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

Bruges, Our Lady of the Pottery Museum 489 5. Anonymous, Triptych of the Holy Women at the Tomb . Closed: on a dark background, in a sun, the Sacred Monogram IHS, the Marian Monogram MAR. Open: wings: Mary Magdalen ; Sister Magdalena Verguyt (°1592 - †1651), 1564-1645 Inv. no. O.OTP0109.I Bibliography: Maertens 1939, 109, no. 97. Panels: the central panel has two boards, painted outside the frame; wings: one board each, slotted into the groove of the frame. Frames: the date 1564 is visible in raking light in an underlayer on the base; the date 1645, inscribed on the frame of the right wing, is probably the date of execution of the donatrix’s portrait. The frame of the left wing carries the apocryphal name “Janssens”. Frame with cornice and base; mortise and tenon joints, mixed cut in the front, cut square at the rear. Two original swivel hooks and a pull-ring. The ensemble came into being in two stages. It started as a small triptych with black wings, dated 1564, with no painting on the reverse. In 1645 were added, to the right, the portrait of the donatrix, to the left, her patron St Mary Magdalen. At this second stage were probably added the various inscriptions that can be seen today and the suns on the outside of the wings, also the inclined sill was carved on the back of the wings. Polychromy black and gold, overpainted.