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

CHAPTER IV 90 12. Mauquoy-Hendrickx 1978-1983. Double framing was particularly popular in the Francken workshop. The inner frame, with a wide front surface, has varied patterns or scenes related to the main subject (fig. 46b), a little like what we see in the engravings of the Wierix brothers. 12 3. From the outside to the inside of articulated works: a crescendo of colours and mouldings In many triptychs or polyptychs we observe a crescendo in the colouring, from the soberly coloured outside to the brilliant gilding of the opened work (fig. 47). The colours of the frames also accompany the spectator towards the central point of the representation, at the centre of the open triptych. In this sense we can talk of meaningful use of colours. Fig. 46. Various patterns adorning the front surface. a. Ambrosius Benson, Triptych of St Anthony of Padua , early 16th century (Brussels, RMFAB , no. 14 ). b. Frans Francken ii (attributed to), Crucifixion , between 1581 and 1642 (Leuven, MM , no. 13 ). c. Anonymous, Triptych of the Virgin and Child , 1584 (Bruges, OLPM , no. 8 ). a b c Fig. 47. A crescendo effect is visible in the colours as well as in the mouldings of many frames of the 15th and 16th centuries. Anonymous, Triptych of the Reliquary of the Virgin’s Veil , late 14th century (Tongeren, BOL , no. 1 ).