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

CHAPTER I 18 79. Sosson 1977, 132. 80. Marette 1961, 98. 81. 12 to 18 mm. 82. “de toutes sortes d’épaisseurs… qu’il n’en vient presque plus que de 6 et de 9 lignes d’épaisseur, ce qui fait qu’on ne s’en sert que pour faire des panneaux, à quoi il est très bon.” Quoted from Roubo 1977, 23-24. 83. Marette 1961, 81. 84. Viollet le Duc 1875-1876, 347. 85. Roubo 1977, 24, 33-34, fig. 8. A tree trunk therefore gave between 32 and 48 boards available for producing panels for painting, the sawn side providing the flat face for painting, and the split side placed at the back. Not all boards have a split side, but when they did, it was left as such to preserve the mechanical advantages described above. All the evidence suggests that the sawing took place after arrival in the Southern Netherlands. In some cities, in Bruges for example, the import of sawn wood was forbidden, reflecting the prevailing corporate protectionism. As early as 1302, the profession of sawyers is mentioned in the Southern Netherlands. These grouped into a guild in Bruges in 1350. 79 The Archives of the movable assets of the Dukes of Burgundy also mention sawyers. 80 In the 15th century the apprenticeship of sawyers lasted one year. Their activity was especially intense in the timber trading ports of Bruges and Antwerp. In Bruges an ordinance sets the rates for sawing various thicknesses of all kinds of wood, including sawing into thin planks wood from Gdansk, Königsberg and Riga (see “Woodworkers and guilds ” in this chapter). The Netherlands were renowned for the quality of their oak cutting. Roubo is profuse with his praise of the quality of the oak from the north called “Holland oak because it is in this country that it is manufactured or cut into planks” and explains how they are cut: “the trees are split into quarters, before re-splitting them. For this reason the wood planks always have one hard edge [near the heart] and one soft one [on the sapwood side]…” they are no longer imported as formerly “in all kinds of thicknesses … almost the only type that comes now is 6 and 9 lines 81 thick, meaning that it is used only for panels, for which it is very good”. 82 According to Marette, the designations “Holland”, “Germany” or “Ireland” wood served to indicate the quality and type of cut, and not a geographic origin. 83 This certainly appears to be true in the 19th century: Eugène Viollet le Duc indicates that “mesh-sawn oak” (i.e. quartersawn oak) is also referred to as “Holland oak”. 84 In the 18th century, on the other hand, oak from the north is referred to as “Holland wood” because that is where the wood is cut into boards. 85 In other words, this name appears initially to have identified where the wood was cut rather than where it was felled.