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

CHAPTER IX 170 19. Hand et al. 2006, 78-81. 20. Verougstraete and Van Schoute 1998, 98-100; Verougstraete and Van Schoute 2000, 107-117. 21. Van Uytven 1999, 84-120. a) Instructions on the closed diptych In the Diptych of the Virgin and Child and St John the Baptist (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. RF 38-22), 19 St John the Baptist occupies the left pane (fig. 85) . A reconstruction based on the remains of the original polychromy on the closed diptych (green marbling on the side of St John the Baptist, and red on that of the Virgin and Child) shows that the diptych, with its marbled boards, looks much like many 17th and 18th century books, with their boards covered with marbled paper. Those later books draw from an old tradition. The sources of inspiration for this Eyckian marbling and its relationship with manuscripts and marbled papers are discussed in Chapter IV on polychromy . 20 Fig. 85. Reconstruction of the original appearance: the shape of the book invites one to open it from right to left. Van Eyck (workshop), Diptych with the Virgin and Child and St John the Baptist , c. 1440, 38.2 × 23.4 cm. The adoption of a different colour for each of the boards has a symbolic meaning: green, the colour of waiting, was appropriate for the precursor and red, being the colour of completion, of charity, suited the Virgin and Child, according to a colour code 21 rarely identified in old Flemish paintings. The book form required one to place the object just as any book, ready to be opened from right to left. The green colour of expectation was therefore suited to the covering panel on top. We once observed at the Louvre, with the aid of a microscope, the remains of red polychromy under the current gilding of the inside frame of the diptych. The gilding on the narrow sides, slightly concave to resemble that of a book, is original. Neither the gilding on the spine of the book, nor the traces of hinges look original. It is possible that these elements replace a spine in leather or parchment, as we observe in other diptychs in book form. The decorative stucco items in the middle of the boards are not original either. There must have been here a semi-precious stone held by four claws, the