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

ASSEMBLY OF PANEL AND FRAME 71 27. Sneyers and Veronee-Verhaegen 1967-1968, 99-120; Dubois et al. 2009, 57-107. Sometimes joins are covered by strips of canvas, often arranged in small overlapping pieces. The use of several pieces served to disperse the traction. This type of reinforcement can be found on the painted face (Anonymous, Last Judgement , first quarter of the 15th century, Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. no. 4658) 27 or the reverse. It can be superimposed on fibres, as in a Virgin and Child from the Bouts group (fig. 35). Fig. 35. Strips of canvas superimposed on fibres, reinforcing the joins . Bouts Group, Virgin and Child , c. 1500 (Leuven, MM, no. 5 ). Canvas partners with wood better than parchment, perhaps because of its greater flexibility. The effects of moisture, in principle causing a simultaneously swelling of the wood and shrinkage of the canvas, appear to have been neutralized in some cases. In the Coronation of the Virgin (Antwerp, RMFA , no. 1 ) the placing of canvas right across the front of the support has contributed to a good conservation of the paint layer while, on the back, where there is no canvas, the many gaps reflect the play of the wood support. Such reinforcement is used only in a minority of cases. The 15th and 16th century joiners’ excellent knowledge of oak and their skill in using it made unnecessary the various reinforcements used in earlier periods or by other schools of painting.