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

MATERIALS AND MEN 37 119. Roubo 1977, pl. 18, fig. 13. 120. Verougstraete-Marcq and Van Schoute 1987. In the great majority of cases, frame joints were pegged and glued. The glue was heated in a little glue pot (fig. 6: 36) perhaps with a double-bottom as depicted in cross-section by Roubo 119 to allow the glue to be heated by the bain-marie method. For this and other purposes, the water was heated in a receptacle placed on a shallow basin filled with embers blown hot with a bellows (fig. 6: 37). Long forged nails were used to attach hinges. The joinery items themselves were rarely nailed, though applied frames can be found nailed to a panel in regional, small-scale joiners’ shops. In this case the nails are introduced from behind. Applied frames are, however, more frequently pegged, reflecting a more careful joinery. To strike in nails, a hammer was of course used (fig. 6: 60-61). One end of the hammer was the hitting head, the other end was sometimes split (clawed) for extracting nails (fig. 6: 60). To hold the joints tightly in place during gluing, joiners often used notched clamps of different lengths, in wood or metal, with the length set by a racked jaw at one end and wedges, and possible already a wooden screw at the other. Another way was to drill the peg holes slightly out of line and then force the peg. For cutting grooves, rabbets and mouldings, various types of planes were used. It seems that in the first half of the 15th century, mouldings were still produced using chisels and gouges struck with a mallet. In the frames of the upper wings of the Ghent Altarpiece , the chisel-work, in successive sections, is clearly visible on the moulding, the simplicity of which points to a limited and rather primitive range of tools. This is perhaps to be related to the construction, which with its rudimentary finishing looks more the work of a carpenter than of a joiner. 120 In the Portrait of Margaret van Eyck (Bruges, GM , no. 2 ), the irregularity of the moulding of the lower rail also betrays the use of a gouge, which has been both guided and deflected by the grain of the wood, giving a less straight line than a moulding (or “profiling”) plane. But generally, one can probably see in the mouldings of the 15th and 16th centuries the regular work of the profiling plane. 5. Drilling tools This leads us, finally, to the assembling of the elements of panels and frames. The placing of dowels in the narrow sides of the panels and of pegs in the joints of the frames both called for drilling tools. The drilling tools available at the time were augers, gimlets and brace drills. The auger (fig. 6: 65) is a long hand drill that is rotated by means of a transverse handle held with both hands. The tool has the appearance of a T. In the chest auger (fig. 6: 66), the handle included an extension piece for the woodworker to place his weight on to assist the drilling. The shaft of the auger can end in a spoon shape: this