From the carved tabernacle frames of the Italian Renaissance to the exuberant Régence and Rococo surrounds of eighteenth-century France, the history of painting has been accompanied by an equally rich history of framing. In Il Libro dell'Arte, Cennino Cennini devoted careful attention to the preparation and gilding of panels and their frames, while Giorgio Vasari frequently described paintings alongside their architectural and decorative settings, treating frame, ornament and image as parts of a unified artistic conception. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, increasing attention was being paid to the historical relationship between paintings and their frames, particularly within museum collections and among connoisseurs concerned with the faithful presentation of works of art. This concern continues to inform museum practice today. Institutions such as the Wallace Collection and the Frick Collection have long recognised that the presentation of a painting, including its frame, forms an integral part of its historical context.
Yet the picture frame has occupied an uneasy position within art history. Simultaneously indispensable and frequently overlooked, it has often been replaced, separated from the paintings it once accompanied or regarded as a decorative adjunct rather than an historical object in its own right. A frame may preserve evidence of patronage, collecting, restoration and changing practices of display just as readily as the painting it surrounds, reminding us that the history of an artwork extends beyond its painted surface.
It is this history that forms the subject of the latest episode of Colnaghi Talks. Joining us is Michael Gregory of Arnold Wiggins & Sons, one of Britain's foremost specialists in historic and reproduction picture frames. Drawing on more than four decades of experience in the study, making and restoration of historic frames, Gregory reflects on the evolution of European frame styles, the craftsmanship behind their making, and the relationship between paintings and the frames through which they are encountered.
We invite you to watch the latest episode, available here, and to follow the series as it continues on our YouTube channel.
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