History Of Picture Framing Part 1

THE PICTURE FRAME, as it exists today, is derived from the doorway or entrance to temples, palaces and cathedrals. From a functional viewpoint, it might have been more practical to place doors at the sides of these buildings, but the importance of the door framing an impressive picture of the interior was never overlooked.

The need to enhance a picture or bas-relief with a frame is evidenced from the earliest times. The first decorations were necessarily crude; a raised line sometimes being the only ornament.

The earliest examples of frame-like decorations or borders bear a great resemblance to door frames. They were composed of two columns surmounted by a con-necting entablature and this form persisted into the 15th century. Even the decorations painted by the artists around the edges of pictures before the intro-duction of movable frames were similar in form.

As a matter of fact, frames without pictures eventu-ally came into existence because the desire to embel-lish with Moldings was so strong. Rooms in palaces were arbitrarily paneled with Moldings and their vestigial remains are to be seen today in the senselessly paneled walls of apartments in modern cities.

Movable picture frames for " easel" paintings gained quickly in popularity once they were introduced. Besides the elaborate and intricate wood-carving, ebony, ivory, tortoise shell and mother of pearl were used for inlaid decoration.

Gold, silver and every other metal have also been used for frames.

With the perfection of the technique of making large sheets of glass which were in turn used to cover and protect pictures, frame-making received a big im-petus in the 17th century. In the 18th century, when cheaper mirrors were introduced, frames were in greater demand than ever.

This century also saw an invention that was to revolutionize the art of frame decorationthat of the development of molded composition ornaments. The use of this easily handled material, which did away with the need for laborious and expensive hand-carv-ing, drove artisans to other fields. Since then, there has been no large group of wood-carvers devoted solely to frame decoration.

It is interesting to note that during the Renaissance period, when movable frames were first introduced, book decoration reached its highest form. Undoubtedly, the early carvers and framers, besides using archi-tectural designs, took many of their ideas from early illuminated manuscripts. The frames of the Louis' periods certainly got their inspiration from typograph-ical decorative motifs. Before then, architects and sculptors designed much of the scroll-work, but later goldsmiths were employed for decoration. Over-elabo-ration became the order of the day until all forms were lost beneath the gingerbread.

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