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

ASSEMBLY OF PANEL AND FRAME 43 A major exception is the arrangement of the boards in the large panel of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb in Ghent, which has four boards with three joins. Each of the two outer joins is soft-to-soft, with a hard-to-hard join in the centre (h-s/s-h/h-s/s-h). 2 This is far from ideal positioning. The play of the wood in each outside join has produced in turn traction and pressure in contrary directions of the central join, pulling it open, and requiring it to be reglued. 3 On the other hand, the three large central panels of the upper altarpiece each consist of three boards. In each case, one of the two joins is soft side to soft side. The same observation applies to the panels of the Adam and Eve wings. 4 A further general rule we deduce from inspection of the panels is that if a narrow board was to be used in the support, it was preferably placed centrally. In this way joiners avoided placing a join close to the frame, knowing that joins are fragile places and are best kept as far as possible from the stresses of the frame. This rule is corroborated two centuries later by André-Jacob Roubo who writes that: “We must take care to place the narrowest [boards] (the so-called alaises ) in the middle, and the softest edges in the joins […].” 5 Of the works examined in the catalogue in this publication, we have counted thirty or so with a narrow board in the centre. This includes such important works as the right wings of the lower altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers in Ghent; again in the work of Jan van Eyck, the support of the Virgin and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele , 1436 (Bruges, GM , no. 1 ), and, for Gerard David, the support of the Judgement of Cambyses : The Flaying , 1498 (Bruges, GM , no. 5 ). This was not, however, a hard and fast rule. There are another ten or so supports with a narrow board on the outside, though these include certain poorer quality works. 6 It is not uncommon for items cut from the same board or for different boards from the same tree to be arranged symmetrically, for example in two wings. This feature is observed by dendrochronologists. 7 This arrangement of elements facilitated the production of panels of the same size and with similar resistance to external agents. 2. Fraiture 2011b, 38. 3. According to Jean-Albert Glatigny, the central joint was broken and treated in the past (Glatigny et al. 2010, 199). 4. Fraiture 2011b, 38; Fraiture 2013, 17. 5. “On doit prendre soin de mettre [les planches] les plus étroites (que l’on nomme alaises ) au milieu, et les rives les plus tendres dans les joints […].” Quoted from Roubo 1977, 79-81. 6. Southern Netherlandish practice differs here from Italy, where the widest board was placed in the centre of the panel and then other less wide boards added left and right. Finally, in order to make up the final dimensions, narrow boards were added at the extremities (communication from George Bisacca). 7. Klein 1986, 231-232; Vynckier 1984-1985, 51-52.