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

CHAPTER X 266 114. Eisler 1989, no. 10; De Vos 1994a, 262-263. The Portrait of Gilles Joye , 1472 (Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clarck Art Institute, cat. no. 408) (fig. 135: 3). The frame is moulded on both sides. The exterior is polychromed, suggesting this was a mobile work, possibly a wing of a diptych as suggested by the attitude of prayer of the figure portrayed. The fourth moulded frame of this kind dates from 1487. This is the frame of the Maarten van Nieuwenhove Diptych (Bruges, SJH , no. 5 ) (fig. 135: 10). It presents a well developed body of mouldings and a flat band on the outside of the frame. Both the mouldings and the joints of this frame give it a special place in Memling’s production. The fifth frame in this series is that of the Portrait of Jacob Obrecht (Forth Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, inv. no. KAM1993. 02) (fig. 135: 12). It features ogee moulding and an inclined sill on the bottom rail. The frame carries the date 1496. Other frames, dated 1479 and 1490, have listels on the outside (fig. 135: 4-9, 11). The listel, that is characteristic of Bruges frames at the end of the 15th century, marks the start of the development of a body of outside mouldings that becomes commonplace during the 16th century. These are the following works: the St John Altarpiece , 1479 (Bruges, SJH , no. 1 ); the Floreins Triptych , 1479 (Bruges, SJH , no. 2 ); the Reins Triptych , 1480 (Bruges, SJH , no. 4 ); The Sibyl Sambetha , 1480 (Bruges, SJH , no. 3 ); the Christ Blessing , 1481 (dated in the top centre of the frame; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, William A. Coolidge Collection, inv. no. 176.1986); the Moreel Triptych , 1484 (Bruges, Groeninge Museum, inv. no. 0000.GRO0091.I); the Christ at the Column , 1485-1490 (Barcelona, Mateu Collection, inv. no. DDV65). The mouldings on the interior of the frame, next to the painting, may vary: from simple inclined sill or bevel (on the bottom rails or on the outsides of the wings), to simple cavetto mouldings, to cavetto with one or two baguettes. Less frequent is ogee moulding ( Portrait of Gilles Joye , Portrait of Jacob Obrecht , The Sibyl Sambetha ) . It has been suggested that the current frame of the Portrait of a Young Man at Prayer , c. 1485-1490 (Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, inv. no. 234.a) was original. 114 The highly developed body of moulding on the outside is in any event no earlier than the mid-16th century. It cannot be the original frame of this portrait by Hans Memling.