Framing

Introduction

Renaissance Fine Art Gallery provides extensive archival framing services as well as housing a remarkable collection of antique historic frames, among them frames by the 19th Century framers Newcomb-Macklin, of Chicago, designed by Stanford White, Abe Munn, and antique Chinese Chippendale.

The gallery’s framing samples extend into the thousands; Italian Regional Florentine Renaissance, Tabernacle Style, Contemporary Geometric, Polished Modern, Floating and Borderless, and represents the AMCI Ltd. Collection, C&J Picture Frames, and APF Master Framemakers.

At Renaissance Fine Art Gallery we consult with clients and artists to design a specific frame or an entire collection of frames. The framing is done on-site, in our studio, with our materials, finishes and gilding. A fine frame should integrate and provide a link between the painting and the surroundings. The frame is an essential part of the interior furnishings.

Historic Frames

“The beauty experienced with old picture frames is fundamentally different from present day production: it bears witness to a historical artistry that can never be repeated” - C. Grimm

Often framing today is simply designed for the functional holding of pictures, not the highly select historical artistic frame found in imposing interiors, museums, and by collectors. Magnificently fashioned historic frames possess a luxurious and often ornate splendor not found in industrial production. Very few ‘old’ historical frames exist intact, and many museums are without a single original frame. Many have gone through repeated adaptations – they have been cut down, have added or removed moldings, had color removed with lye, or suffered damage in transit over the centuries.

Most historical frames were hand carved by highly skilled craftsmen but in a rare few, sculptors were commissioned. Only an extremely small number of these authenticated frames have been traced today and are highly valued.

Today’s ‘historical’ frames reproduce and re-interpret the lost aesthetic of the papier-mache, joining , hand-carving and gilding.

Style & Techniques

Frame Period Styles:

• Italian Renaissance - Gilded ornamental borders of classical antiquity. Florentine sgriffito.
• Spanish - Decorative ornament showing Moorish and Middle Eastern influence.
• Louis XIII - Extravagant naturalistic floral and leaf motifs, often carved in high relief.
• Louis XIV - Stylized low relief of various textures and heavy brocade designs.
• Louis XV – Ornate open carvings and curvilinear designs.
• Louis XVI - Classical revival simplicity
• Dutch and Flemish - Rich wood finishes and veneers. Basket weave and ripple designs.
• American Federal - Neo-Classic low relief ornamentation.
• American turn-of-the century - Subtle shapes and carvings with subdued finishes, often inspired by the designs of Whistler, Eakins, Weir and Twachtman
• English - Queen Anne. Beading.

Joining:

• Close corner framing - The base corners are miter joined before the application of surface decoration and finishing. Miter joints are visible only on the reverse of the frame base.
• Miter joined frame - Less expensive, and cheaper, where industrial production molding is cut and joined. Miter joints are visible from the front of the frame.
• Dovetail joint - A flat, double arrow with wings is set into a miter corner on the reverse of the frame base at the time of gluing.

Surface decoration:

• Bulk gold - A combination of glue, chalk, and rosin pressed into molds, then fastened to the surface of the frame with glue.
• Gesso base - A glue and chalk binder is applied to the base in several layers, required by all gold and color foundations on wood.
• Papier mache - A mass of paper, soaked in water with glue, starch and gypsum. Used in the 18th century for decoration, then gilded.
• Stucco - Gypsum and glue, a simpler and cheaper form of decorating the surface, this material lends itself to mass production.
• Sanding - The application of fine-grain sieved sand to the frame surface coated with a liquid glue. After drying, gesso is applied, then gilding. This technique used on English and French frames.

Gilding:

• Gold Leaf - Very thin hammered gold.
• Gold leaf gilding - Gold leaf applied to a sized surface, then polished.
• Mat gold - Use of gold leaf on an extensively prepared surface without polishing.
• Oil gilding - Shellac is applied to the gesso, then an oil is applied. The gold leaf is laid into this slowly drying elastic surface. Mat finish.
• Gold metal - Copper tin alloys used as a substitute for gold leaf.
• Gold bronze - A cheaper substitute for gold. Tin mixed with copper and a fluid binder.

Finishes:

• Veneering - Covering the surface with a fine cabinet wood, often used for fine inlay work. 17th Century Holland.
• Sgraffito - Hand scratching a freehand design or floral ornamentation through a color to reveal a polished gold background. Most notable in the Italian Renaissance.
• Engraving - An ornamental design is cut into the gesso base.
• Guilloching - A complex geometric design.
• Luster finish - Transparent color is applied to a silver base.
• Luster gilding - A gold substitute, using a yellow coloration on a silver base.
• Marbling - The application of color on a strip or in clumps with a brush or linen rag. Dates back to Jan Van Eyck.