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

ANTWERP, ROYAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS 345 10. Bernard van Orley, Triptych of the Last Judgement . Wings: closed and open: The Seven Works of Mercy , commissioned in 1518 and finished in 1524-1525 Inv. nos. 741-745 Provenance: commissioned by the almoners of the Poor Chamber. Mentioned by Karel van Mander in his Schilder-boeck . Owned by the Antwerp Public Social Assistance Commission. Bibliography: Vanbeselaere 1970, 174-175. Panels: the central panel has been painted outside the frame. Frames: the imposing dimensions of the triptych (248 cm high) and its weight (± 450 kg) make it difficult to handle, which limited our observations. At the top slotted joints, mitred on the inside and square on the outside, and solidly pegged. At the bottom, through mortise and tenon joints on the wings (tenons on the stiles); stub mortises and tenons on the central panel; in each case the front shoulder of the tenon angled to the inclined sills. The frames on the outsides of the wings have a Renaissance decoration, partially with inserts and pegged. On the inside, the frames of the wings are decorated with columns. The bases of these columns consist of separate pieces of wood, inserted into and pegged to the frames. Restoration work in the corresponding places in the frame of the central part attests to the existence originally of columns in the central part also. The triptych was placed on a base: as shown by several notches in the bottom rail. The holes in the bottom rail mark perhaps the position of nails which served to consolidate the assembly to a base. The wings are closed by means of a richly decorated strip of wood, pegged to the stile of the right hand frame. The structure of this large triptych is essentially the same than that used for much smaller paintings. The joints are stronger at the bottom than the top to ensure the solidity of the structure. Part of the decorative effect is achieved with independent elements, pegged to the frame. Four rectangular hooks are implanted into the lower rail of the frame. We do not know that they were intended for. The faces of the frames show traces of no longer extant ironwork: possibly decorative elements. The black and gold polychromy has been redone inside the triptych; on the outside the black colour and the brown marbling are original. The triptych offers an early example of a central panel painted outside the frame, and also of a rebated frame. The long period of time required to paint a work of such large dimensions suggests that the system adopted of the panel painted outside the frame and then assembled to a rebated frame, allowed the joiner and painter to work simultaneously.