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

MATERIALS AND MEN 3 Ostend, carpenters are allowed to import sawn wood from elsewhere. This sawyers’ privilege in turn engendered various conflicts. In a deed 1630, carpenters claim they were forced to bring in from far away: four, six, eight and ten miles away, and even beyond the province of Flanders … also from Brussels and other places in Brabant and Hainaut, by river, various kinds of sawn wood. 10 The history of the various guilds (or “corporations”) in Ghent has been studied in depth. 11 In 15th- and 16th-century Ghent, the manufacturing of frames was the monopoly of “frame-makers”, who produced frames of every kind for hanging paintings, carpets, fabrics and gilded leather. This group of artisans was institutionally and legally part of the guild of joiners, of which it was one of the ten subdivisions. The situation of Ghent guilds was pretty stable throughout the 15th century and until around 1540, when a series of reforms influenced the organization of the guilds, though without significant changes in their activities. Until then, there were 58 official guilds in Ghent, many of them organized into subgroups. The woodworking sector consisted of many trades and guilds, among them carpenters, joiners (organized into ten subgroups), woodcutters, turners, sawyers, coopers, and “white wood joiners”, each with one or more monopolies. The archive texts describe the activities of the various guilds and trades in the woodworking sector. Joiners (“schrijnwerkers”) produced furniture and interior joinery involving joints, grooves, panels, collages and ornaments (panelling, interior and exterior doors, gates, interior shutters, chimney frames, windows, benches, beds) as well as (floor?) boards and brick moulds. Carpenters (“timmerlieden”) built house and roof frames, towers, attics, (trap-)doors, windows, chimneys, foundation piles, simple furniture and interior design elements, and built bridges, locks, scaffolding, cranes, swing gates, ladders and trestles. Woodcutters (“houtbrekers”) could cut down trees, sell wood on a retail basis, trim tree trunks into beams, build ladders, basins, gutters, scaffolding and market stalls. Turners (“houtdraaiers”) made and sold wooden utensils, chairs, plates and wooden pipes. Sawyers (“houtzagers”) cut wood of every kind into beams, planks and slats for the various wood craftsmen. Drawer-makers (“lademakers”) made and sold wooden drawers of every kind. So-called “white-wood joiners” (“witwerkers”) produced softwood/whitewood furniture. 12 The joiners’ (“schrijnwerkers”) guild was a medium-sized guild by Ghent standards. 13 That did not prevent it from having, between 1500 and 1540, ten different trades: besides the joiners themselves, there were the makers of “Spanish chairs”, carriage makers, organ factors, drawer-makers, ebony joiners, frame-makers (“lijstmakers”), and makers of stringed instruments, beds, and looms. 14 Within a guild, the subgroups were required to limit their activities to authorized products, but a master could be registered as member of several trades. 15 Between trades, the 10. Van de Velde 1909, 82-83. 11. Dambruyne 2002. 12. Ibid., 24-32. 13. Ibid., 54. 14. Ibid., 25-30, 44. 15. Ibid., 24.