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

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS 689 5. Gerard David (follower), Virgin and Child , 15th century Bibliography: Verougstraete et al. 1995, 95-105. Paper, marouflaged onto a panel: painted on a sheet of paper cut to the dimensions of an oak support (26 × 20.8 cm) and glued onto it. The paper was cut after the painting stage. The bottom of the sheet has an unpainted edge. Originally there may have been a painted sheet on each side. The paper is glued slightly too far to the left (it extends slightly over the edge of the wood to the left and does not meet the edge to the right). The tool used to exercise the necessary pressure for gluing paper to board has produced a crease in the paper to the left. The laid lines of the paper are visible to the naked eye and in the X-radiograph, but not the chain lines. Panel: The panel consists of a vertical element of pure radially cut oak, thinner on the left side (3mm - heartwood) than the right (4 mm). The panel is rebated at the back on all four sides. The reverse is has been carefully smoothed: gouge (scrub plane?) marks remain visible. The dark and shiny nature of the reverse of the panels (except the bevelled edges) may be linked to the existence of a protective impregnation against moisture (size or oil-based coating?). Two layers of paint were placed on the front of the panel prior to the marouflage of the paper: a white, thinly covering layer, followed by a thicker red layer, which could be composed of red lead (high density on the X-radiograph). This same red matter adheres irregularly to the back of the paper. Where oily binder of the paint layer has impregnated the paper, the red matter has adhered less well. The X-radiographic image shows capricious “islands” in the red coating on the back of the paper, formed by the pressure used in mounting. Where the paper adheres less well, it forms “bubbles” or local liftings. These liftings are vertical, in the direction of the grain, being related to the play of the wood. On the X-radiograph these correspond to the darker areas (where the adhesive is less abundant). Frame: original frame lost. This was grooved, as indicated by the rebating of the panel. This practice of slotting panels into grooved frames gradually disappears during the first half of the 16th century. The mounting of the paper onto the panel appears to date from the first half of the 16th century and was probably done soon after painting.