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

introduction XIX In the 15th and 16th centuries the support of a painting is a work of joinery, a piece of furniture presented in its finished stage to the artist, who can then begin his work. From some time before 1520, artists began painting on panels outside the frame. This new habit responds to concerns of organization and efficiency, but the concept of the support as a finished piece of furniture was to persist for several decades. Throughout the 16th century, many panels were still painted in the frame. One also finds paintings on canvas associated with joinery similar to that of paintings on wood, but coarser. The evolution towards independent frames, where the decorative function becomes more important than the construction, is linked to the increasing popularity in the 17th century of canvas, a lighter support requiring less solid framing. Even so, 17th century northern Netherlandish frames betray in their construction and moulding the influence of southern Netherlandish frames of the previous centuries. They also illustrate the growing attention to decoration, which became increasingly sophisticated from one century to another. In the period that interests us here, the frame is the constructional element that ensures the solidity of the structure. The choice of joints linking the elements of the frame depended on its destination: was it to be placed on an altar or an item of furniture, or would it be hung, and would it have wings? Many times the works were attached to a base. When the evolution of taste and the religious sentiment meant that these works lost their places on the altar or a piece of domestic furniture, they were hung, even though the work had not been conceived to bear their weight. Many pieces of joinery whose upper curved portions consisted of wood with the grain running horizontally or obliquely have broken as a result of the load imposed on them. In some cases, hardware reinforcements have offset these disadvantages, but in other cases the damage caused by their suspension has probably led to their loss. The construction of small and large supports poses different challenges. For large triptychs and polyptychs, the weight of the wings becomes a major factor. Various solutions were tried, with the unsuccessful ones abandoned, and the good ones becoming the standard recipes. The central frames of the large ensembles were consolidated at the back with reinforcing bars pegged or sometimes nailed to the frame. During restoration work, these reinforcements were often removed in order to take the panels out of their frames. This original joinery of the central part has not always been returned to its original state, conceived as a consistent whole. Weakened in this way, the central portion was therefore unable to support the weight of the wings, the existence of which became precarious. A trend emerges over the two centuries of which we have examined the joinery. In the 15th century the primary requirement was that of strength. The frame elements are assembled with mortise and tenon joints, with variations that reflect local characteristics; the moulding is simple. In the 16th century slotted joints, easier to produce, are adopted everywhere. The speed with which this solution spread reflects the atmosphere of active trade and circulation of works at the time. At the same time we see the development of moulded and carved decoration, with distinct local particularities appearing. The polychromy is often black and gold, more stereotyped than in the previous century, and more rarely witnesses to the intervention of the artist.