A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

91 Gerard Venner 3 90 Summary – Woodcarvers and Other Artists in Roermond and Venlo Records This article focuses on the activity of woodcarvers, painters and goldsmiths in the first half of the sixteenth century in the neighbouring towns of Roermond and Venlo in the duchy of Guelders (nowadays these towns are in the Dutch province of Limburg). It is supposed that the Master of Elsloo had his­ workshop in Roermond. The municipal records of Venlo are better preserved, however, with an almost complete series of accounts from the end of the four- teenth century until 1795. In the accounts from the first half of the sixteenth century only a small number of modest commissions by the Venlo town ­ council to sculptors and painters are referred to, and although in that period at least two goldsmiths were simultaneously active in Venlo, only one ­ woodcarver and one painter carried out work for the council. Unlike towns in the adjacent duchy of Cleves such as Cleves and Kalkar, it was not possible for artists to sit on the town council in Roermond and Venlo. In Roermond several goldsmiths and painters were found in the records from around 1500, but the only woodcarver to be mentioned is Johan van Oel, who appears in archival documents from 1490 until 1530. He was a property - owner and in 1530 he is recorded as a master of the confraternity of Our Lady in the parish church, so he was probably a member of the burgher class. Johan van Oel died in 1550, surviving two of his sons. His third son, Gaert van Oel, who was still alive in 1573, was also a woodcarver. If it is indeed the case that the Master of Elsloo was active in Roermond in the first decades of the sixteenth century, he may be identical with Johan van Oel and/or his son(s). There is still no solid evidence, however. No record has so far been found that links Johan van Oel to a sculpture attributed to the Master of Elsloo, such as an order to supply a carving to an institution (either itself or its successor) that still possesses a sculpture attributed to the Master of Elsloo.