Art centres in the Lower Rhine and the Maasland revisited: research potential of a methodological reorientation of medieval art history

The medieval wooden sculptures in the Lower Rhine and the Maasland region have been the focus of much art historical interest. Various inventory and exhibition projects in the twentieth century comprehensively recorded and arranged the numerous works available in the region and assigned them to different known or unknown artists or art landscape groups of works, according to the status of the respective research claim. The basis for a revision of the Lower Rhine and Maasland medieval wooden sculptures lies in the application of large-scale research efforts toward medieval wooden sculpture and panel painting in the Mecklenburg and Nordschleswig/Sønderjylland regions. The concept is to apply comprehensive digital mapping of wooden sculptures in the Lower Rhine region. This could help to identify small, peripheral art centres and make the distribution channels of art transfer comprehensible