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

CHAPTER IX 182 35. Fransen and Syfer-d’Olne 2006, 398. of the triptych is cradled and held rigid by bars. The donor looks at the Virgin and Child; he is placed on the heraldic right, and it is he who occupies the wing which folded in the first place. The lowered gaze of the donatrix on the heraldic left corresponds to the modesty of her secondary position. Her hands are lowered in prayer, though the painter had originally drawn them upwards. 35 Her wing is folded in second place. In the last two triptychs, the downcast eyes are specific to the person who has withdrawn from the main dialogue and who is placed on the second wing. Fig. 94. The first closing respects the order of precedence: the man folds first. The woman, with eyes and hands lowered, is pivoted second. Master of 1473, Triptych of Jan de Witte , 1473, each element 84.5 × 45.7 cm, exterior of the wings and reverse of the centre cradled.