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

ARTICULATED WORKS WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE 177 31. Dülberg 1990, 66-67, note 370. two groups of two strategically placed holes on the lateral exteriors of the elements, one above and the other below, which could have served a similar purpose. Diptych elements were most usually joined by hinges. In the case of smaller diptychs, panels were sometimes hinged together with two intertwined metal wires, their extremities inserted slantwise into the frames. Sometimes, in the case of book- shaped diptychs, the two elements were fastened with strips of leather, parchment, or cloth. 31 This has already been mentioned for the Eyckian diptych in the Louvre. In triptychs, the hinges of the central frame – the one carrying the weight of the wings and therefore the strongest frame – had the greatest number of hinge knuckles. This supporting function was unnecessary in diptychs because they were meant to be set down; thus, additional hinge knuckles to account for weight were unnecessary. Several panel paintings portray bedroom scenes in which small diptychs are suspended from bed curtains. The Diptych of the Virgin in a Church and Abbot Christiaan de Hondt , by the Master of 1499 (Antwerp, RMFA , no. 7 ) shows no trace of ancient hinges. The artist has depicted on the right panel a small diptych hanging to the bed curtains that may evoke the Diptych of Christiaan de Hondt itself. It is possible that the two panels were bound or glued together in one plane, without which reliable suspension would have been jeopardized and hanging unstable, but no examples of such objects have survived. Any such hypothetical unarticulated diptych with two elements fixed in the same plane could have been turned over if painted on both sides. If the outside was left unpainted, it would not have been turned over. b) Instructions on the open diptych Interior diptych images display both unified and discontinuous spaces, arranged frontally or obliquely. We have chosen a few examples to explain what we believe were the symbolic intentions of the Flemish Primitives with regard to perspective. The fact that some of these examples were executed as early as the beginning of the 15th century seems to indicate the existence of older traditions in this domain. The lack of consistent central convergence and the multiplication of vanishing points cannot be attributed to lack of sophistication. On the contrary, some perspectival lines serve to guide the viewer’s attention in a significantly purposeful manner, as mentioned before. In the Diptych of the Virgin in the Church and Abbot Christiaan de Hondt (Antwerp, RMFA , no. 7 ), the church vault is not aligned with the frontal elements in a single vertical axis but in three vertical axes unaligned with one another (fig. 91). One line directs our attention to the upper window, another to the cross, and the third to an altarpiece placed on the altar (the vertical axes are better aligned in Jan van Eyck’s Virgin in the Church , c. 1425, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, cat. no. 525C).