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

CHAPTER III 74 revised and “cleederscrivers” were now allowed to exhibit, but with a prohibition on painting in oil. 6 This court case falls in a period when Tüchlein were coming into their own, with renowned masters such as Dirk Bouts and Hugo van der Goes producing them. Around 1500 the prohibition on painting in oil on canvas seems to have been lifted (or disregarded). Artists such as the members of the Bruegel dynasty, Quinten Metsys and others painted on canvas in both tempera and oil. The great majority of paintings on canvas have disappeared because of their fragility. Repertories have been produced of works that are still extant. 7 For the period between 1400 and 1530, some 95 paintings on canvas have come down to us. 8 Many of these canvases did not include auxiliary joinery like banners and large “tapestries” which were hung and then stored folded or rolled. Others, however, were associated with an auxiliary wood support in an assembly evoking altarpieces painted on wood. Most of these works have been relined in the course of time and have lost their original appearance. Among works that are well-documented, often as a result of a restoration or relining, we note the Entombment by Dirk Bouts (London, The National Gallery, inv. no. NG664) 9 and the Crucifixion by the same artist (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. no. 8181). 10 Considered as originally belonging to the same ensemble, the Annunciation (Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. no. 85.PA.24) has been the subject of various studies. 11 Among well- documented works can be mentioned the Emmaus Pilgrims (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. no. 6206), 12 the Last Supper at Tongerloo Abbey, 13 a Last Supper attributed to Martin de Vos (Herentals, Church of St Waudru), 14 a Virgin and Child with St Barbara (?) and St Catherine by Quinten Metsys (London, The National Gallery, inv. no. NG3664). 15 The Adoration of the Magi by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. no. 3929) was lined with Japanese paper in 1969. 16 Prior to that it had been fixed, with its edges folded back, on an oak backing panel. This panel, deemed not to be original at the time of the restoration, was removed. We believe that it was original. 6. Wolfthal 1986, 20-21. 7. Schöne 1938, 82; Vandenbroeck 1982, 29-59; Wolfthal 1989. 8. Wolfthal 1987, 81. 9. Davies 1953, 25; Bomford et al. 1986. 10. Masschelein-Kleiner et al. 1978-1979, 5-21. 11. Marijnissen 1988, 109-114; Périer-d’Ieteren 2005, 108-109, 162-163, 166-168, 173-174, 176, 177. 12. Masschelein-Kleiner et al. 1980-1981, 24. 13. Lefève 1967-1968, 23. 14. De Jonghe and Vynckier 1980-1981, 81-92. 15. Roy 1988, 36-43. 16. Philippot et al. 1969, 8.