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

ARTICULATED WORKS WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE 181 34. Fransen and Syfer-d’Olne 2006, 391-413. In Hans Memling’s Benedetto Portinari Triptych , today dismembered (fig. 93) (centre: Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no. 528B, and wings: Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, inv. nos. 1100 and 1090) the hierarchical positioning and message are signalled by the Infant who points his finger in Benedetto’s direction, linking the Virgin and the Child to the portrait, forming together the first pair of representations upon which the wing portraying the saint’s image would close for protection. In the closed state, the hierarchy remained physically even stronger. Benedetto was placed against Mary, and was covered and protected by its patron saint. In the Triptych of Jan de Witte by the Master of 1473 (Brussels, RMFAB , no. 3 ) (fig. 94), high protruding hinges still existed in 1960, as evidenced by a photograph dating from that time. 34 Perhaps the necessity was no longer understood. The exterior Fig. 93. Articulated works comprising three elements of the same dimensions. The first element to be closed is the wing shown to be privileged by the inclined angle of Christ’s head, or by the donor’s attitude of prayer. The second element to be closed is that of the patron saint. Anonymous Master (Venice?), Man of Sorrows, Virgin and St John the Evangelist , c. 1300. Hans Memling, Triptych of Benedetto Portinari , 1487.