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

catalogue 340 8. Goossen van der Weyden, Triptych of Abbot Antonius Tsgrooten . Closed: coat of arms and banderole with the motto Veritas vincit . Open: centre: Christ surrounded by the arma Christi ; wings: God blessing the donor ; Mary presenting the Abbot to Christ , 1507 Inv. no. 5091 Provenance: Norbertine Abbey of Tongerlo, where Antonius Tsgrooten was abbot from 1504 to 1530. The triptych is mentioned in the abbey accounts in 1507. It later became part of the Duke of Arenberg Collection and was acquired by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1966. Bibliography: Vandenbroeck 1985, 146-150; Van den Brink 2005, 32-33. Panels: the wings are each a single board, with integral frames. The central panel consists of a single board, slotted into the groove of the frame. Frames: the frame of the central panel is grooved. At the top; slotted joints, at the bottom through mortise and tenon joints; each joint is strengthened with one peg. The rails of the wings are wider than the stiles. The moulding on the rails is also different from that of the stiles. The outside of the right wing is completed with a non-original closing lath. The hinges are not original. Three holes in the lower rail suggest that the triptych was originally placed on a base. On the outside, the black and gold polychromy has been preserved. On the inside, the original gilding is conserved on the moulded part of the frame. The lower flat band was black; this colour has been intentionally removed by abrasion. Elements of the white ground remain here.