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

NAMUR, PROVINCIAL MUSEUM OF ANCIENT ARTS 657 The central vertical cross-bar of the Visitation was badly placed from the outset. The holes made in the central panel to receive the pegs and the corresponding recesses in the various cross-pieces were misaligned. The cross-bar was nevertheless forced into place, but right from the beginning it was never pegged. The unused holes were − like others − plugged on the front of the panel with parchment. The traction caused by this vertical cross-bar has resulted in a significant crack in the adjacent board of the panel. It also caused breaks in the rails of the outer frame. These breaks may have been accentuated when it was decided to remove the defective cross-bar. The notches (now restored) in the severed sides of the panels relate to their subsequent use in a chest of drawers. On the reverse can be seen traces of oxidation left by the large nailed fittings. These strip hinges had to carry the weight of the heavy wings. The nails surface in the pictorial layer, demonstrating a carelessness that contrasts with the care with which the pegs are sealed. But this is not the only time that the metalsmith, the last in the succession of tradesmen involved, has applied his ironwork with scant regard for the painting. The stiles, located outside of each panel, had rebates which interlocked on closing. One of these remains, the other one has since been cut back flush to the rest of the side. This tells us that these are two wings, which closed flush. Traces of a lock can be seen. A trompe-l’œil frame is painted around the Annunciation and the Visitation . This red frame has a flat band, a cavetto decorated with flowerlets, and an inner baguette. The modelling is obtained using vermilion, white, and red madder. This painted frame is 10.3 cm wide. The outside of the wings, with its careful joinery, has the remains of the original red polychromy.