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

CHAPTER I 4 16. Dambruyne 2002, 27, note 8. 17. Ibid., 183. 18. Ibid., 330-333. 19. Des Marez 1904, 24, 50-51. 20. Ibid., 34-35, 44-46. 21. Ibid., 120-121. 22. Nieuwdorp 1981, 96. delimitation of at times closely related activities could lead to trespassing and disputes, in Ghent and elsewhere. In a court case in 1507 clothing manufacturers cited in their defence that other guilds, including carpenters and joiners (“ooc temmerlieden ende […] schrijnweerckers”) also exceeded their prerogatives. 16 Between 1570 and 1584, the joiners’ guild counted between 50 and 99 masters. This figure refers only to masters. The records are silent on the numbers of journeymen, itinerant workers and the like. We know that the guilds in various cities allowed only one apprentice at a time. In Ghent, joiners served three-year apprenticeships. Carpenters were apprenticed for six years. 17 Access to the rank of master was expensive and could force the apprentice to remain a journeyman for several years. Until 1540, access to the position of master was much more expensive in Ghent than in Antwerp and Bruges. For joiners, access cost 3.3 times as much as in Antwerp. For carpenters, access to the position of master cost 78% more in Ghent than in Bruges. A reform in 1540 ended this imbalance. 18 The situation in Brussels was not the same as in Bruges or Ghent. Carpenters’ apprenticeships lasted just one year, those of joiners and locksmiths three years. The oldest conserved regulations of the carpenters’ and joiners’ guilds were enacted two months apart in 1365. There were two rules for admission: to be citizen of the city and work in daylight. 19 The use of glue was the exclusive privilege of joiners, as in Bruges. Other guilds had other privileges, the use of lathes, for example, being the exclusive privilege of turners. The hierarchy in a guild consisted, as elsewhere, of three levels: master, apprentice and journeyman. Following a trial period (“proeftijt”), the apprentice was required to pay the guild entry fee. The journeyman, unable to become economically independent, worked as a simple salaried worker in someone else’s employ. 20 In 1466, the practice of the masterpiece was instituted for joiners. The would-be master was required to produce a dresser (“tritsoer”), if he failed, he was required to continue his education. Foreign journeymen, known as “wandelgesellen” or “pelgrims”, were allowed to work freely for a limited period, a fortnight in general, without providing any evidence of apprenticeship. We can note that this practice applied also the painters’ guild, as stated in an ordinance of 1465. 21 Woodcarvers competed with joiners in producing the supports for painting. A city ordinance of 16 June 1455 describes a conflict between carvers and joiners, and decides in favour of the latter: it will be the joiners who will make the frames for altarpieces and the panels to be painted because the sculptors do not know how to make them, nor what wood needs to be used to produce them. 22 A conflict in 1427 sheds some light on certain Brussels usages. A certain Guillaume had been engaged by a Dame Fontaynes to make small panels for painters in “scrinehoute” (oak). Guillaume had enrolled in the turners’ guild and not that of the