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

CATALOGUE 382 11. Jan Provoost, Diptych with Christ Carrying the Cross and Portrait of a Friar Minor . Closed: skull in a niche (reverse of the Friar Minor ); imitation porphyry (reverse of the Christ ), 1522 (dated on the lower rail of the left frame) Inv. no. O.SJ0191.I Provenance: was already at the St John’s Hospital in 1864. Bibliography: Lobelle and Van Cleven 1976, 578-579, S.74; Hand et al. 2006, 210-217. Panels: single boards, painted in the frame. Frames: grooved: mortise and tenon, with tenon shoulder advanced at the front, pegged. Mixed cuts. The complexity of the joint is related to the addition of a second body of moulding. In the 16th century, frames with a flat strip between two bodies of moulding did not accommodate themselves to inclined sills, and the association of these two elements is exceptional. As a general rule, frames with a flat strip between two bodies of moulding have slotted, mitred joints and the lower rail is moulded like the other pieces. The polychromy is original, except for the gilding, that has been redone. A trompe-l’œil mitre is painted on the frames, both on the inside and the outside, everywhere where there is a straight cut. The numerous inscriptions, partly forming riddles, are described and commented on by Hand et al. (2006). The outside presents a rich and attractive polychromy, grey-pink false marbling on the frames, red porphyry on one panel, a skull in a niche on the other. Interior: black outside edge, flat band in brown marbling and gilded moulding on the inside. Remains of the original gilding appear in the gaps. The disposition of the niche and the marbling on the closed diptych respond to the conventions which instruct on how correctly to open the diptych: the niche with the skull had to be positioned on top prior to opening. The diptych opens from left to right (Chapter IX Articulated works with instructions for use) . This diptych opens from left to right