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

catalogue 642 10. Anonymous, pair of wings with St Nicholas of Myra and Donor , 1587 (dated in a cartouche on the wing with the Donor) Inv. nos. S/28/O and S/29/O Provenance: probably from Church of St Peter in Leuven, where the wings are mentioned in 1798. Conserved in the Museum since 1976. Bibliography: Crab 1977, 191. Panels: two vertical boards; the panel, slotted into the groove of the frame, is moulded at the back. The moulding on the reverse of the panel is a rare feature and could be inspired by furniture joinery. Large buttons are placed on the join on the reverse, reinforcing − unnecessarily, it seems − a closed join, and damaging the original beige and grey marbling. Frames: grooved; all joints are slotted, mitred at the front, mixed cut on the reverse. The outer edges of the stiles on the outsides of the wings are moulded. Only the left edge of the frame with the donor is flat and not polychromed over a width of 3 cm, marking the location of a closing strip that has since disappeared. The black and gold polychromy is redone on the front and sides, and original on the reverse. The panels are marbled.