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

BRUGES, St JOHN’S HOSPITAL 395 16. Bruges Anonymous, Triptych of the Holy Trinity with Donatrix and St Justus. Closed: marbling, dark on the frames, red and black on the panels . Open: wings: St John the Baptist ; St Bonaventure , 1551 Inv. no. O.SJ0193.I Bibliography: Lobelle and Van Cleven 1976, 546-547, S.44. Panels: the central panel is composed of two boards; it is 1 cm thick and has been painted outside the frame; not bevelled. On the reverse: small notches along the sides point to the old fixing to the frame. The join has been restored with buttons. The panels of the wings are 0.8 cm thick. Frames: central frame: rebated; slotted joints, mitred at front and cut square at back. On the wings, which have grooved frames, the upper joints are cut square on both faces, with the tenons on the rails: mitres are painted on the frames of the closed wings. The mitred slotted joints are reinforced with two pegs, those cut square with a single peg. The upper side of the central frame has a suspension/holding hole. The hinges are original. The polychromy of the frames is largely original; black and gold inside the triptych; greenish-grey marbling on the outside of the wings with mitres painted in trompe-l’œil . The panels on the outsides of the wings are painted with red and black marbling.