The former framing of The Descent from the Cross, c.1511-20, acquired 1931, was from the nineteenth century and reflected the extension of the original ogee shaped panel into a rectangular format in a restoration of the work most likely dating to the early nineteenth century.
When the painting was cleaned and restored in 1997, the painting was returned to the ogee shape by removing the extensions to the panel along with the cradle on the reverse. This treatment brought forward the need to reframe the panel.
A copy of the panel, in the complete form of a triptych dated 1520, is in the Potteries Museum in Brugges, Belgium.
A reproduction of this frame was made in 1998 using European oak and replicating the joinery and gilding.
The panel, which had been thinned in a previous restoration, was fitted to a panel tray and re-housed in the frame.