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

CHAPTER X 208 17. For the perfect shapes of characters see Kirchner 1955, 57, table, no. 8; Hussmann 1977, 154, 158. 18. Mediavilla 1993, 162-163; Dekker et al. 1992, XL-XLI. 19. “Meester Luberecht, Ubrecht, Hubrechte den scildere, Lubrect Van Heycke.” Quoted from Dhanens 1980, 28. Behind the Virgin are two complete banderols, a third almost complete one and two half-banderols. Although most of the banderols are badly damaged, as the X-radiograph shows and the text highly retouched, one or the other well-preserved original letter can be recognized on each one. The few scattered letters remaining from the original inscription are sufficient to lead us to conclude that originally the same inscription was repeated throughout. It is difficult to determine whether a full banderol contained additional characters between the two parts of the inscription mentioned above. It should be pointed out that the X-radiograph provides an objective image, not of the painted text, but of the groove engraved by the instrument in the material of the brocade. The hollows of this groove are also visible to the naked eye. The materials of the Pressbrokat were not propitious to the tracing of an inscription and for this reason the characters do not present the perfect shape of characters traced freely with brush or pen on parchment or another flat surface. 17 The sheets of brocade forming the background to the Divinity are different from those behind the Intercessors Mary and St John, and are placed differently on the panel. Everywhere the sheets – or parts of sheets – are aligned in vertical strips (3 superposed sheets to the right and left of each figure, 2 partial sheets above the shoulders). The sheets above the shoulders of the Divinity are placed in a quincunx pattern, those above the shoulders of the two Intercessors are aligned horizontally. The banderols are also different, semi-circular for the Divinity, for the Intercessors, in an elongated S-shape turned on its side. The first part of the text can be read Brur L [ Brother ] [ Luberecht? Lubrect? ]. After a B and an r, the third sign is the medieval abbreviation of ur. 18 This in an abbreviation formed by merging two letters, a system used between the 8th and 16th centuries, in particular by engravers, to gain space. Claude Mediavilla represents it, a little more flattened, but very similar. The same author also points out that such abbreviations took varied and capricious shapes. Among other abbreviations he quotes are those for the Latin “cum”, “er”, “us”, and “rum”. This “ur” could therefore be an abbreviation borrowed from Latin. After the abbreviation we can read the letter L. We know the names Luberecht or Lubrect are found in the archives to designate Jan’s brother. 19