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

MASTERS AND MASTERPIECES: The Anchin Polyptych 263 Gothic style of the gilded base of the throne on which the Trinity is sitting contrasts with the remainder of the altarpiece, where the architecture and the putti are from the Renaissance. Very likely the reliquary was taken right out of its box to exhibit it in full view. This was accessed by sliding to the left side the cover (with the Trinity) of the safekeeping box, with the help of a wheeled mechanism that allowed the lateral parts to be moved backwards to allow the panel of the Trinity to be rolled to one side. After removal of the reliquary, the cover panel was then pushed back in place in front of the empty box. In this way, the ensemble of paintings served alternatively either as a façade or as backdrop to the reliquary. With the loss of the reliquary and the surrounding open carving, the altarpiece is now incomplete. At the time of writing of this text, the two wings are exhibited separately, each placed on a base, and behind them, a large altarpiece placed on a third base (fig. 134). This makes it difficult for the visitor to form a picture of the original programme. It is true that the “pulled apart” form of exhibiting enables visitors to see, in excellent conditions, the pictorial qualities of every part of this marvellous painted ensemble. On the other hand, by exhibiting a polyptych in dismembered fashion, none of the exhibited parts any longer presents an iconographically coherent programme. Fig. 134. Presentation in the Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai in 2014. The large altarpiece, in the background, exhibits the three central paintings of the altarpiece in the gilded frames, next to two lateral parts that belonged to the other position of the altarpiece. The wings are presented separately.