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

BRUGES, St JOHN’S HOSPITAL 367 5. Hans Memling, Diptych of Maarten van Nieuwenhove . Left: Virgin and Child ; right: Donor , 1487 (donor’s name, date and donor’s age: 23 on the sill of the frames) Inv. no. O.SJ0178.I Provenance: St Julians’ Hospice in Bruges. Conserved at St John’s Hospital since 1815. Bibliography: Bruges cat. 1960, 111-113; Lobelle and Van Cleven 1976, 514-515, S.5; Hollanders-Favart 1981, 79-84; Lobelle-Caluwé 1987, 82-83; De Vos 1994a, 278-283; Hand et al. 2006, 178-185; Lobelle-Caluwé 2009, 1-9. Panels: single boards, painted in the frame. Frames: grooved; top: mitred half-lap joints, unpegged; bottom: mortise and tenon with tenon on stile and tenon shoulder angled to the inclined sill. Original hinges. On the closed diptych, the moulding of the two frames differs. On the outside of Maarten van Nieuwenhove the inner edge of the frame is bevelled, while the edge of the other frame is square. This bevel is often characteristic of the wing of a diptych that was uppermost when closed. This observation must be linked with the perspective with vanishing lines inside the diptych . These oblique lines are not, as sometimes thought, an invitation to position the diptych “at an angle”, but are an invitation to, and anticipation of, the rotation of the wing (Chapter IX Articulated works with instructions for use ). The upper rails present a peg hole ( Virgin and Child ) and a peg ( Maarten van Nieuwenhove ), the purpose of which is not apparent to us. The frame today is largely hidden by a protective case. Inside the diptych, the flat edge is black and the moulding gilded. The inclined sill carries the following inscriptions: under the Virgin and Child : HOC.OPVS.FIERI. FECIT.MARTINVS.DE.NEWENHOVEN.ANNO.DM. 1487, and under the donor: AN°.VERO.ETATIS.SVE:23. Each inscription is followed by three dots and a dragon. Lobelle (2009) suggests that the artist may have brought in specialist calligraphers for the inscriptions and the little dragons. The shadow of the cushion on which the Child is sitting is painted on the gilded sill by means of a series of lines. On the outside of the diptych, Hand et al. observe traces of red and black stone imitation under the present dark brown coating. This Diptych opens from left to right