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

catalogue 554 18. Antwerp Master (known as the Master of the Brussels Epiphany), Triptych of the Epiphany . Open: wings: Nativity ; Flight into Egypt , first quarter 16th century Inv. no. 376 Provenance: early repositories. First mention in 1806 catalogue (no. 124). Bibliography: Pauwels 1984, 340. Panels: the central panel consists of two vertically-placed boards. One element is worked on the back with a scrub plane, the other has traces of saw-marks. Frames: originally grooved; the rear cheek of the groove has been removed back to extract the panels. Slotted joints, cut square on the outside and mitred on the inside. The curved upper rail of the central panel is made of a single piece of wood which has not broken or split despite the weight of the frame pulling across the grain. It has two hanging/holding holes, that have broken. Holes cut into the bottom of the lower rail indicate that the triptych was intended to be placed on a solid surface. The function of the holes in the top rail was therefore to hold the triptych in place, not to suspend it.