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

ASSEMBLY OF PANEL AND FRAME 59 15. Bücken and Steyaert 2013. 16. Campbell 1976, 188-198. 17. Périer-d’Ieteren 1984; Périer-d’Ieteren 2000, 37-52. 15th and 16th centuries in Brussels the influence of the joinery of carved altarpieces. On the outside of the Van Eyck’s upper altarpiece in Ghent, dovetails are used to insert a median crossbar in the stiles of the wings. This joint is also used in works of Rogier van der Weyden ( Braque Triptych , Paris, Louvre, inv. no. R.F. 2063) and in several works from the second half of the 15th century that bear the Brussels joiners’ mark. We will return to this group of works when we examine the marks and the evolution of joints. We find one case of a dovetail joint in Hans Memling, Jan Floreins Triptych , 1479 (Bruges, SJH , no. 2 ). Consideration of dovetails joints as one typological criterion among others has allowed Véronique Bücken and Griet Steyaert to confirm the activity in Brussels of many of the masters with provisional names created by Max Jacob Friedländer and of a series of paintings that have until now not fallen into any known group. 15 The above- mentioned authors draw a diversified panorama of Brussels painting in the late 15th century, which reflects the mobility of artists and the exchange of ideas and methods between different artistic centres. Lorne Campbell pointed out already many years ago that artists could be members of several guilds at once, in different cities. 16 To the mobility of the artists of the day, we should also add that of the supports. Persons commissioning paintings could well acquire the frames elsewhere, given the unequal quality of the joinery from one city to another. In other words a Brussels joiners’ mark on a frame is no watertight guarantee that the painting was done in Brussels. It is equally possible that, for official commissions, the guilds played a role, and were able to insist on supports for works by outside artists being produced by local artisans. Bücken and Steyaert remind us that the Brussels joiners’ marks have also been identified on the wings of carved altarpieces and that the relationships between independent paintings and the painted wings of the carved altarpieces merit attention. In cities like Brussels and Antwerp, where the production of carved altarpieces was a great success, it is reasonable to assume that various artisans worked together to produce the final product. This fact has already been demonstrated. 17 3. Slotted joint (fig. 19: 14-22; fig. 24) Fig. 24. Slotted joint. Mitred at the front, with the mouldings neatly aligned; cut square at the back. Pegged. On the narrow side: the outline of the slotted joint. Anonymous, Our Lady of Grace of Cambrai ( PC , no. 2 ).