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

catalogue 576 26. Anonymous, double pair of wings from the Polyptych of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin , 1551 (dated at the foot of the cross on the wing with St Bernard receiving in his arms Christ taken down from the Cross ) Inv. no. 332 Provenance: probably from the Benedictine Abbey of Forest. Previously mentioned as coming from the Church of St Salvator, Ghent. Bibliography: Pauwels 1984, 398-399. We present the wings as they were originally assembled to form a splendid ensemble, with the wings opening twice to reveal a generous iconographic program. Today the altarpiece is conserved in separate pieces and the central part is missing. We examined one wing of each pair of wings. Wing at the right, outer pair: detail of the Farewell of Christ to his mother (closed) and Calvary (open) Panel: three vertical boards, painted in the frame. N.B. For the left wing of the pair with the Farewell of Christ to his mother , a joiner came up with the idea of planing along the join to glue buttons. A similar treatment was inflicted on the wings by Jan II van Coninxloo in the same Museum (Brussels, RMFAB , no. 27 ). Frame: grooved, slotted joints, mixed cut or cut square on the outside and mitred on the inside. Two pegs reinforce each joint. The polychromy has been redone. Wing at the right, inner pair (forming, when closed, the centre of a triptych): Meeting of Christ and Veronica (closed) and St Bernard receiving in his arms Christ taken down from the Cross (open) Panel: four vertical boards, including a narrow element on the outside which forms the integral frame when the wing is open, and is flush with the support when the wings are closed. This trick made it possible to form, with the wings closed, a second triptych with a smooth central panel. Frame: four pieces, with the longer stile cut into the board of the panel. Slotted joints, mixed cut on the outside and mitred on the inside. The integral frame member is joined with a slotted joint to the rails, to which it is also firmly pegged. The polychromy has been redone.