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

HINGES. CLOSING, HANGING AND POSITIONING SYSTEMS AND DEVICES 107 Various systems, designed already at the joinery stage, made sure that the wings closed tightly together. A simple system frequently found in the 15th and 16th centuries is the rebating on opposite edges of the two central stiles (fig. 58: 3). Rebates are found on the panels of The Walcourt Annunciation and Visitation from the late 14th century (Namur, PMAA , no. 1 ) and also existed on the sides of the frames of Adam and of Eve of the Ghent Altarpiece . Another simple system in frequent use was pegs. This consisted of placing, on one stile, two pins which on closing fitted into two holes in the other stile (fig. 58: 4). We still encounter examples, but the pegs are now generally broken, in many cases leaving only the holes, sometimes filled in. In the background of an Annunciation , 1552 (Gouda, Gemeentemuseum), Pieter Pourbus represents a small domestic altarpiece. The frames are gilded, the insides of the wings are uniformly black, and triptych rests on a red marbled base. In the side of the left wing, the two pegs for closing the triptych are clearly visible. We have observed this closing system in the Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi by a follower of Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1521?) (Leuven, MM , no. 6 ) and in the Triptych of Job by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch (Bruges, GM , no. 14) . Fig. 59. The closing system could be produced by the joiner himself, without recourse to a locksmith. a. The outer edges of the wings could be rebated so as to close tight one on top of the other (here the rebate is filled with a modern slat). Van Eyck, upper altarpiece (Ghent, St Bavo’s Cathedral). b. Simple pegging system: Pieter Claeissens the Elder, Triptych of the Salamanca Crucifixion , 1567 and 1581 (Bruges, GM , no. 22 ). c. Wings could also close with a tongue-and-groove system: Hans Memling, The St John Altarpiece , 1479 (Bruges, SJH , no. 1 ). In 16th century triptychs, one wing can have on its narrow vertical side a carefully rounded tongue that fits into a groove on the other side, as in the St John altarpiece by Hans Memling, 1479 (Bruges, SJH , no. 1 ) (fig. 59c) and in the Triptych of the Virgin and Child with St John and St Jerome by Adriaen Isenbrant, first half of the 16th century (Bruges, GM , no. 17 ). The tongue-and-groove system could be combined with a peg placed at each end of the tongue, as in the Triptych of Jean de Sedano by Gerard David, 1490 (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. R.F. 588). a b c