A Brief History of The Frame Origins Frames evolved from the borders which appeared 3-4,000 years ago

on vase and tom b paintings, and later on mosaics, enclosing narrative scenes and decorative pan els. Early Christian art adapted these to the carved edgings of ivory book cover s and diptychs, and finally of altarpieces. By this time the function of the fra me had changed: not merely a decorative boundary, it protected and emphasized th e work it held, and might have a strongly symbolic aspect. The gold and gems of early altar frames suggested the glories of Heaven; and the elaborate altarpiece s developed in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italy imitated a mediaeval cath edral in cross-section, the 'nave', 'aisles', 'crypt' and so on each holding a p ainted fraction of the whole work. These ecclesiastical settings were the first real picture frames; they were foll owed in the early Renaissance by court frames, commissioned by monarchs and the nobility for purposes of status and propaganda. Such frames indicated power and wealth by the magnificence of their workmanship and often too, by symbolic motif s. Secular frames followed: everyday versions of court frames ,produced in incre asing quantities from the 14th century to the present, and in all degrees of cos t or elaboration. These types and their evolution may be classified by their nationality: each cou ntry developing characteristic forms, of which the most successful might influen ce those of other countries - the Italian Renaissance cassetta frame, the 18th c entury French Rococo frame (see A History of the European fame, a study by natio nality). They may also be divided across national boundaries, by style: renaissa nce, Mannerist, the polished wooden cabinetmaker's frame, Baroque, Palladian and Rococo, the Roman 'Salvator Rosa', Neoclassical frames, and the academic or art ists' frames of the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries (see FRAMEWORKS. These t wo books interlock with and complement each other, creating a panorama of Europe an framing history). The Renaissance Cassetta Various decorative techniques Mannerist Frames The characteristic organic motifs which appear on many Mannerist frames seem to have been generated by craftsmen - especially silversmiths - working in the cour ts of Bohemia. The melting cartilaginous shapes mimic the fluidity of metalwork, and caused this style to be known as 'Auricular' (like ear lobes). Examples wer e produced in Britain - the 'Sunderland', in the Netherlands - the 'Lutma', and in Italy - the 'Medici' frame. The Cabinetmaker's Frame '... an Ebony frame can enrich a poor canvas, And make it look or sell as well a s a good one.' Constantijn Huygens, patron of Rembrandt. The cabinetmaker's frame, of stained or polished wood, was related both to the s implest cassetta frame and to architectural panelling and furniture. In Britain, the simpler forms of black and gilt 'entablature' frame were used, effective ag ainst backgrounds of tapestry, tooled leather or panelling, and when hung in gro ups. In seventeenth-century Holland the same frame type evolved luxury forms thr ough the use of tortoiseshell, ebony and other costly woods from the Dutch colon ies; ebony was particularly popular, complementing portraits of the mercantile c lasses in their severe black and white costumes, and highlighting landscapes aga inst the pale, well-lit interiors of the Netherlands. In Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain these wooden frames took more ornate forms, the veneer being worked i

nto complex patterns of ripple, wave and basketwork mouldings. Such patterns too k the place of gold leaf, refracting light from their faceted, polished black su rfaces onto the painting. Frames like these are related to contemporary cabinets : Flemish examples of ebony and tortoiseshell, painted and inlaid, or German cab inets decorated with ivory and silver-gilt. Baroque Frames Baroque and Rococo frames reverted to gilding, except in Spain which used polchr omy. Their dynamic came from the 'cartouches' of curling leaves, shells and volu tes carved in the corners and often the centres of each rail. The imaginary line s drawn between these points were utilized by contemporary artists to emphasize their paintings, as shown here. The drama and opulence achieved by Baroque frame s reflected the grandeur of 17th century princely life, and the theatrical spiri tuality of the Church: they were also features of practical importance, since co ntemporary paintings needed strong settings with powerful sculptural forms to pr oject and emphasize them against the splendors of the Baroque interior. Rococo Frames The Palladian Frame Palladian and Roman frames provided a masculine, architectural alternative to Ba roque and Rococo curves - particularly in Britain, where there were few, if any, complete Rococo interiors, and the taste for classical forms had never been ent irely superseded. The British Palladian or 'Kent' frame, with its distinctive ou tset corners, is called after the architect and designer William Kent; he derive d it from the late Mannerist work of Michelangelo, interpreted by Palladio and I nigo Jones. Kent, however, used it as part of a coherent interior, where for the first time architecture, fittings and furniture were designed as a single whole . The painting and its frame were completely integrated with the overall setting . The 'Kent' frame was decorated with strong classical mouldings, such as egg-&dart, ribbon-&-stave and Greek fret, which suited its bold silhouette; it might be softened, however, by festoons or pendant drops of leaves and flowers, and el aborate trophy versions were also produced. The Salvator Rosa Frame Neoclassical and Empire Frames Both the Palladian and 'Salvator Rosa' styles fed the Neoclassical designs of th e late eighteenth- century. These were also stimulated by reaction against the e xcesses of the Rococo, and by an upsurge of interest in classical excavations an d the study of the antique. The earliest Neoclassical furniture designs were Fre nch; they appeared in the 1750s, in the weighty, sober style known as 'got grec', and were followed by frames which used Classical ornament in the same bold idio m.

The style diffused outwards from France as Napoleon's Empire spread over Europe, and led to the first truly international styles of the nineteenth-century, with their plain ogee, rounded or hollow profiles, and simple ornaments of moulded c omposition. These were also the first mass-produced frames, composition allowing labour-intensive carving to be replaced by moulded ornament. The frame - an obj ect of art in its own right until the early nineteenth-century - became degraded into a badly made, banal setting for popular art, arbitrarily decorated and fin ished in cheap metallic leaf or gold paint. Where collectors and patrons in the past had put their mark on their own collect ions by reframing them in the best taste of their own day, the newly rich art bu yers of the nineteenth- century now used revivals of historical styles, reproduc

ed in composition and schlagmetall ('Dutch leaf'), because they fitted in better with the revival 'Louis' styles of nineteenth-century furnishing. Both past pat rons, who reframed for reasons of status and possession, and nineteenth-century collectors, whose wobbly aesthetics could not accommodate the drama of, for exam ple, authentic Baroque frames, are responsible for the loss of so many original settings from Old Masters and for the need of new knowledge in this important ar ea.