Constructing Wooden Images Proceedings of the Symposium on the Organization of Labour and Working Practices of Late Gothic Carved Altarpieces in the Low Countries, Brussels

A thorough and unique survey focusing on the socio-economic background, production, and actual construction of carved wooden altarpieces of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance in the Low Countries. The symposium was part of a methodological and interdisciplinary research project on the characteristics, evolution and socio-cultural significance of the carved altarpieces of Brabant (15th 16th centuries), conducted by both universities from 2001 to 2004, in collaboration with the Musees royaux d'Art et d'Histoire in Brussels and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. The research of the project, and consequently also the symposium, which had the intention of making public its provisional results, focussed on the socio-economic background of the considerable production of carved wooden altarpieces of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance in the Low Countries, especially in the old duchy of Brabant, and also on the actual construction of such works.