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

MASTERS AND MASTERPIECES: bosch 275 121. Inv. no. P02048. Closed triptych: 146.7 cm × 84.7 cm. The joinery of the Epiphany is of good quality and exhibits considerable craftsmanship. The use of dovetail joints, rare in the joinery of frames, recalls the Brussels frame joinery of the last quarter of the 15th century and early 16th century. 2. The Haywain Triptych , 121 c. 1516 (figs. 143-144) Panels: each wing consists of three vertical boards, including one very narrow (between 3 and 4 cm). The central panel is cradled at the back. It consists of four (?) boards, the joins being difficult to make out. All boards are butt-joined, with dowels. Frames: the frame of the central panel has been redone. The frames are applied onto the panels of the wings, both on the inside (open triptych) and on the outside (closed triptych). At the top of the open wings, the stiles meet the upper rail with a mitre, flush and with no joint. At the bottom, the cut is mixed, with the butt- ends of the stiles angled to the rail. The frames on the closed sides of the wings are also applied, with two rails each and only one stile (on the hinge side). This stile is lap-joined to the rails. The absence of a central stile reflects the requirements of the pictorial program that continues across both wings, as mentioned above. Various clues, including the joiner’s tracing marks, tell us that the joinery was changed shortly before painting, the frames of the wings – with the triptych closed – being originally planned with two stiles each. It is probably with a view to the pictorial programme (a single figure, that of the Prodigal Son , running across the two wings), that the central stiles were removed. This indicates that the joiner worked in collaboration with the painter. The moulding of the frame is beaded cavetto, a common moulding type in the 15th and 16th centuries, found in all major centres (Bruges, Brussels, Antwerp, …). The moulding is quite different from the Haywain conserved at the Escorial, which has a double moulding, separated by a black band. This latter moulding cannot be dated to Bosch’s lifetime. The wings closed, as often at the time, by means of pegs placed in the sides: here two pegs slot into holes in the opposite stile. In the course of time the peg closing system was replaced with a lock at the bottom of the left wing. There are also traces of pegs in the lower edges of the wings. This could indicate that short pegs were inserted, on closing the triptych, into notches made in the base. This would require slightly raising the wings in order to open and close them. We have not observed this practice elsewhere.