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

catalogue 574 25. Brussels Anonymous, Portrait of the Donatrix Jacomijne Huioels, wife of Joos van Facuwez (wing of a triptych). Closed: text and coats of arms, 1547 (dated on the lower right corner of the frame) Inv. no. 399 Provenance: early repositories. First mentioned in the 1809 catalogue (66, no. 10), from St Michael’s Cathedral in Brussels. Bibliography: Pauwels 1984, 382. Panel: a single board, painted in the frame. The donatrix’s age is mentioned above her head: Etatis sue xxiiii . Frame: the frame was originally grooved. The back cheek of the groove has been subsequently sawn back to remove the panel. Slotted joints, mitred on both faces. Mitring on both faces of a slotted joint is rare, even though it exists since the 15th century, for example in the Braque Triptych by Rogier van der Weyden (Paris, Louvre, inv. no. R.F. 2063). The profile of the frame has a wide flat band between two carefully carved bodies of mouldings. Inside, the black and gold polychromy is original. The corners of the frame are decorated with inscriptions from top to bottom and left to right: K C ANO 1547 . The polychromy on the closed wing is in poor condition.