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

catalogue 436 11. Ambrosius Benson, Virgin and Child , c. 1520-1525 Inv. no. 1974.GRO0038.I Provenance: deposited by the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Assebroeck, 19 November 1974. Bibliography: Marlier 1957, 111-113; De Vos 1982, 80-81. Panel: three vertical boards, including a narrower one at the centre. Frame: rebated: slotted joints, pegged; mitred at the front, cut square on the reverse. Two nails (not original?) further reinforce each joint. Rebates cut for hinges attest to the painting’s originally being part of a triptych. At the back the hanging hook appears to be original. The triptych’s hanging system broke the wood of the top rail, this damage has been repaired on the reverse with iron fittings partly old, nailed with forged nails, partly modern, screwed to the rail. The two upper joints have also been repaired, this time with wood inlays. Iron fittings reinforce the four corners at the back. The polychromy has been redone.