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

CHAPTER IX 178 32. Campbell 1995, 253. Many Annunciation scenes are depicted on separate elements but in a unique space, with floor tiles describing the perspective of the receding space in an uninterrupted fan shape distributed left and right of the vertical junction of the frames at the centre (horizontal lines always remain parallel to the horizon). From this point of departure, in each image of a diptych that features a ceiling and floor tiles, a half-fan perspective results, one slanting toward the right and the other toward the left. In the Christiaan de Hondt Diptych , two different spaces are depicted: one scene takes place inside a church, and the other in a domestic interior. The application of a continuous perspective, however, seen in the lines fanning on the ground from one wing to the other, shows the artist’s intention to connect the scenes, underscoring the spiritual unity of the otherwise disparate spaces. The scale reduction of the church relates to the artist’s desire to visually align the spaces. In other works, the spaces are conceived according to a hierarchical logic. In the Hermitage diptych of The Trinity and Virgin and Child (St Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, inv. nos. 447-448) attributed to Robert Campin, the frontal perspective of the Trinity draws the attention of the viewer in an immediate way (fig. 92a). The Virgin and Child and subordinate figures are portrayed in a half-fan perspective to the right, forming a suitable perspective for the subordinate wing of a diptych. The resemblance of the Hermitage wing to the London Virgin and Child (London, The National Gallery, inv. no. NG6514) attributed to the workshop of Robert Campin (Jacques Daret?), 32 is striking. The latter could well have been the Fig. 91. Example of the use of perspective to represent a single or unified space spread over separate panel scenes. The spaces appear disjointed, but the continuity in the perspective underscores their symbolic unity. Virgin in the Church and Abbot Christiaan de Hondt , 1499, each element 37 × 22 cm, original frame included.