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

CHAPTER IX 172 26. Spronk 1998, 36-38. expressed literally and figuratively at once, can be recognized in certain triptychs with three equal-sized wings, closed by the representation of a patron saint, as discussed below. The logic of the hierarchical organization of exteriors was sometimes expressed by their dissimilar painted decoration. For example, a grisaille or other elaborate motif would appear on one side and, on the other, a decorative colour or a marbling. Prior to opening Jan Provoost’s Diptych with Christ Carrying the Cross and Portrait of a Friar Minor (Bruges, SJH , no. 11 ) , the exterior showing a skull in a niche was meant to be positioned face-up. 26 The marbled exterior would have faced down (fig. 86). Fig. 86. a. Diptych with a dissimilar decoration on the outside. b. correctly positioned with the more elaborated side upwards. c-d. ready for opening. Jan Provoost, Christ Carrying the Cross (outside: imitation porphyry) and Portrait of a Friar Minor (outside: skull), 1522, each element 50 × 40.2 cm, frame included. a b c d