Contribution of dendrochronology to understanding of wood procurement sources for panel paintings in the former Southern Netherlands from 1450 AD to 1650 AD

Abstract

Since the middle of the 1980s, dendrochronological analyses of panel paintings produced in the former Netherlands have demonstrated the near-exclusive use of oak from the Baltic region. Further, as Hillam and Tyers [1995. Reliability and repeatability in dendrochronological analysis: tests using the Fletcher archive of panel-painting data. Archaeometry 37 (2), 395–405] did for English paintings analyzed by Fletcher, the objective of the present work was to determine whether it was possible to distinguish different Baltic typologies in the wood used for paintings in the ancient Southern Netherlands from 1450 AD to 1650 AD. In this study, it appeared that the same three “English” typologies ( BALTIC1, BALTIC2 and BALTIC3) were also found in the Southern Netherlands, in proportions varying by period. The diversity of Baltic typologies in England was interpreted by Hillam and Tyers (1995) as reflecting changes in the procurement sources for wood. In addition to this diversification of Baltic typologies in the Southern Netherlands, a Western European provenance was identified for 16% of the wood used in Flemish panels. The research focused on determination of the provenance of these non-Baltic oaks, by comparison between wood from painting panels and site chronologies for all of Belgium, the northern half of France and southwest Germany. Such comparison yielded a network of good correlations between the panel ring series and site chronologies along the Franco-Belgian Meuse and the French Moselle River. Dendrochronological dates obtained for the Flemish panels in the corpus clarify the period during which diversification of Baltic sources intensified. The parallel between the very high proportion of BALTIC1 type woods in Flemish panels before 1565 AD, and its progressive decrease until complete disappearance in the 1620 AD, and quantitative data from the Sound Toll Records, among others, led to interpret the BALTIC1 typology as representing the enormous hinterland exploited by the Gdansk port, the principal place of export for wood until 1565 AD. This port then decreased in importance until its disappearance at the beginning of the 17th century. Oaks closest to BALTIC2 and BALTIC3 types reflect the percentage of exports lost to the Gdansk competitors. The period of increase in the use of oaks of BALTIC2 and BALTIC3 typologies also coincides with the appearance of the use of Meuse/Moselle oaks. Explanations for these changes are in relationship to the politico-economic and religious contexts, in particular the wars of religion starting in the 1560 AD that destabilized Europe, and the separation of Northern and Southern Netherlands in 1585 AD.