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

MASTERS AND MASTERPIECES: the ghent altarpiece 197 b) The upper altarpiece (figs. 100-101) The central part of the upper altarpiece has three separate panels, all three shortened at the top. This is evidenced, on the reverse, by more inclined bevels and a different wood tone from that of the other bevels and, on the painted side, the absence of barbes and unpainted edges. Small notches one third of the way up the panels suggest that pegs helped to hold the panels of the Virgin and St John the Baptist in their frames (into which they were slotted). The lower corners of the panels are cut back. This amputation of the corners results from the sawing of the frames by the Commissioners of the French Revolution (see below). Fig. 99. Lower altarpiece, centre (front view). Modern frame. The central panel, which is 3.4 cm thick, is heavily rebated from the back, with, on the front side, a bevel extending over more or less 5 cm.