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

509 BRUSSELS, PUBLIC WELFARE CENTRE (PWC) 1. Brussels Anonymous (follower of Rogier van der Weyden), Triptych of the Virgin and Child . Closed: painted black. Open: wings: St Martha ; St Gudula , second half 15th century Inv. no. T.70 Bibliography: Bonenfant-Feytmans and Bonenfant 1950, 35. Panels: the central panel has two vertical boards, the wings one board each, slotted into the groove of the frame. The wings are bevelled on the reverse. Frames: grooved; dovetail joints at the top, mitred in front; tenon shoulders angled to the inclined sill. Cut square on the outside. Through mortise and tenon at the bottom (tenon on stile). A small wedge is visible on the sides, level with the joints (original?). This might be an indication that the groove for holding the panel extended to side of the frame, corrected by filling the hole where the groove was apparent. More common practice was to reduce the width of the tenon by that of the groove. Only the joints to the top of the wings are pegged. The bottom of the lower centre rail has holes for fixing onto a base. Inside the triptych, the moulding of the frames of the wings differs from that of the central frame. The frames of the wings are thinner than that of the central panel. The Brussels joiners’ mark (plane and compass) is struck into the butt-end of the lower rail of the central frame. The black and gold polychromy is original, partly overpainted. Outside, the shutters are painted black without intermediate preparatory layer.