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

catalogue 660 Joints, wood defects and ends of nails have been covered with strips and pieces of parchment. This parchment has in most cases become detached, owing to the play of the wood, carrying the paint layer with it. Occasionally, however, it parchment has remained in the middle of a paint gap. The negative results of the use of parchment to cover up defects in a wooden support led to its abandonment – with rare exceptions – in subsequent periods. Right, the diagonal placing of the parchment pieces reflects the concern to limit the traction exerted on them by the play of the wood.