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

CHAPTER IX 174 29. Pächt 1948, 54; Friedländer 1971, VIa, 110. Memling’s Young Man in Prayer (Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, inv. no. 1938.1) (fig. 88), whose figure is turned toward the right with hands joined, may well have constituted the left panel of what was once a diptych, of which the other element is now lost. The exterior depicts a bouquet of flowers in a niche conceived in frontal perspective with strong lateral lighting from the right. Friedländer and Pächt have suggested that the work was originally part of a diptych 29 , but others contend it belonged to a triptych. Given the frontal rendering of the niche, it seems more credible that it was originally part of a diptych. Its unfolding would have begun by first handling the side where the shadow is cast in the niche. Fig. 88. Reconstruction of a diptych showing the outside of a wing portraying a niche rendered frontally with lateral lighting (a). Taking hold of the wing along the shadowy side of the niche (b) would ensure a correct opening of the diptych (c). Hans Memling, Young Man in Prayer , c. 1485/1494, 29.2 × 22.5 cm, original frame lost. When dismembering a hinged or otherwise articulated diptych, it was not unknown to have an artist copy, on the unpainted reverse of the lower panel (in closed position) the representation appearing on the outside of the wing: a device or a coat of arms or a patron saint. One example of this practice is the reverse of the Virgin and Child by Rogier van der Weyden, also known as the “Renders Madonna” (Tournai, Museum of Fine Arts). Heavily restored by Joseph van der Veken, this painting has on its reverse a mediocre evocation of the device found on the reverse of the portrait of Jean Gros (Chicago, Art Institute, inv. no. 1933.1051a) which was its original pendant. This copying over of the devise could date from shortly before 1867, from which date Jean Gros was exhibited alone. Another example of the copying over of an original motif is the St Lawrence grisaille on the back of the portrait of Jean de Froimont by Rogier van der Weyden (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. no. 4279) (fig. 89).