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

663 TONGEREN, BASILICA OF OUR LADY (BOL) 1. Anonymous, Triptych of the Reliquary of the Virgin’s Veil. Closed: pattern of gilded stars and florets on a red background. Open: Reliquary in embroidered cloth, hiding a representation of two angels carrying the Virgin’s veil; wings: Annunciation . Reverse: remains of silver leaf florets on the same red background, late 14th century Provenance: Tongeren, Basilica of Our Lady. Bibliography: Verougstraete-Marcq and Van Schoute 1979, 19-24; Stroo 2009, 420-446. Panel and frame: three vertically butt-joined boards; integral frame. Each join has two dowels. The moulding around the main scene is carved into the support. The wings are simple boards fastened with hinges and closing with wooden swivel cams. The hinges are original, with their blades embedded obliquely in the thickness of the wood. On the top and bottom sides, the joints have been reinforced with non-original iron fittings. The red polychromy that is currently visible on the front of the frame, when the triptych is closed, is a crude overpainting; examination under the microscope reveals that the original polychromy − vermilion covered with madder lake − remains under this overpainting. On top of this red came a pattern in gold leaf, which is difficult to define as it does not appear to have been picked up by the current pattern, which is not superposed on it. The moulding that appears when the triptych is opened comprises a succession of three cavettos still decorated with their original polychromy: gilded, with a red and green line on the outer cavettos. The reverse of the triptych is less overpainted than the front and the layers of vermilion and madder have remained exposed. A floral pattern in silver leaf, now oxidized and blackened, is almost erased. The difference between the polychromy on the front and that on the reverse is noteworthy: pattern in gold leaf on the front, silver leaf on the reverse; on the front a layer of ground, which has been dispensed with on the reverse, where the paint has been applied directly onto the wood.