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

introduction XVIII Some precious objects, often dismembered or damaged, with their frames in ruins, are only pale reflections of what they were, comprehendible only by theoretical reconstructions of their lost refinement: the reversible diptych that hides a second, objects with multiple openings revealing successive contents, an altarpiece with a transformation mechanism, now lost, of which the wheels embedded in the frames are the only clues to its erstwhile operation. Ideally, for articulated works, one ought, whenever possible, to describe the work first closed, then opened. In the literature, it is useful to add a photograph of the back of the work to those of the closed and open work. It is important to reproduce the frame in its entirety, not sacrificing it to considerations of layout. We attempt here to present the works in accordance with these principles. As the outsides of some wings are severely damaged, this is not always possible. Painters in 15th and 16th century southern Netherlands worked on all kinds of supports. An ordinance of the City of Tournai dated 1480 stipulates that no person living in the city is authorized to paint “ne de estopher de couleur à olle, ou à destempre, quelque ouvrage soit sur pierre, ou bos, pastre, telle cuite, keuvre, estain, plancq, fier, cuir ou toille, ne en quelque autre matière…” (or to colour with oil paint or distemper any work, whether on stone, wood, plaster, terracotta, copper, tin, board, iron, leather or canvas, or on any other matter, without having first being received as a master and paid one’s fee). The painter’s work in the case of these various media was often limited to colouring (“étoffer”) a work produced by others, in fact the work of a decorator. Indeed, a distinction of this kind existed at the time. The supports that have retained our attention are those that carry the creations of painters, mainly on wood and canvas (there were also works painted under glass or on paper and even prints pasted on a panel and framed). The sample presented in our catalogue likely does not cover all less common practices. We have attempted to understand the handcraft traditions of the joinery trade, handed down largely unchanged over the centuries, seeking to recognize this inheritance in old joinery manuals. The monumental treatise by André-Jacob Roubo, L’art du Menuisier (Paris, 1769-1775) is very helpful in this respect. Contemporary paintings and engravings also provide valuable information on the tools available to the joiners of the day. The technical terms in French used in the 1989 edition were drawn from various sources and adapted anachronistically to the 15th and 16th centuries. There is no perfect parallelism between the French and English technical vocabulary in this domain, for example for the sub-groupings between categories of tools like axes or hand drills. This translation work was therefore a challenge, met here with careful attention by the translator, Michael Lomax. As this work focuses on the works of the southern Netherlands, and is also addressed to the art historians and restorers of this country, the creation of a multilingual glossary would have been useful. Time was, however, lacking to undertake this enterprise. Originally our choice of works was determined by their accessibility: that is conserved in Belgium, and often in museum reserves, away from the public, where they can be observed at leisure. Since then, our work has been enriched by the possibility of examining a small number of famous works conserved outside Belgium, with access to them being brief and by special favour.