A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

produced an inventory of the works in Belgium and elsewhere, incorporating a significant number of sculptures held in the kik-irpa database. This volume of Scientia Artis also represents a new departure. For the first time the kik-irpa is publishing an e-book, available via the Institute’s website, in addition to the printed version. This venture is undertaken in ­ partnership with Peeters Printers, who have already acquired a level of exper- tise with digital publications. The Institute has taken this decision chiefly in order to promote the wider dissemination of the content, but also to make the many data collected during the two-year research project available to all with a ­simple click of the mouse. The digital publication resembles a printed book that can be browsed through from beginning to end. The layout of the printed and online version looks identical. But the e-book has a number of additional advantages. For instance, information in the text can be searched for with a simple search tool, which thus acts like an index. Each page can be enlarged, but the kik-irpa photographs also have a zoom tool, so the smallest details can be explored. Furthermore, a click on an endnote number brings up the page with the ­ endnote itself; and a click on a figure number that refers to an illustration in another article leads to the page on which that illustration appears. Another great asset is the direct link that has been made between the inven- tory of works of art at the back of the book and the kik-irpa photo library. In its new version, known a s BALaT (Belgian Art Links and Tools), this ­ database enables not only photographs but also other types of documents ( texts, reports, X-radiographs, infrared reflectograms and so on) to be linked to the work of art. For this project – and for the first time – text documents containing art historical, material and technical data are linked to the ­ sculptures examined. This has the obvious advantage of allowing these data to be easily updated or expanded as new information becomes available. The directorate of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage and those who have contributed to this book are extremely proud of this achievement, accomplished in the complicated conditions of these crisis years. They invite you to explore the new possibilities of the online publication, which will hope- fully also provide a strong incentive to acquire a copy of the very beautiful printed edition. Sincere thanks are due to all those who have worked on this publication, especially art historian and editor Famke Peters and the ­ Valorization and Communication team, for their professional approach to the kik-irpa’s first e-book. We hope that the reader will be carried away on a voyage of discovery among sculptures carved with a masterly hand, a voyage that might not uncover the identity of the Master of Elsloo but which will certainly enthral and fascinate both present and future generations. Christina Ceulemans Director General ad interim of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage