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

CHAPTER IV 86 3. Dülberg 1990; Campbell 1991. 4. Dülberg 1990, 65-67; Campbell 1991, 217-225. We include under polychromy the reverses of the panels and the closed wings of the altarpieces, whenever these are covered with marbling or a uniform colour – items little studied until now. In their fascinating books on portraits, Angelica Dülberg and Lorne Campbell established a typology of the representations on the reverses of a large group of portraits painted in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and France in the 15th and 16th centuries: scenes in full colours, grisailles with stone sculptures in a niche, allegories, vanities, coats of arms, mottos, texts, marblings, monochrome paint layers… 3 All those representations are found, not only on the back of portraits, but also on other paintings in the Netherlands at that time. Marblings and monochrome paint layers have long been neglected. They are often poorly preserved, if at all. The present study will focus on those two aspects of the polychromy. The polychromy of 15th- and 16th- century Flemish frames has often been overpainted and sometimes stripped, either down to the oak or leaving mixed layers of colours. Adding to this the fact that photographs in books often omit frames and rarely show the outsides of the wings or the reverses of paintings, one realizes the difficulty of studying the subject. Sources remain to be exploited, such as the altarpieces shown in miniatures, and in painted and carved altarpieces. The subject is a vast one, and we can do no more here than point to certain particularities of this polychromy. 1. Colouring and finishing of woodwork on the reverse of a painting or on closed wings It has often been said that paint applied on the outside of 15th- and 16th- century Netherlandish panel paintings served merely the purpose of preventing the wood from warping. It is possible that this layer did indeed protect the panel against humidity. Many reverses, however, were left unpainted, as for example in the central panel of most devotional triptychs. Without the question having been specifically studied, many unpainted reverses give the impression of having been originally impregnated with a water-resistant layer. Painting on a reverse can often be observed together with refined woodwork: a moulding surrounding the panel and careful joinery. On the contrary, unpainted reverses often display rough woodwork with sharp edges. It seems to have been a rule that a bare wooden surface was one not exposed to the eye. The presence of original colour on an outside, associated with a well-finished woodwork, is thus related to the use and display of the painting. The ways of displaying paintings or of storing them in the 15th and 16th centuries have been carefully described in the two books on portraits already mentioned. 4 In public places (churches,