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

MASTERS AND MASTERPIECES: the ghent altarpiece 221 37. The Hague, RKD, Friedländer Archive (illustrations nos. 0000215246 and 0000213833). Some frames of the upper altarpiece had become disarticulated, especially those of the Singing and Musician Angels. A photograph taken in Berlin and kept at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) in The Hague shows two successive stages of repairs using ironwork fittings on the Annunciation side. 37 Besides the original ironware (corresponding to that still in place on the narrow wings), we see small pieces of ironwork on the centre rail (first repair) and then wide, coarse strap hinges at the junction with the central part (second repair) (fig. 113). Behind these wide strap hinges, the photo suggests damage to the frame itself. Waagen describes these large ironwork items: “As the old ironwork connecting the wings with one another and with the central panel appears to have been damaged Fig. 112. This diagram evokes the altarpiece in its original height. The shape is hypothetical since we do not have a single original upper edge. Elsewhere in this article we have drawn the original centre panel curved at the top. This cannot be excluded.