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FRAME
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FRAME , a word employed in many different senses, signifying something joined together or shaped. It is derived ultimately from O.E. fram, from, in its See also:primary meaning " forward." In constructional See also:work it connotes the See also:union of pieces of See also:wood, See also:metal or other material for purposes of enclosure as in the See also:case of a picture or See also:mirror frame. Frames intended for these uses are of See also:great See also:artistic See also:interest but comparatively See also:modern origin. There is no See also:record of their existence earlier than the 16th See also:century, but the decorative opportunities which they afforded caused speedy popularity in an artistic See also:age, and the See also:Renaissance found in the picture frame a See also:rich and attractive means of expression. The impulses which made frames beautiful have See also:long been See also:extinct or dormant, but See also:fine work was produced in such profusion that great See also:numbers of examples are still extant. Frames for pictures or mirrors are usually square, oblong, See also:round or See also:oval, and, although they have usually been made of wood or See also:composition overlaid upon wood, the richest and most costly materials have often been used. See also:Ebony, See also:ivory and See also:tortoiseshell; crystal, See also:amber and See also:mother-of-See also:pearl; See also:lacquer, See also:gold and See also:silver, and almost every other metal have been employed for this purpose. The domestic frame has in fact varied from the simplest and cheapest See also:form of a See also:plain wooden moulding to the most richly carved examples. The introduction in the 17th century of larger sheets of See also:glass gave the See also:art of frame-making a great essor, and in the 18th century the increased demand for frames, caused chiefly by the introduction of cheaper forms of mirrors, led to the invention of a composition which could be readily moulded into stereotyped patterns and gilded. This was eventually the deathblow of the artistic frame, and since the use of composition moulding became normal, no important school of wood-See also:carving has turned its See also:attention to frames. The carvers of the Renaissance, and down to the See also:middle of the 18th century, produced work which was often of the greatest beauty and elegance. In See also:England nothing comparable to that of Grinling See also:Gibbons and his school has since been produced. See also:Chippendale was a great frame maker, but he not only had recourse to composition, but his designs were often extravagantly See also:rococo. Even in See also:France there has been no return of the great days when See also:Oeben enclosed the looking-glasses which mirrored the See also:Pompadour in frames that were among the choicest work of a gorgeous and artificial age. In the decoration of frames as in so many other respects France largely followed the fashions of See also:Italy, which throughout the 16th and 17th centuries produced the most elaborate and grandiose, the richest and most palatial, of the mirror frames that have come down to us. See also:English art in this respect was less See also:exotic and more restrained, and many of the mirrors of the 18th century received frames the See also:grace and simplicity of which have ensured their See also:constant See also:reproduction even to our own See also:day. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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