Liège Virgin’s dress is another particularity which has hitherto only been observed on the mantle of the Blessing Christ from the private collection. Otherwise, the use of overall sgraffito patterning on a cloak lining as well as the insertion of painted flowers and strawberries in 14.11 14.10 b 14.10 c