A Masterly Hand / Scientia Artis 9

95 Famke Peters 4 94 Gerdingen church (fig. 4.2) and the St Anne with the Virgin and Child from St Catherine’s Church in Maaseik – led to their transferral to the KIK-IRPA’s polychromed wood sculpture workshop for more detailed st udy. 10 First and foremost, it was necessary to access the works in situ by removing them from their base. This meant switching off the alarm system and discon- necting whatever security mechanism was in place. In some cases this involved the temporary removal of a metal plate that had been screwed to the underside of the sculpture. Some sculptures were in a rather poor condition and required careful ­ handling. The neo-Gothic polychromy of the Virgin and Child on the ­Crescent Moon in St Lawrence’s Church in Bocholt, for example, is extremely fragile ( fig. 5.29) . The paint is flaking in places and there are numerous losses. The figure hangs on the wall, high above an enclosed wooden vestibule. It was decided to remove it and let it rest on the vestibule’s flat roof for technical examination as the handling involved in lowering it to the ground was consid- ered too risky. Photographs were taken from a scaffold. Some sculptures could not be removed at all. The figures of St Monulphus and St Gondulphus in the Maasmechelen church, for example, are mounted high in nineteenth-century altarpieces from which they could not be detached ( fig. 4.3). It would be worth considering an alternative security system that would allow the statues to be taken out in cases of emergency. Reaching the Marianum in Neeroeteren required the construction of a high platform, which enabled a closer scrutiny of the sculpture and also allowed it to be photo- graphed in detail. The Calvary on the rood beam in St Trudo’s in Eksel also had to be photographed from a scaffold, but in this case it was impossible to get close enough for examination. For each sculpture the KIK-IRPA team’s work consisted of three parts. First the sculpture was photographed against a white background, following a standard procedure (fig. 4.4). Photographs were taken from eight different angles, and images were also made of the top and underside, and a number of details such as faces, hands and attributes (fig. 4.5). These high-resolution images, showing more or less the same views of each work, were extremely useful not only for the technical examination but also for stylistic comparison. The second part was the technical resea rch. 11 Th e construction of each work was carefully studied, focusing on the presence of workbench and tool marks. The paint, of which only fragments remain in some cases, was also examined. If possible a dendrochronological analysis was carried out, as well as laboratory examination of the paint. Each sculpture’s state of preservation was described in a report, which also included advice on its conservation or restoration. This was given to the owners. The third part was the art-historical research, which is the main focus of this article. It comprises the study of the literature on the Master of Elsloo and his putative works and their historical background, archival research, and an analysis of iconography and style. One of the aspects of this research was the examination of the archives of those places in Belgian Limburg where Elsloo sculptures surv ive. 12 4.4 Fig. 4.4 Photography of the Virgin and Child on the Crescent Moon, Gerdingen, Church of Our Lady