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

MASTERS AND MASTERPIECES: the ghent altarpiece 195 7. Glatigny et al. 2010, 199. a) The lower altarpiece (figs. 98-99) The central panel of the lower altarpiece consists of four horizontal boards assembled with butt joins and dowels. The lower join has been reworked. The central join was broken and treated in the past. 7 Non-original iron staples reinforce the ends of the joins. Notches have been cut along the edges. These postdate the paint layer covering the reverse. All panels, including the central panel of which the original frame is lost, were slotted into the groove of the frame before painting. The frames of the wings are of typical construction for the period: each has two stiles and two rails, with single-pegged mortise and tenon joints at each corner. The tenon shoulders are cut square on both sides. The mouldings of the frames are basic and seem to have been done, or at least completed, after assembly, because the hollows, on the inner edge, splay slightly towards the corners, as the tool could have done at the start or end of the run. Today there are no hinges on the bottom altarpiece. The original hinges between the two wings on each side can be seen on the photos from the time in Berlin, probably taken shortly before the sawing in 1894 (fig. 106). Indeed, before cutting the frames along the grain, all nails had to be removed. For each pair of wings, the hinges between two wings were nailed to the front sides of the frames of the closed altarpiece. The blades were recessed and their upper and lower ends slightly splayed. Each plate was fixed with five forged nails inserted in a quincunx pattern. Each hinge node had five knuckles, the arrangement of which was different at the top and the bottom. In the upper hinge three knuckles extend the blade on the Vijd (carrying) side, with two knuckles on the St John the Baptist (carried) side. This disposition is reversed in the bottom hinge. This is possibly not an arbitrary arrangement, as there may have been a relationship with the traction produced by the weight of the wing at the top and the pressure exerted at the bottom. When the node of a hinge between two wings lies on the closed altarpiece side, this makes for ease of opening and rigidity when closing. The hinges between the inner wings and the central frame no longer exist. Major restorations in the stiles next to the central panel may point to the existence initially of strap hinges nailed to the face of the frame. A number of holes, now filled, could point to the extraction of forged nails that held the hinges in place. The altarpiece was placed on a predella.