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

introduction XX The fine paintwork of the artists of the southern Netherlands was echoed by the skills of woodworkers, heirs to a tradition of constructing buildings or individual elements of them in wood: roof frames, panelling, doors, shutters and the like. These were thoughtful, inventive craftsmen, who knew how to adapt to the taste of the day and the new programmes that the artists submitted to them. In the 15th century, they had a perfect knowledge of oak and how to work it. They cared about the shrinkage of timber and its harmful effects. They chose the best pieces of wood, carefully split and cut, then judiciously arranged within the work. In recent decades, many researchers, using technical laboratory documents, have shown how painters organized their work. They had patterns to copy, producing at times multiple copies of successful compositions. No doubt the joiners were equally well organized, with serially produced supports for serially produced paintings. Concerns for economy of materials and the constraints imposed by the wood sizes available presided over certain processes, in particular for producing large supports or for the curved frames that became popular in the 16th century. Not all work is of equally high quality, and we find disparities in the quality of the frames of works grouped around a single master. We have observed this with Jan van Eyck, for example, and also with Hieronymus Bosch. These differences are intriguing and many possible causes come to mind. Certain Brussels works from the second half of the 15th century whose origin is attested by the joiners’ compass and plane brand mark, are particularly well produced. Other centres, like Leuven in the early 16th century, produce modest quality joinery. This book begins with the general principles that presided the construction of supports. This section is followed by a catalogue of works examined, classified by place of conservation and with a description of their main characteristics. The first section examines in turn the relations between craftsmen and corporations, the choice of wood, the sourcing of the wood and the responsibilities for the choice of supports, tools and their use, cutting and drying, the arrangement of the different elements in the work, the ways of joining the elements of a panel and of a frame, parchment, fibre and cloth reinforcements, canvas and related auxiliary supports, the mouldings of frames, their other decoration and polychromy, markings and inscriptions, the closing systems of altarpieces, hinging and suspension, large altarpieces and some problems specific to large dimension works. An evolution of the mouldings and the joints emerges that can contribute to dating works. The book also examines the question of hinged and otherwise articulated works. Individual chapters are devoted to a small number of major works. Chance has it that for both editions our work ends with a study of the frames of the Ghent Altarpiece. For the current edition, this chapter retraces, with the help of diagrams, the chequered story of this masterpiece over the centuries and tries to visualize how it was presented over time in the Vijd Chapel. These diagrams synthesize information from various sources: (published) archive documents and the known history of the altarpiece, examination of the frames, technical documents (here especially X-radiograph) and the review of old photographs. Like other art historians, we believe that originally there were two altarpieces. We suggest how they began to