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

CHAPTER III 78 19. Marijnissen 1985, 74. 20. Wolfthal 1986, 29. 21. Marijnissen 1988, figs. 22 and 24. 22. Bomford et al. 1986, 51. In some cases the canvas was glued to the wooden support. The inventories of the time mention the existence of canvases pasted onto panels. 19 The pasting could have taken place after painting, or sometimes before. 20 Pasting before painting points to a hastier and less careful process to avoid having to stretch the canvas carefully on a temporary frame. The results were not felicitous. The already-mentioned Dance of the Virtues (Mechelen, PWC , no. 1 ) was produced in this way (fig. 36b) and probably also the Calvary , around 1523 (Bruges, Public Welfare Centre). In both cases, the adhesion of the canvas to the boards of the panel was poor and large blisters ensued. When the question of restoration arose it was decided to conserve these works, both of poor pictorial quality, in their existing condition for their documentary value. We note that the black edges of these paintings are without holes, 21 that in each case the canvas is slightly smaller than the panel, and that the frame was pegged beyond the edge of the canvas. The coloured border was produced sometimes before painting, sometimes after. It was produced beforehand in the Dance of the Virtues and afterwards in the Entombment by Dirk Bouts. 22 Sometimes it was crossed by the pegs and nails (when they had to hold the canvas in place), and at other times there were no holes (when the canvas was pasted). The intention was for this border to be hidden by the frame; it can probably be interpreted as determining the size of the work and as an instruction for the joiner to cut the wood to size. In some cases, the painted border may have served as a reference to make sure the canvas was framed squarely, and to avoid distortions of the canvas that would have had an unfortunate effect on the composition. Some canvases had no coloured borders. The black or brown colours of these borders evoke the polychroming of the frames of the time. The brownish borders of certain 15th century Tüchlein resemble gilding or the light or dark brown mordant used under gold leaf. Black borders appear more frequently in the 16th century, when black predominates in the polychromy of frames. However, while it would appear natural for painters to adopt the normal colours of a frame for painting these borders, one should not exaggerate the significance of this colour which was intended to be hidden by the frame. In the Dance of the Virtues (Mechelen, PWC , no. 1 ) the border of the canvas is black, while the frame was originally painted red (fig. 36b). This tells us that there is no necessary correspondence between the colour of the frame painted on the canvas and the polychromy of the actual frame.