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

143 To enable us to analyse the evolution over time of the mouldings of frames, the various profiles are reproduced on the following pages in reduced scale, grouped chronologically in tables by place of production (Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Antwerp, other or unspecified). Each type of moulding is discussed along with its geographical and chronological occurrence. The medieval joiner had two tools as his disposal for producing mouldings on picture frames. This first was a chisel. This could be concave in shape (normally referred to then as a gouge), which could then serve to cut both concave (cavetto) and convex (ovolo), as well as mixed (ogee mouldings). This is a slow and painstaking task, requiring in many cases a strip of wood to be clamped on top of the frame to provide the line, and with constant attention to the grain of the wood so as not to lose the straight line. Almost certainly by the end of our period, joiners were also using moulding planes. These produce what is essentially a decorated bevel starting from a square corner and always down from it. The two basic constraints are width of cut (above 20 mm, a moulding plane is difficult to push, especially in a solid wood like oak) and the difficulties of producing and sharpening complex patterned blades. The more complex mouldings towards the end of our period, especially double bodies of mouldings, required a mixed approach, combining gouges, flat planes (including narrow planes with the blade running right across the bottom) and moulding planes. In many cases the flat band in the centre of double mouldings appears to have served to provide the necessary right angle from which to run the outer set of mouldings. 1 Certain mouldings occur frequently, but with variants. The illustrations which follow in this chapter contain reduced scale profiles, most of them taken from frames studied in this catalogue. The works are classified chronologically by production centre. This classification calls for reservations. The traditional attribution of a frame to a production centre is often based on the work it contains having been conserved since early times at a given location or on the artist inspiring the work, without regard to the way paintings and styles could circulate from one city to another. CHAPTER VIII EVOLUTION OF THE MOULDINGS OF FRAMES 1. This paragraph was provided by Michael Lomax from his own woodworking experience.