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

CHAPTER X 250 96. Measurements: 222 × 145 mm, painted surface 170 × 107 mm. The portraits have been attributed to Jean Perréal. Reynaud 1990, 86-87; Avril and Reynaud 1993, 365-369. 97. Campbell 1990; Dülberg 1990. 98. Neumüllers-Klauser and Oppitz 1996, 77-92. The Louvre Diptych is an early example of this practice. A later example is the Diptych with the presumed portraits of Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany , c . 1492-1495 (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Lat 1190). 96 The boards are decorated on the interior with the portraits. The exterior is covered by an ancient cloth. It seems therefore well-founded to explore – beyond those paintings which were given a book form – whether technical characteristics of frames and supports of other paintings reflect practices of the book world. As paintings were rarely, at the beginning of the 15th century, suspended on walls, they had to be, like books, stored in bags or covers. This practice has already been mentionned in studies dealing with portraits, a genre which has effectively played a big role in the first developments of easel painting. 97 From the inventories, it appears that paintings were generally protected by wings or by a “couverte”. This practice seems to be of general use to a point that certain inventories insist, in a way a contrario , that a painting lacks a “couverte”. According to the dictionaries the term “couverte” accounts for a variety of uses. It corresponds to almost anything that “covers” or “protects” a book, and – after reading the inventories – by extension also a painting. Very few examples of 15th and 16th century “couvertes” have been preserved around books or paintings. It is possible that certain uniform polychromies in black or brown on the reverses of paintings date from the time when a worn cloth wrapping was removed. We are quite well informed by figurative sources on how books were wrapped. There were different sorts of leather or fabric (velvet, satin…) cases or bags, 98 which were often longer on one side for carrying purposes. There were covers with seams in which to insert the boards of the manuscripts. Other covers were attached to the books. Van der Paele’s Book of Hours has a “couverte” apparently of soft animal skin. Its deformation bears witness to a long use. Maurits Smeyers has placed an emphasis on the links between the inscriptions on frames and the world of books. According to this author, the texts on the frames of Eyckian paintings are due to a new practice at that time which also appears on miniatures, seals, tombstones and bookbindings. The signature, date and motto would evoke the colophons with which the scribes made themselves known, dated their work and mentioned that they had achieved it at the utmost height of their skills.