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

ASSEMBLY OF PANEL AND FRAME 67 24. Janssens de Bisthoven 1981, 85-101. 25. Goetghebeur and Kockaert 1980-1981, 5-19. Cases where the panel has a barbe and an unpainted edge, and therefore was painted in the frame, still exist in the second half of the 16th century. By way of example, we can mention two works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the Fall of the Rebel Angels , 1562, and the Census at Bethlehem , 1566 (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. nos. 584 and 3637), the original frames of which are lost. Frames for panels to be painted on both sides are always grooved. This is the case of the triptych or polyptych wings. Exceptionally one can observe that the panel has received a layer of ground before being slotted into a grooved frame. One example of this process is the wing of a triptych attributed to Petrus Christus, with Isabella of Portugal and St Elisabeth , c. 1457-1460 (Bruges, Groeninge Museum, inv. no. 0000. GRO1614.I). In this painting, even elements of the underdrawing are found on this unpainted edge; only the painted layers have been executed subsequent to framing. 24 The panel of the Grand Calvary by Albrecht Bouts (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. no. 695) 25 had been coated before insertion into the frame. Sometimes two edges only have barbes and unpainted edges. In this case we can suppose that they were painted outside the frame, but held on an easel between two grooved bars, to facilitate handling and prevent the panel curving before being mounted in the frame. One such grooved bar maintaining a panel is held by St Luke in a work by Maerten van Heemskerk, St Luke Painting the Virgin (Rennes, Museum of Fine Arts). The same system was still in use in the 17th century. We see an example in the Artist in his Studio by Rembrandt van Rijn (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. no. 38.1838). Fig. 31. Various forms of thinning. 1. Thinning in the form of an inward-slanting rebate has been observed solely on the reverse of the panel of the Adoration of the Lamb (Ghent, St Bavo’s Cathedral). Did the angle of the rebate provide an additional point of support on the frame, preventing the weight of the panel from resting solely on the thinned outer side; or did it serve to protect the woodwork against dust? 2. Thinning by means of rebating is found frequently. We encounter it on the reverse of the centre panels of the upper Ghent altarpiece (Ghent, St Bavo’s Cathedral). 3-5. Of the other forms of thinning found on the reverse of the panels and at times at the front, simple bevelling is the most frequent. 5. Predominant form of thinning when the panel is placed in a rebated frame.