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

MASTERS AND MASTERPIECES: the ghent altarpiece 231 57. The Bulletin de l’Art ancien et moderne of 10 September and 26 October 1920, issues 650 and 653, includes articles on the exhibition illustrated with photos. See archive file no. 5521, 1920 exhibition at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, which mentions several photography sessions. 58. Among the photographers listed in the file of the 1920 exhibition of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium: the Etablissements Jean Malvaux (“typogravure, photochromogravure, photogravure, photolithography”) sought permission to produce a reproduction in colour; a model (H 116 × W 78 cm) in black and white is mounted in a gilded frame and is preserved at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. At the time this was lent out to lecturers. In 1950 Edmond Sacré was commissioned by Paul Coremans to produce photographs establishing the state of conservation (Coremans 1953, 62). The placing together within a box frame, inside the baroque frame, of the two altarpieces (one amputated of its tracery), resulted in the exposure of a section of wall under the Baroque entablature. This was remedied by hanging a small curtain. The Brussels Museum exhibited Adam and Eve in swivel frames. The original frames have retained the holes that held the pivots. Generally it was the reverse sides that were exhibited. Adam and Eve could be viewed only on request. Protests by travellers from afar who had passed in front of the wings without seeing our ancestors eventually convinced the curators to exhibit the wings on a base around which visitors could move. e) First half of the 20th century (fig. 117) · The definitive joining of the two altarpieces In 1920, the original wings returned from Berlin. In Ghent, the altarpiece was dismantled and sent to Brussels for the Van Eyck-Bouts exhibition at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Brussels. 57 Canon Van den Gheyn explains that “the large panel of the Adoration was attached to the joists of the frame [the box frame described above] by the frame surrounding it. The three upper panels are attached differently: the frame itself is fixed to the box frame, everything is closed by means of gilded battens that are screwed in place.” Correspondence between Van den Gheyn and the Chief Curator of the Royal Museums, Fierens-Gevaert, shows that consideration was given to sending to Brussels the entire structure with the lidded tomb-altar and wall box, but that those responsible recoiled at the difficulty of the operation. On a photographic document that must date from the exhibition, one can see that all the frames exhibited in Brussels are gilded and are therefore new for the central parts. Those of our ancestors (of which we see only the bottom) are overpainted in a dark colour. Coxcie’s and Lagye’s wings were also sent to the exhibition. Requests for permission to photograph in relation to the exhibition poured in. 58 After the exhibition, the new gilded frames of the central parts were adopted for presentation in Ghent. The ensemble was returned to Ghent on 29 September and placed temporarily in the Bishop’s Chapel. A new small hanging replaced the old one, and a roller-blind descended around 20 cm in front of the paintings in order, in the canon’s words, “to protect them from bats’ droppings.”