Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent live online visit to the National Gallery framing studio. Alyss Chafee, online events producer at the gallery, interviewed Peter Schade, head of the framing department focusing on two frames they are currently making for paintings for the refurbished Sainsbury Wing. He stated by looking at a huge frame for Cione’s multi part Coronation of the Virgin. The picture is so huge it has rarely been seen in its original formation and has been shown unframed recently. I can’t wait to see it in situ in a new gilded frame. He talked about how it was based on frames which are still in situ in Italy probably made by the same craftsman as this works original frame. They then moved onto a new frame for the Pollaiulo brothers St Sebastian. In fact they were standing in the middle of it for most of the talk. Again Schade talked about how it was based on original frames used by the brothers. I was fascinated by how they use the same tools as in the Renaissance. I can’t wait to see bot...

Repeat of an online lecture from the National Gallery on ebony picture frames. The gallery had originally run this talk back in 2020 but I signed up to this repeat by Clara Davarpanah by accident. It was a fresh live event not a recording. It was very similar to the original but with extra information on how the frames were made and the different types of moulding. It was actually very good to be reminded of this information particularly around the fact that the Dutch had a monopoly on ebony which they had discovered on the uninhabited island of Mauritius. It is always interesting to think about how different a work can look in different frames and to think about the fact most galleries show paintings without frames on their websites but in reality we nearly always see them in frames in the gallery.  

Fascinating  online discussion from London Art Week Digital talking about wat a frame can tell us about a picture and how frames can effect how we look at a work. Matthew Reeves, of Sam Fogg London, led a lively conversation with Peter Scade, Head of Framing at the National Gallery on frames by showing an interesting array of original pre-1520 examples as well as example of reframing of works from the National Gallery to a frame that is more contemporary to the painting. I was most interested in the examples which with included architectural details like a Dieric Bouts which had an applied frame of the same tracery as in the picture and those which incorporated the architectural surround of the work in the composition like my favourite Bellini altarpiece from San Giobbe in Venice now in the Academia. I loved the work shown here by Memling which has a sill effect at the bottom of the frame which is made more illusionistic by the Virgin’s robe being painted over it to pull us i...

Interesting online talk from the National Gallery looking at the fashion for ebony frames in 17th century Holland. Clara Davarpanagh took us though the different styles of frame and how the ripple effect was added using one of the first pieces of mechanisation. She talked about how Holland favoured plainer frames but how Flemish and German artists favoured a more all over design as well as looking at other styles of frame that were is use. She gave us a brief over view of the East India Company to show how the Netherlands gained a monopoly on ebony when some of their ships washed up on the shores of Mauritius and how this also added to their popularity.    

Fascinating exhibition at the National Gallery looking at a particular type of 16th century picture frame. It seemed odd at first to walk into a gallery mainly of frames with only a couple having pictures in them. However it was almost like an art installation in its own right with the frames forming a lovely pattern against the darkly painted walls. The type of frame takes its name from the architect Jacapo Sansovino however there seems no connection between the frames and him other than their style. They are known for overlapping and broken scroll designs, features from classical architecture, fruit, masques and cherubs. The earlier ones tend to be more architectural and the later ones more florid. The notes pointed out that a frame creates a stage setting for a picture and also talked about the incongruity of having pictures on the virgin and child in frames with bare breasted women on! I loved some with great swags of flowers and fruit with a green man type face a...