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

catalogue 654 MECHELEN, PUBLIC WELFARE CENTRE (PWC) 1. Anonymous, Dance of the Virtues , 1545 (dated in the lower right corner of the painting) Inv. no. II. 6898 Panel: poplar (?). Low-quality wood with knots. Four vertical boards of equal width (from a single board?). The reverse is covered with black paint and the joins consolidated in recent times with wooden slats and with roughly-glued strips of cloth. Canvas: the edges of the canvas were cut with scissors before being glued to the panel. The play of the wood of the panel has reduced the good adhesion of the fabric to its auxiliary wooden support and produced large blisters in the canvas. At some point, an attempt was made to prevent tearing by making small cuts in these blisters. The edges of the canvas were painted black before framing. The paint was applied after the framing (barbe). On the edges of the panel, one observes a white powdery substance (residue of the glue binding the fabric and the panel?). Frame: four slats nailed onto the panel (large forged nails, badly rusted); mitred at the top, angled to the inclined sill at the bottom. At one stage, the rails were sawn in the centre in order to reglue the join. The non-original black colour covers a layer of red colour.