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

CHAPTER V 108 Sometimes a wooden cam pivoting on a nail can be found (fig. 60a). Occasionally a batten was nailed or pegged to the upright of the right hand wing. On closing, this batten covered the edge of the upright of the left hand wing. This batten had primarily an aesthetic purpose of hiding the meeting of the wings. This system was normally accompanied by a closing hook fixing the battened wing to the base (fig. 60b-c). Fig. 60. a. Wooden cam pivoting on a nail. Anonymous, Triptych of the Reliquary of the Virgin’s Veil , late 14th century (Tongeren, BOL , no. 1 ). b-c. For aesthetic purposes, the meeting of the wings could be hidden by a batten. Next to the batten was generally a bolt or hook to hold the wings closed. b. Anonymous, Triptych of the Descent from the Cross , 1567 (Leuven, MM , no. 9 ). c. Anonymous, Triptych with Virgin and Child , 15th century (Leuven, M-Museum, inv. no. S/341/O). a b c The closing could also take metallic form. Many small triptychs close with a hook nailed to the right upright and pivoting into a ring on the left upright (fig. 61a-b). Some hooks are at right angles. In other models, the iron is bent back so that the shaft sits horizontal in the closed position. In many cases, the hook is located half way up the uprights. At times there are two hooks, one at the top and one at the bottom, and occasionally the hooks were placed on the upper and bottom narrow sides (fig. 61c). While the hook of a triptych is nailed to the front of the frame, that of the diptych is attached to the narrow outer sides (fig. 61d). The use of metal sliding bolts is rare (fig. 61e). Attached to the bottom of an upright, the bolt slid vertically into a hook, or into a hole in the base.