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

CANVASES AND THEIR AUXILIARY SUPPORTS 81 25. Marette 1961, 93. 26. Macari 1985, 104-111. 27. Van Molle 1958, 7-17. 28. Verougstraete and Van Schoute 1988, 472-480. Initially, pieces of canvas mounted on a stretcher served in particular as dust guards for large works. The lightening of the wings permitted a simplified construction of the central weight-carrying part. Examples of the use of stretchers are mentioned in the archives, both for French and for Flemish painting. In 1497, Jacques Mounier produced a three-part altarpiece for the Church of St Honorat at Lérins, painting the two side parts on a canvas mounted on a stretcher. 25 Perpignan cathedral still has two monumental organ shutters, about 12 m high and 4 m wide, dated 1504, painted on stretched canvas. These unique wings by an anonymous painter represent, on the one side, The Baptism of Christ , and on the other, The Feast of Herod. Their task was to protect the instrumental part of the organ against dust. 26 Prior to 9 February 1492, canvas shutters were added to the Justice of Othon III by Dirk Bouts (Brussels, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. nos. 1447-1448). 27 These canvases, now lost, even though painted and decorated with texts, had as their primary function to protect the work from dust. The oldest stretcher we have observed is the one carrying a canvas with a Christ Appearing to the Holy Women ( Leuven, MM , no. 15 ) (fig. 36d). Here the canvas is held between a frame and a stretcher. The mounting is quite similar to that on a backing panel. The components of the stretcher are assembled with half-lap joints, and the assembly is pegged in place. The canvas has a rigid appearance, it is impregnated (original?). This work has a pendant conserved in the same museum, Christ in the Garden of Olives , with a similar assembly but with the stretcher nailed to the frame rather than pegged. 28 Other improvements took place in the production of the supports for the canvas. The custom of folding the edges round the stretcher represents a significant step in the evolution of this technology, giving the canvas better support. The canvas had already been folded back much earlier. In the case of the late 14th century two-sided panel with the Annunciation and the Coronation of the Virgin (Antwerp, RMFA , no. 1 ) the canvas glued on wood was originally folded back and nailed to the narrow side of the thick support. In other cases the borders of the canvases were folded back to provide summary repairs. The use of the stretcher in conjunction with rebated frames tended to systematize this practice, probably towards the end of late 16th century. The adverse effects of humidity variations on the tension of canvases remained a concern. From the second half of the 16th century onwards, oil binders were preferred to tempera; it may be that the former’s waterproofing qualities played a role in this choice. The keys inserted into the corners of the mobile assemblies of the stretchers are a mid-18th century invention. Hitting the keys opened the assemblies, with the effect of re-tensioning the canvas. The canvas support as we know it today remains essentially what it became at that time following the various technical improvements of which we have just sketched out the history.