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

CHAPTER X 200 The groove of the longer stiles, into which the panel is slotted, is visible at the top. The panel continues upward and its butt edge is flush with the upper edge of the stile (fig. 102). Here the frame structure is incomplete at the top: the curved frame elements are pegged to the panel and not part of the carrying structure, as would normally be the case. The outside of the curved rail abuts the smaller stile slightly set in from the outside of the latter. This setback is matched by a second one where the frame meets that of the adjacent inner wing. The shorter stile ends at the top with a triangular tenon, which fits between the two curved rail sections, without being joined to them. This tenon is visible in the outer edge of the upper rail. It is also visible on the photograph taken of the disassembled frame in 1950. Its triangular shape results from the sawing back of a rectangular tenon. In closed position, the curved frame does not end on the outside with the usual sharp edge, but by a bevel which continues on the shorter stile as far as the second setback. The bevel on the curved rail is original, and was extended onto the stiles for the sake of harmonization. A bevel is a simple moulding usually found on the closed side of articulated works (diptychs, triptychs…), between the frame and the panel. In the present case, the outside bevel of the curved upper rail also had to provide the transition between the frame and the painted panel. The presence of a bevel indicates that the painted panel originally extended beyond the curved frames. Fig. 102. Detail of the side of the curved frame at the top of the Eve wing (seen from above). To the left: the upper part of the smaller stile of the frame, with its recess. To the right of the recess: the start of the curved frame, in three superposed thicknesses. From top to bottom: the curved frame, closed altarpiece side (in black). Its outer edge (towards the spectator) is bevelled. In the middle: the remains of a tenon. Today this tenon is reduced to a triangular shape owing to the sawing in the 16th century of the upper part of the wing. This triangular tenon is visible on the photos of the dismantled frame published by Coremans in 1953 (pl. LXVI). To the right of the tenon is the top of the panel, flush with the side of the frame whereas, at this date, a panel was normally slotted into the groove of the frame before painting. At the bottom, the curved rail on the Eve side (red colour) is not bevelled, but square and with a sharp edge.