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

CHAPTER I 20 88. “[…] dit voorn. weerk moet Daneel leveren van goeden ghetijdeghen houte ende houden staende […] in sijn vierchant XX jaer lanc up sijn plicht versekert.” SAG, series 301, Annual registers of the Keure, 1430-1432, fol. 28, quoted from Dhanens 2009, 145. 89. De Potter and Brouckaert 1864 -1903 ( Wachtebeke , 1870), 25, quoted from Dhanens 2009, 150. 90. Dhanens 1989, 117-126. 91. “Plus les bois sont durs & plus ils font de temps à sécher; c’est pourquoi on ne doit pas raisonnablement employer de bois qu’il n’ait huit années de coupe au moins… il ne faut cependant pas qu’il soit trop sec, surtout pour les ouvrages d’assemblage, où le bois qui n’a plus de sève, & dont l’humidité est totalement expulsée, ne peut être propre.” Quoted from Roubo 1977, 32. 92. Viollet le Duc 1875-1876, 346. 93. The cutting of the trunk into quarters, floating to the ports, transport by sea to distribution centres, another phase of cutting the wood into planks, drying (which may be fairly quick), the storage in the different warehouses or workshops (wood merchants, joiners, painting workshop) and the manufacture of the support itself. Quoted from Fraiture 2013, 4. The interval between the felling of the tree and the use of the boards for producing a panel Before the wood is ready for use, the natural moisture inside it must dry out to reach a stable humidity, from which time it is ready for working. This stabilization is done by leaving the wood exposed to air, usually stacked in specific conditions. Documents bear testimony to the requirement of a long storage time for the wood for painting in the 15th century. One important statement concerns the altarpiece Daneel Hoeybant made for Wachtebeke in 1431. 88 A drying time of twenty years was stipulated. An assurance of twenty years was also required for another altarpiece in Wachtebeke in 1456 89 and in 1461 for an altarpiece in Evergem. 90 In the 18th century Roubo states that “the harder woods are, the longer they take to dry; that is why it is wise only to use wood that has been cut for at least eight years. But neither must it be too dry, especially for making joints, where wood without sap, and from which all the humidity has been totally expelled, cannot be worked cleanly.”  91 Viollet le Duc says that oak should have been cut for at least six years before use. 92 The Baltic timber dried faster than local woods of rapid growth. Dendrochronologists seek to clarify, with the help of statistics, the time elapsed between the felling of the tree and the using of the boards for a painting by examining the growth rings. Knowledge of this interval is useful in dating the panels used for painting. The fundamental problem in dendrochronological dating of the panels is the almost systematic absence of sapwood. This part of the wood was removed, being unsuitable for the fabrication of quality supports since it is inclined to deform and rot and/or attract woodworm. The time interval between the cutting of the wood and its use in panels is therefore an estimate. From the latest dated growth ring, a terminus post quem is suggested. According to Fraiture, a systematic estimation of the interval between the dendrochronological result and the date of use, in order to better identify the period for artistic execution, is an unrealisable ideal, given the number of parameters involved. 93 Some dendrochronological studies report a considerable time