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

XI Foreword It is with great pleasure that I present to readers this revised and expanded edition on frames and supports in 15th and 16th-century Southern Netherlandish painting. The present e-book, based on the PhD thesis of Hélène Verougstraete presented at the Université catholique de Louvain ( UCL ) and first published privately in 1989 in French ( Cadres et supports dans la peinture flamande aux 15 e et 16 e siècles ), has for the past quarter- century been a key work for the study of the supports and frames of the paintings of our regions. In January 2013, the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage ( KIK-IRPA ) received support from the Getty Foundation as part of the Panel Paintings Initiative to translate and publish online Hélène Verougstraete’s seminal book. A grant proposal was put together by the author, in which the partnership with the Institute was defined: the latter being responsible for producing new photographs of the works studied, for the high resolution processing of the images and line drawings, copy editing, layout and creating links to BALaT database on its own website. To this end an agreement was also signed with the UCL , covering in particular the processing of the author’s line drawings. The entire translation was entrusted to Michael Lomax and a contract signed with the publishing house Peeters for producing the digital version in e-book format. The Institute’s heritage inventory unit took care of the photographic missions, which were supplemented by photographs provided by the Museums of Bruges and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The staff of the Centre for the Study of the Flemish Primitives (a specialized research unit of KIK- IRPA ) took in hand the important task of management of the texts, copy editing and layout. The Institute’s communication unit looked after the post-processing of the multiple images and diagrams. The KIK-IRPA has opted to publish this volume in the series Contributions to the Study of the Flemish Primitives published by the Centre for the Study of the Flemish Primitives, as a fundamental contribution to the knowledge of the works of the 15th and 16th centuries. This is the 13th volume of the series. The Getty Foundation has not only assisted financially with the translation and publication of this work in English, but also expressed the wish that this new edition be placed online to enable it to be downloaded free of charge anywhere in the world. The KIK-IRPA is pleased to accede to this request for the benefit of future generations.