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

ASSEMBLY OF PANEL AND FRAME 47 9. Garrido and Van Schoute 1985, 59-77. 10. De Vos et al. 1983-1984, 106-134. The same applies to other panels by Hugo van der Goes: the Adoration of the Shepherds (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, cat. no. 1622A), the Triptych of the Adoration of the Shepherds of Portinari (Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, inv. nos. 3191-3193). Sometimes the key is pierced by only two pegs (Jean Bellegambe, Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi , Arras, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. no. 203 bis). To avoid the unfortunate effect of the pegs protruding into the paint surface, certain pegs are inserted from the rear and do not reach the front surface. This is the case for the Adoration of the Magi by Hieronymus Bosch (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, inv. no. P02048). 9 In the 16th century, certain large panels are butt-joined with unpegged keys. This system was adopted in the Triptych of the Brotherhood of St Anne by Quinten Metsys (Brussels, RMFAB , no. 9 ), also in Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van het Boompje by Pieter Claeissens the Younger (fig. 15) and the large triptych of the Temptation of St Anthony by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. no. 3032). Fig. 14. Four pegs, two on each side of the join, have caused circular cracking in the paint layer. Hugo van der Goes, Death of the Virgin , c. 1472-1480 (Berlin, Staatliche Museen). Fig. 15. An unpegged key is visible in the open join. Pieter Claeissens the Younger, Onze-Lieve- Vrouw van het Boompje , 1608, (Bruges, OLPM , no. 11 ). We also find mixed systems in which various types of reinforcement of the butt joint are combined in a single panel. In the large Passion Triptych by Bernard van Orley (Bruges, Church of Our Lady) some joins are assembled with the keys pegged into the boards, others with dowel pins. The support, which carries on the reverse the mark of the Brussels joiners, has been planed on the painted side in a rudimentary fashion. 10 It is probably this planing which brought up flush to the surface some dowels which were perhaps originally sunk into the wood.