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

CHAPTER IX 158 wings, the perspective of niches, arches and other architectural motifs is as if these motifs are situated on the oblique planes of the half-open wings. The propensity to paint architectural elements: marbled walls, archways, niches etc. on the outsides of triptychs perhaps stems from this: the desire to evoke a building with half-open doors inviting the viewer to enter. The colours of the frames accompany the spectator’s progression in visual crescendo: from red, blue, grey, beige or black on the outside to the bright gilding on the inside. The study of the polychromy of frames, and of the often relatively uniform colour of the closed wings, falls traditionally within the study of frames. But the boundaries are blurred, with (and this goes far beyond the case of articulated works) the hierarchy of colours, the occasional use of meaningful colours, the decorative motifs, texts inscribed on the frames, the way the figures portrayed overlap onto the frame or the frame continues in trompe-l’œil into the painting, and similar items, also falling under the heading of iconography. For the 14th century, few easel paintings are preserved in the part of Europe that interests us, but those that are include articulated items. In these early examples, the closed frames were frequently decorated in red, but other colours were also adopted. These colours no doubt have a meaning. Uniform colours remained in use for several centuries on the outsides of the wings, but we also find here, starting in the 15th century (and perhaps earlier), more or less developed decorations or representations. The favourite decorative motif in the 14th century pattern is the star or the floret. On the small Triptych of the Reliquary of the Virgin’s Veil (Tongeren, BOL , no. 1 ) stars alternate with florets. 6 The motif is produced in gold leaf on the front of the closed reliquary and repeated in silver leaf on the back. This is one of the earliest conserved examples of a hierarchization of surfaces by means of the colours of the motifs decorating them. The Tongeren reliquary was probably presented during processions and seen from all sides by the faithful. The side of a painting exposed to the people’s gaze was usually painted. But there were cases where the works were covered at the back and sides with fabric, as attested in archival sources: “A rich and exquisite double painting … lined on the outside with satin brocade … the edge of said painting decorated with green velvet, with three gilded silver clasps serving said painting.” 7 While we no longer have any extant example of this practice, it is possible that some small works, not painted on the reverse, were initially covered with fabric. 6. Verougstraete-Marcq and Van Schoute 1989, 321-322; Deneffe et al. 2009, 421-446. 7. “Ung riche et fort exquis double tableau…doublé par dehors de satin brochier… le bors dudit tableau garnie de velours vers, avec trois ferrures d’argent dore servant audit tableau.” Michelant 1871, 99, quoted from Eichberger 1998, 301, note 47; Hand et al. 2006, 306, note 12.