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

ARTICULATED WORKS WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE 165 the wing with the woman is in most cases adorned with a skull in a niche. The lighting is almost always consistent, with the left wall of the niche bathed in shadow and the right side brightly lit for opening from left to right, according to the convention described above. For the exterior wings of a triptych, however, an oblique perspective was preferred, that is, toward the left and toward the right of the central stiles of the frames, the surface entirely suffused with a light emanating from a single source. Some art historians have suggested that the light came from the window of the room where the work was exhibited, and this appears logical. The representations are in a slightly oblique planes, as if the wings were slightly open. The viewer is waiting for the upcoming show inside the altarpiece. Fig. 80. a. A diptych niche. The perspective is frontal and the lateral nature of the lighting is emphasized. The diptych is opened by taking in the hand the wing along the shadowed side of the niche. b. The niches of a triptych: a single light source illuminates the whole, the niches are in oblique perspective, as if the wings were slightly opened. a b