Frames and supports in 15th and 16th-century Southern Netherlandish painting

103 A. Hinges In pre-Eyckian times and sometimes into the early 15th century, the wings are attached by wrought iron band hinges nailed onto the front side of the frames. Hinges of this type could develop into long strap hinges, sometimes L-shaped, sometimes decorative. These developments were becoming archaic at the time of the Van Eyck brothers, but they are still found in regional woodwork. The band hinges are gradually abandoned in favour of often rectangular, sometime dovetailed hinges. Often the wood is cut to allow the blades to sit flush in a recess for better strength, with the nails driven in a staggered pattern to avoid cracking the wood. The size of the blades is proportional to the weight they are intended to carry. Eugène Viollet le Duc writes at length on medieval locksmithery and provides useful information for understanding the hardware that concerns us. 1 The most common form of hinge consisted of two iron blades ending in little cylindrical knuckles, formed alternately on the facing blades, so as to allow them to be joined by inserting a pin which aligns them and provides the rotating axis (fig. 57c- d) around which the mobile part of the construction (the wing) can rotate. Pins were often left free, for easy dismantling of the wings. The blade having the greater number of knuckles was in principle nailed to the fixed, carrying portion of the structure, in a triptych therefore the central part. In the Braque Triptych by Rogier van der Weyden (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. R.F. 2063) a pin runs the whole vertical length of the triptych. In rare cases, the hinges are nailed on the front or back of the frame rather than the side. This was the case for the Van Eyck brothers’ altarpieces in Ghent (fig. 57a). In the Polyptych of the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin by Bernard van Orley, 1520 (Brussels, Public Welfare Centre, inv. no. T1), the hinges are nailed on the front of the frame only between the closed wings. CHAPTER V HINGES. CLOSING, HANGING AND POSITIONING SYSTEMS AND DEVICES 1. Bernage 1978, 34-59.