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

CHAPTER V 110 3. Reusens 1885-1886, 216-221. Rare articulated works were equipped with an opening handle or with a pull ring (fig. 63). Fig. 63. Opening handle and pull ring. a. Anonymous, Triptych of the Crucifixion , mid-16th century (Bruges, OLPM , no. 6 ). b. Anonymous, Triptych of the Holy Women at the Tomb , 1564-1645 (Bruges, OLPM , no. 5 ). Paintings could be hidden by a curtain or veil. In the Adoration of the Sheperds of Hugo van der Goes (Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, cat. no. 1622A) two figures, one to the left and one to the right, draw back curtains that appear to be suspended from a rod in relief and also painted. The exact meaning of this trompe-l’œil is not easy to establish. There is an obvious reference to the theatre. Are the curtains being raised on a painting or an animated scene? The liturgy had adopted the use of veils of various kinds. 3 On both sides of the altar, and sometimes behind the altar, were curtains held in place by cords wound on rods and frequently represented in old paintings. The colour of the curtains varies with the feasts and different times of the liturgical year. Their use predates the use of altarpieces. They were introduced in the late 11th century, and continue at least until the 17th century. Other veils were in use only during Lent: a veil hid the altar (just as the ark of the covenant was hidden from the people). Lenten veils or vela quadragesimalia were placed in front of altars, sculptures and crucifixes. In front of an altar of around 1500 (Brabant Anonymous, Antependium of Christ with the Instruments of the Passion , late 15th century, Leuven, MM , no. 1 ) we find a system for carrying a rod from which a (Lenten) veil could be suspended. a b