A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

93 92 4 Introduction to the KIK-IRPA’s Interdisciplinary Research on the Sculptures from the Elsloo Group in Belgium, and in Particular the Methodology of the Art-historical Research Famke Peters * At the beginning of 2010 the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels started a two year research project entitled The works of the late-medieval sculp- tor the ‘Master of Elsloo’ in Belgian ownership: art-historical and technical research in an international perspective . The selection of works to be studied was based mainly on literat ure. 1 Th ree publications were of particular importance. The first is the catalogue of the exhibition on the Master of Elsloo held in Horst in 1974: De Meester van Elsloo: Oppergelders beeldsnijder XVIe eeuw . The second, the catalogue of the Sint-Truiden exhibition Laat-gotische beeld­snijkunst uit Limburg en Grensland held in 1990, includes the first inventory of Elsloo sculp- t ures 2 in Belgium. The third, Laatmiddeleeuwse houten beelden ­tussen Maas, Roer en Worm , published in 2001, lists the large number of Elsloo works that survive in the region between the Meuse, the Rur and the Wurm. In Belgium around ninety works have been attributed to the Master of Elsloo, his workshop or a follower. Some of these had previously been ascribed to the Master of the Beek Calvary or the Master of Neeroeteren, who were seen as independent sculpt ors. 3 La ter they were included in what was considered to be the large workshop of the Master of Elsloo. Three of these sculptures ( a St Lucy from Bocholt, a Pietà from Opitter and a St Martin fromMeeuwen) have been lost to theft or fire in the twentieth cent ury. 4 Af ter a careful study of photographs or an on-site inspection a number of others were excluded from the research project, owing to striking differences in style or quality. Examples of these are the Crucified Christ and the St Anne with the Virgin and Child from St Michael’s Church in Bree, the Calvary from the old Erpekom church ( moved to the Openluchtmuseum Bokrijk), a small Altarpiece of the Virgin in St Willibrord’s Church in Eisden, a St Roch in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp and an identical image of the saint in St Trudo’s Church in Eksel which turned out to be neo-Got hic. 5 Ev entually, a corpus of some seventy works remained for st udy. 6 Most Elsloo works in Belgium are in parish churches in north and central Limburg. Their large presence in several churches in and around the towns of Bree and Maaseik is particularly noteworthy. Two more are in churches in *  Art historian, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels. Fig. 4.1 Distribution of the sculptures from the Elsloo group