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

ARTICULATED WORKS WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE 175 30. Certain art historians have considered these outside paintings to be late, but the respecting of a convention which probably quite quickly fell into oblivion makes us plead in favour of the antiquity of these simple arches. In the Diptych of the Virgin and Child and Three Donors, by the Master of the St Ursula Legend, 1486 (Antwerp, RMFA , no. 4 ), one of the outsides of the panels carries a crucifix and the other a chalice and host, both represented fairly summarily. Each motif is under a blind arcade arch painted in light colour against a dark background. To the right side of each arch, two yellow stripes evoke the light and on the left side only one stripe evokes the shadow (fig. 90). The work had to be handled on the single stripe side (side in the shade). Depending on the location of the hinge, one either turned over or opened the diptych. This manipulation produces the correct opening, with the donor panel serving as the wing. 30 Fig. 89. The St Lawrence grisaille on the back of the portrait of Jean de Froimont by Rogier van der Weyden is considered a later addition. As the shaded side guided the opening, the grisaille is designed to decorate a left wing. Presumably at the time of dismemberment of the diptych, the grisaille adorning the outside of the diptych wing was recopied. Rogier van der Weyden , shortly before 1464 (?), 51.1 × 33.2 cm.