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

CHAPTER I 6 28. Van de Velde 1909, 139. 29. Bruges, State Archives, no. 8428. 30. Bruges, State Archives, no. 8436, quoted from Van de Velde 1909, 134. 31. “Item soe wat beeldsnydere oft schildere maken wille eenen back van eender outaer tafele lanck wesende seven voeten ende nyet passerende daer boven, die sal die borduren daer aff dicke maken anderhalven duym ende die plancken oock ander halven duym ende in dyen den selven bac vier doeren heeft, soe salt paneel daer aff zyn een derden deel duyms, ende oft hy maer twee doeren en heeft soe salt paneel daer aff dicke zijn eenen halven duym, ende tschutsel oock eenen halven duym met eenre brugghen achter in midden van den tschutsele, opte peyne van eenen ouden schilde, te bekeeren als vore. Item soo wie wilt maken eenen back die zeven voeten passerende is, daer aff sullen de bordueren zyn twee duymen, ende de plancken oock twee duymen en(de) tschutsel daer aff drie vierendeel duyms met twee brugghen achter in den hals en(de) in midden ende de borduren van de doeren breet twee duymen ende een vieren deel duyms en sullen dick zyn ander halven duym, ende de pan(n)eelen eenen halven duym, ende dit al, in so verre de voors. backen vier doeren hebben, ende seven voeten passerende zyn, maer die alleenlic twee doeren hebben ende oock seven voeten passerende zyn, daer aff sullen de panneelen dicke zyn drie vierendeel duyms op te peyne voors.” Quoted from Monballieu 1966, 50-53. joiners, or sell the produce of the latter. 28 This implies that from time to time turners produced certain unauthorized items. There were “entrepreneurs” and “voorvercoopere” (intermediaries) who sold joiners’ products. The activity of these intermediaries was combatted, at least in the course of the 16th century. An act of 17 August 1562 29 reaffirms the principle of the exclusive sale of their production by joiners themselves, as already established in an act of 1552. Resellers (“voorvercoopere”) are no longer permitted to “commission, buy, have sold…” joinery work, either at the joiners’ premises, or in sales after death, or at public auction, or in any other place,… 30 It is obviously difficult to distinguish today the work of the carpenter from that of the joiner. In the particular case of the Van Eyck’s altarpieces in Ghent one can suggest that the construction of the support of the upper altarpiece might be the work of a carpenter. In it one detects a concern to address the problem of the weight of components. The solutions to this problem are unequalled in the supports of the day, and are similar to the approaches to the dynamics of the wooden constructions that are part of buildings. In other words, the guilds sought to delimit the fields of the various craftsmen by regulating the use of raw materials (glue, oak or other wood) and techniques (pinning, grooving, gluing, turning). The various categories of woodworkers whose skills often overlapped (carpenters, carvers and turners) were clearly accustomed to trespass into each other’s territories. Archives published to date contain little technical information about the supports for paintings. An ordinance of the guild of St Luke in Antwerp of 20 March 1494 (n.s.) gives instructions for building the case for an altarpiece: the relative thickness of the central case and its frame, the thickness of the panels and frames of the wings and the size and placing of cross battens behind the central part, to ensure that the weight of the wings is borne without distortion by the central part. 31 Painters and sculptors are encouraged to make sure that, depending on the size of the altarpiece, the load- bearing part is pretty solidly built and the carried part is constructed more lightly