Picture Frame

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Picture frames in the late 18th century
Section through a late 19th century picture frame
View into a frame maker workshop, around 1900
Canvases in floater frames
Tin toys as a motif frame

The picture frame is used to frame and stabilize pictures.

Painting frame

Originally, picture frames were of an architectural character and were only used for altar and other church pictures. They were made partly of wood , partly of marble , and more rarely of metal . The wood was painted, first partially and finally fully gilded, while the marble was initially painted and gilded. The frames were also provided with colored decorations or inlays and only kept generally white or natural-colored only glazed from the end of the 16th century. In the 16th century the picture frame was increasingly used for general decorative purposes and the earlier architectural character gradually abandoned. In the “ Golden Age ” of Dutch painting, that is, in the 17th century, black and brown picture frames, some with narrow golden strips, were common.

The courtly baroque art of the 17th and the rococo art of the 18th century went from gold frames with rich, gilded ornaments to wood carving . As with other furniture, there were regional schools and sample booklets that are used (in some cases to this day). A type with openwork acanthus motifs that originated in Italy at that time is known as the "Florentine frame". The Rococo was a high point of frame art. The frames, often designed by leading artists, moved far from the original strip character and took on strongly moving, openwork and dissolved forms.

Classicism and Biedermeier stayed with poliment-gilded frames, came back to the simple moldings, whereby the inwardly open groove was the defining motif. In the case of the ornamentless Biedermeier frames, a distinction is made between the so-called “Berliner Leiste” (golden cove) and the “Münchener Leiste” (black coving with golden inlay). In the Bavarian-Austrian region, the “ox-eye frame” was also common in the Biedermeier period, in which the groove is accompanied by an egg stick on the outside . In Empirestil Eckapplikationen came on, wherein flat molded from a putty-like mass ornaments were applied to the hollow throat. Sometimes fine lace fabrics were also embedded in the chalk base of the fillet. Instead of gold leaf, silver leaf was often used and given a gold-colored glaze.

During the founding period , there was a great demand for picture frames, which have now become series and mass products. The entire hollow was now mostly covered with an ornament made of mass, instead of the final bead a laurel stick made of mass was glued on. To further reduce costs, oil was used instead of poliment gilding, and striking metal was used instead of gold leaf. In order to conceal the miter cuts, which were at risk of cracking, they were often covered with other applications made of mass that imitated carving. In the course of the Neo- Rococo, the "ear frames" or "baroque frames" appeared around 1850, in which the corners and the center pieces of the profile emerge.

The spread of metallic effect pigment ("gold bronze") after 1910 led to further deterioration in the quality of the gold plating and prompted countless frame owners to paint over their older, allegedly unsightly gold frames. Individually manufactured frames became a luxury product. Today picture frames are mostly manufactured industrially in large series, with the dimensions corresponding to the standards for drawing cardboard, photographs, prefabricated passe-partouts or canvases. The raw material is also offered as profile strips made of wood, aluminum or plastic for individual cutting.

Nowadays, painters often completely dispense with framing paintings on canvases. However, the effects of heat and moisture on the stretcher frame can lead to unwanted torsion effects . In order to give the canvas more stability, shadow gap frames have recently been increasingly used again. With this L-shaped frame profile (screwed on the back), the painted side surfaces of the canvas are still visible, and the pictures are also well protected against damage during transport. In addition, the similarity of the frame reinforces the possibly desired series character of works that belong together.

Detail view of a textile frame

The textile stretching frames , which allow a fabric to be fastened without clips or similar, are relatively modern . allow. Since photo printing has been delivering very high quality results, more and more people are turning to this variant, especially when it comes to the large-scale presentation of photos.

Graphics frame

With the discovery of the drawing as an independent work of art, the (further) development of (old and) new graphic techniques ( wood engraving , copper engraving , etching , lithography , steel engraving ), with the mass reproduction and dissemination of images and finally with the invention of photography in the 19th century In the 20th century, the demand for small-format, rather inconspicuous frames for such pictures also grew. In order to increase the effect of the content and to protect the (mostly paper) image carriers , passepartouts must be used in addition to the usually narrow frames so that a distance to the glass plate above is maintained. The bar width is usually much narrower than with painting frames. The frame color for such glazed frames is often silver, since this color creates an optically format-resolving effect. For photographs or art prints without a passepartout, exchangeable glass frames are also available in stores. These can either consist of two glass plates lying on top of one another or of pressed cardboard with a cover plate made of glass, the latter often also being made of non-reflective glass.

Magnetic frame

Nowadays, magnets are widely used in picture frames, for example to connect a base plate to the actual frame. The biggest advantage is that the picture frames are easy to assemble, so users can change the framed pictures frequently.

See also

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

  • Vera Beyer: Framework regulations. Functions of frames in Goya, Velázquez, van Eyck and Degas , Fink, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7705-4500-1 .
  • Wilhelm von Bode : Picture frames in old and new times , in: Pan , 4th year 1898, volume IV, pp. 243–256 ( digitized version )
  • Alberto Cevolini: The Frame of Art . In: Christian Filk / Holger Simon (ed.): Art communication: »How is art possible?«. Contributions to a systemic media and art studies . [Kaleidograms 50] Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2010, pp. 79-90.
  • Claus Grimm: Old picture frames. Epochs - Types - Material . 3. Edition. Callwey, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7667-0837-6
  • Daniela Maerker: The delimitation of the image field in the first quarter of the 20th century . Utz, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-89675-260-X (plus dissertation, University of Munich 1996)
  • Teresa Mielniczuk, Bohdan Grzegorzewski: The history of the picture frame . Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1982 (brochure with an illustrated introduction to the function and history of picture frames)
  • Renate Möller: Picture and mirror frames. Facts, prices, trends . (= World Art Antiques Guide). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-422-06284-X
  • Werner Murrer, Eva Mendgen: Frame art using the example of expressionist masterpieces , Hartung-Gorre Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-86628-090-4
  • Helge Siefert: frame art. Looking for traces in the Alte Pinakothek. Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2010; 264 pages. ISBN 3-7757-2606-3 (based on the holdings of the Alte Pinakothek , 16th to 19th centuries)
  • Tobias Schmitz: Lexicon of European picture frames from the Renaissance to Classicism . Self-published, Solingen 2003, ISBN 3-00-011231-6
  • Tobias Schmitz: Lexicon of European picture frames (Volume II): The 19th century (1730-1930): Classicism, Biedermeier, Romanticism, Historicism, Art Nouveau , self-published, Solingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-026788-8
  • Tobias Schmitz: Schmitz Compendium of European Picture Frames: 1730-1930 , Solingen, 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-039567-3
  • Christoph Schölzel (Ed.): The blinding frames. The Dresden gallery frame . Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft , Worms 2005, ISBN 978-3-88462-219-3
  • Sabine Spindler: Picture frames of classicism and romanticism 1780-1850 , spindlerfinearts, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-022490-4
  • PJJvan Thiel: Framing in the Golden Age . Waanders, Zwolle 1995, ISBN 90-6630-278-X

Web links

Commons : Picture Frames  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Picture frames  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. The frame of art. In: www.academia.edu. Retrieved June 21, 2016 .