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

catalogue 566 22. Bernard van Orley (follower), Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi . Closed: remains of marbling, very damaged. Open: wings: Nativity ; Presentation of Jesus in the Temple , first half 16th century Inv. 337 Provenance: early repositories. First mentioned in 1811 catalogue (no. 131). Bibliography: Pauwels 1984, 221; Galand 2013, 386-401. Panels: central panel: five vertical boards, the central one very narrow (8.2 cm), the wings have respectively two and three boards. Originally the panels were slotted into the grooves of the frames. The rear cheek has been sawn back to remove the panels that have undergone major restoration. Frames: the joints at the top are dovetailed, cut square on the outsides of the wings and on reverse of the central panel, and mitred on the inside of the triptych. At the bottom, joints are mortise and tenon (tenon on the stile); with a mixed cut on the inside (with the front tenon shoulder inclined to the angle of the sill) and cut square on the reverse of the central panel and on the outsides of the wings. The accolade of the central frame is in two parts, meeting in an end-to-end slotted joint, which was then pegged and reinforced with a metal fitting (not original?). It contains an original insert on the right hand side. Various non-original inserts serve to consolidate the joints of the frames. The frame of the central panel is wider and twice as thick as those of the wings. Inside the triptych: gold polychromy, not original. The polychromy of the closed triptych is ruined, with a different treatment on the right and left wings.