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Johannes Edvardsson

Johannes Edvardsson

Researcher

Johannes Edvardsson

Timber trade in 17th-century Europe : different wood sources for artworks of Flemish painters

Author

  • Andrea Seim
  • Johannes Edvardsson
  • Aoife Daly
  • Pascale Fraiture
  • Ian Tyers
  • Willy Tegel
  • Rūtilė Pukienė
  • Tomasz Wazny
  • Maite Jover de Celis
  • Joost Vander Auwera
  • Justin Davies
Show all

Summary, in English

The former Spanish Netherlands experienced a period of social, cultural and economic prosperity in the seventeenth century, with Antwerp as its most important commercial and artistic centre. The era’s vibrant art scene, once pivotal culturally, economically, and diplomatically, now offers invaluable insights for scientific studies on art, trade, and craftsmanship. In a study on 294 panel paintings by or related to two famous Flemish artists, Jacques Jordaens (1593–1678) and Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), we applied classical art historical techniques, archival research, dendrochronology, and the study of panel maker’s and guild marks on the painting’s reverse to gain insights into the precise time of tree felling, the geographical provenance of the wood, and the panel makers patronised by the painters. The majority of the paintings (~ 80%), which were subjected to a dendrochronological analysis, could be dated and the results accorded well with the concomitant art historical assessment on authorship. Besides an active and well-known Baltic timber trade which provided over 71% of all the planks examined, straight-grained oak trees were also sourced from western Central Europe (20%). Interestingly, planks from the Baltic and the Ardennes region (France/Belgium) were used together in three different paintings, likely cut apart from larger panels. Employing a multidisciplinary approach to a comprehensive painting collection by individual painters provides not only a new tool to determine a painting’s date and authorship but also allows for a better understanding of the contemporary timber trade and associated craftsmanship.

Department/s

  • Quaternary Sciences

Publishing year

2024-12

Language

English

Publication/Series

Scientific Reports

Volume

14

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Art History

Keywords

  • Anthony Van Dyck
  • Art history
  • Dendroprovenance
  • Jacques Jordaens
  • Panel makers
  • Quercusspp

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2045-2322