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

ANTWERP, ROYAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS 327 2. Jan van Eyck, St Barbara , 1437 (signed and dated on the inclined sill of the frame) Inv. no. 410 Provenance: according to Karel van Mander, it was part of the Lucas de Heere Collection in the 16th century. On 24 June 1769 it entered the Johannes Enschedé Collection. Enschedé Collection sold on 30 May 1786, purchased by Jan Yver for the account of J. Cornelis Ploos van Amstel. Was part of the Oyen Collection in 1800 and of the Van Ertborn Collection in 1828. Part of the Van Ertborn bequest to Antwerp Museum in 1841. Bibliography: Vandenbroeck 1985, 168-173. Panel: single board, slotted into the groove of the frame. Frame: four pieces, joined with mortises and tenons, cut square. Each joint is reinforced with a 1 cm diameter peg, inserted at the centre of the joint. Small rounded metal studs at each corner of the frame, front and reverse, served to prevent the paint of the frame from being damaged by contact with any surface. This is a rarely observed refinement. The only other place we have seen it is on the Alincbroot Triptych (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, inv. no. P02538). This system could be based on a practice in bookbinding, where the corners of book covers were sometimes equipped with protruding buttons, for two main reasons: buttons protected in church usage decorative bindings, which are not flat; buttons made it much easier to pick up any large or heavy book off an altar, lectern or other flat surface (communication by Michael Lomax). On the reverse, marbling on a green background, three labels, including one, printed at the end of the 18th century, identifying the work, and a text by P. Ploos van Amstel (1796). The original polychromy on the front of the work consists of a flat green edge and red marbling. On the lower inclined sill: the date and original signature: JOH[ANN]ES DE EYCK ME FECIT 1437 .