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

CHAPTER X 248 88. Comblen-Sonkes and Lorentz 1995, pl. LXXX et LXXXV. One edge is carved into cords as in bookbinding and the three other edges are carved in the form of illusory leaves of a book. In the centre of each board there is a wooden medallion adorned with a stucco representing acanthus leaves. The portrait of Bessarion by Justus of Ghent 88 includes a manuscript similarly decorated with a central medallion. The wooden surface of the medallions has been carved into parallel grooves, perhaps for a better adhesion of the stucco. The originality of the wooden medallions can be questioned as it does not make sense to insert wooden medallions in a board. It seems more likely that the original medallions, perhaps of precious metal or of semi-precious stone, were removed and replaced by the current ones. Four spots of higher density on the X-radiograph (fig. 124) correspond to metallic elements deeply imbedded into the boards. They are probably part of the original medallions. On St John’s reverse the stucco with acanthus leaves has been remade, overlapping its initial limits. Fig. 124. Louvre Diptych , X-radiograph. Four spots of high density around the medallions correspond to metallic elements deeply imbedded into the wood. They probably held in place the original medallions, now lost. The grooves carved into the surface of the wood of the medallion are also visible.