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

catalogue 626 3. Anonymous, Christ on the Cross , c. 1530 Inv. no. S/18/O Provenance: probably Leuven, Church of St Peter. Conserved in the Museum since 1976. Bibliography: Crab 1977, 189. Panel: two vertical boards, each 0.6 cm thick. The ground has been placed on the panel outside the frame, before painting in the frame. The reverse is flat and without any bevel; it is covered with a red-brown layer as protection against damp. The painting appears never to have been removed from its original frame, judging from the nails that do not appear to have been changed. Frame: rebated. The curved upper rail is joined to the stiles with half-lap end-to- end joints, which have been roughly nailed. At the bottom, slotted joints, mitred at the front and cut square at the back. The mitre shoulders on the tenon and the mortise are inclined (possibly harking back to frames with lower rails in the form of inclined sills).