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

catalogue 538 11. Jan Provoost, Triptych of Van Riebeke-Parmentier. Closed: St Anthony of Padua and St Bonaventure . Open: centre: Scenes of the lives of St Antony of Padua and St Bonaventure ; wings: Donor Adam van Riebeke ; Donatrix Marguerite van Riebeke-Parmentier , 1521 (dated on the inclined sill of the central frame) (outside of the wings by Pieter Pourbus?) Inv. no. 2588 Provenance: acquired from Duke Engelbert d’Arenberg, Brussels, 1873. Bibliography: Pauwels 1984, 234. Panels: central panel of five vertically butt-joined boards, painted in the frame. Along each join, the panel has been thinned with a gouge. This thinning may serve to mitigate the effects of the play of the wood, held tight by the trapezoidal cross-piece embedded to mid-depth in the panel and frame. Frames: the wings and the central part of the triptych are today presented separately. The two wings are placed side by side, making it impossible to inspect the sides of the longer stiles. The lower rails of the entire triptych are not visible either. This has prevented a detailed inspection of the joints. The joint at the top of the central accolade is held in place with a separate key. The curved parts are joined to the smaller stiles with mortise and tenon end-to-end joints, and to the large stiles with slotted joints, cut square on both faces. The frame of the central part is decorated with a non- original black and gold polychromy; an original fragment, bearing the date 1521, has been uncovered on the inclined sill of the bottom rail, with the date painted in black on the background decorated with gold leaf. The frames of the wings have been stripped. Remains of dark grey colour on the few places protected by hardware during the stripping operation.