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

CHAPTER X 204 8. Panofsky 1971, 1: 221. 9. Monballieu 1966, 54. 10. Coremans 1953, 14-15, note 6. 11. Michiel Coxcie, based on the Van Eyck’s altarpieces, six wings (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. nos. 6696-6701), and the Godhead (Berlin, Bode-Museum, inv. nos. 524-525), the Virgin and St John the Baptist (Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, inv. nos. 653-654); these various panels were brought together for the exhibition Michiel Coxcie. The Flemish Raphael (M-Museum, Leuven, 31 October 2013 – 23 February 2014). Jan Gossart, Christ between the Virgin and St John the Baptist (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, inv. no. P01510). After Van Eyck, The Fountain of Life (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, inv. no. P01511). measure” to act as wings. 8 Antoine De Schryver and Roger Marijnissen suggested that the constraints of the architecture had led to the curved shape, without which it would have been impossible to fully open the altarpiece, given the low height of the vaults. Adolf Monballieu believes on the contrary that the carpentry, as it presents itself today, is consistent. 9 He points out that the weakness of the upper curved rails, made of applied pieces without apparent joining to the main frame, was largely offset by the floating rails on the closed side. In the more reduced thickness of the rounded panels at the top than at the bottom, Monballieu sees a confirmation of the fact that the panels are complete. We should, however, note that the differences in thickness mentioned in Paul Coremans are 4 mm, and are observed only in the panels of the Angels, sawn through in Berlin, and not in those of Adam and of Eve, and that there is no sign of a bevel. 10 An explanation for the setbacks is proposed by Monballieu. The wings, according to him had, in closing, to pass under a canopy; a similar setback is seen in the frames of the wings of an altarpiece that adorns the high altar represented in the Seven Sacraments Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden (Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, inv. nos. 393-395). But in this work the represented altarpiece is carved. The wings form a box around a sculpture. In closed position they form a three- dimensional whole, prolonging the canopy. The famous altarpieces in Ghent, on the other hand, are flat paintings with the wings closing over the central part that they covered perfectly. A flat altarpiece is compatible with a carved canopy. This surprise at the rounded shape of the wings disappears when we know that it is the result of the amputation of an upper part which, on the inside of the altarpiece, was decorated with applied tracery that increased the weight of the wings. Adding to this the fact that the central parts too had an upper part amputated during the French Revolution, we must conclude that we are totally ignorant of the primitive form of the upper altarpiece of which we have not one original upper edge. Michiel Coxcie in 1555-1558 (1559?) gives his wings a curved shape which is probably inspired by already amputated wings. The measurements (height and width) given by the Revolutionary Commissioners when the Van Eyck brothers’ altarpieces were unframed in Ghent in 1794 plead in favour of simple and probably straight forms. However, we cannot exclude a curved shape for the upper altarpiece, for example of the central panel with the Divine Lord. The curved shape is present in evocations of the masterpiece by various artists. 11 Coxcie’s central panel with the Divine Lord retains to this day an