ALTARPIECE OF THE HOLY INFANT'S CHILDHOOD

POLYCHROME DECORATION 

Though the reliefs are not currently polychrome decorated, traces of this have been observed in the deep pleats of garments and other hard-to-reach spots, all of which indicate that it had been polychrome decorated at some earlier date. Given the current state of the work, it is difficult to determine whether this decoration is the original, or whether it was carried out at some later date. Be that as it may, the polychrome decoration is certainly not Flemish because the analysis of micro-samples detected the presence of calcium sulphate (gypsum).