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

CHAPTER VII 130 integral and trompe-l’œil frames applied frames mixed system (semi-integral) separate frames late 14th cent. 3 1st half 15th cent. 1 4 2nd half 15th cent. 8 2 40 1st half 16th cent. 5 2 1 47 2nd half 16th cent. 1 38 early 17th cent. 3 5 For 13 works, the original arrangement or assembly can no longer be identified. In other cases restoration work has hidden the joints (Bruges, GM , no. 5 ; Leuven, MM , no. 2 ; Bruges, GM , no. 9 ; Bruges, GM , no. 16; Brussels, RMFAB , no. 14; Brussels, RMFAB , no. 10 ). Two works have “case” frames preventing identification of the joints: Leuven, MM , no. 8 ; Leuven, MM , no. 12 . A. Integral frames (fig. 29: 1 ) In 15 works, the frames are integral: Tongeren, BOL , no. 1 (Anonymous, Triptych of the Reliquary of the Virgin’s Veil ); Antwerp, RMFA , no. 4 (Master of the St Ursula Legend, Diptych of the Virgin and Child and Three Donors ); Antwerp, RMFA , no. 5 (Master of Frankfurt, Portrait of the Artist and his Wife ); Antwerp, RMFA , no. 7 (Master of 1499, Diptych of the Virgin in the Church and Abbot Christiaan de Hondt ); Brussels, RMFAB , no. 5 (Antwerp Anonymous, Portrait of the Wife of Willem de Moelenere ); Antwerp, MVB , no. 3 (workshop of Hans Memling, Virgin and Child ); Brussels, RMFAB , no. 2 (Anonymous, Virgin and Child ); Antwerp, MVB , no. 7 (Anonymous, Salvator Mundi ); Ghent, MFA , no. 3 (Master of the Lineage of St Anne, pair of wings with the Lineage of St Anne ); Ghent, MFA , no. 4 (Master of the Lineage of St Anne, Triptych of the Lineage of St Anne, with St Catherine and St Barbara ); Brussels, RMFAB , no. 7 (Master of the St Catherine Legend, Portrait of Philip of Cleves, Lord of Ravenstein ); Antwerp, RMFA , no. 8 (Goossen van der Weyden, Triptych of Abbot Antonius Tsgrooten ); Antwerp, MVB , no. 10 (Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen, Man of Sorrows ); Bruges, GM , no. 10 (Master of 1518 (?), Temptation of St Antony ); Antwerp, MVB , no. 14 (Master of the Magdalen Legend, Virgin and Child ). The practice of cutting the frame into the panel (integral frames) dates back at least to the 14th century (2 cases). We have 13 other cases, ranging from the second half of the 15th century until about 1520. These are generally small works, between 30 and 50 cm in height, reaching in the case of the Ghent works heights of 60.5 cm (Ghent, MFA , no. 3 ) and 77 cm (Ghent, MFA , no. 4 ). The limited size of these works is probably explained by the uneconomic nature of the process.