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

Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium 531 9. Quinten Metsys, Triptych of the Brotherhood of St Anne in Leuven . Closed: Scenes from the Life of St Anne and St Joachim. Open: centre: The lineage of St Anne ; wings: An angel predicts Mary’s birth to St Joachim ; The Death of St Anne , 1509 (signed and dated on the outside, on wing at left: Quinte Metsys screef dit 1509 ) Inv. no. 2784 Provenance: commissioned in 1507 for the Brotherhood of St Anne in the Church of St Peter in Leuven. Acquired from the churchwardens of the same Church in 1879. Bibliography: De Bosque 1975, 88-95; Pauwels 1984, 186. Panels: the central panel consists of eight vertically-placed boards. It is 1.7 cm thick. Tears in the wood at the back of the panel disclose that keys rather than dowels strengthen the butt joins. These keys are not pegged, unlike for example in the Death of the Virgin by Hugo van der Goes (Bruges, Groeninge Museum, inv. no. 0000. GRO0204.I) (fig. 14). The reverse has multiple reinforcing elements, not all of them original (buttons, dovetails, two large battens). The panel has been sawn back slightly to the left and the right and a small strip of wood inserted on both sides (the top and bottom sides of the panel could not be observed). The batten is flush with the frame on the reverse. At some point everything must have been perfectly joined, as evidenced by the damage caused by the instrument used to remove the small battens from the frame. Today, the central panel is held in its frame by means of various swivel-cams screwed to the frame. No traces of any other system for holding the panel in the frame. The current rails possibly replace original or earlier rails. Frames: consist of two parts: the frame itself, inserted in a “tray”, which at the front, forms the outer body of mouldings, and at the rear, extends well beyond it. This insertion into a tray is probably intended to improve the stability of the triptych that, given its weight, is intended to be placed on a surface. Where the tray extends beyond the frame, two notches have been cut in the upper corners (one to the left, one to the right). These were probably the equivalent of hanging/holding holes, intended to help keep the triptych in place. A large ring has been added to the centre, also helping to hold the triptych in place. The joints in the lower corners have broken, and have been reinforced with a piece of modern wood. These joints had double mortises and tenons, cut square on the outside and with a mixed cut on the inside, and pegged. The underside of the lower rail is not visible. The hinges are redone (on the site of the original ones?): a modern hinge consolidates the junction of the central panel and the wings at the top. The way that the central panel is sawn on four sides, and with battens added to join it tightly to the frame, the presence of the rebate of the frame, the bevelled shape and the type of moulding, do not match well with the date of the work and appear to be later. In the central panel, the two pilasters carry painted carvings. These have been cut at waist height, leaving only the legs. De Bosque noted that the various panels have been sawn at the top and dates the frame to the 19th century. The frame seems, however, to be old. It may be a reconstruction from the mid-16th century, giving the famous altarpiece a scalloped shape in place of a possibly straight top rail (?).