Picture frame - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A picture frame is a decorative edging for a picture, such as a painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

or photograph

Photograph

A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

, intended to enhance it, make it easier to display, or protect it.

Construction

The frame along with its mounts is usually intended to both protect and complement the artwork. Art work framed well will stay in good condition for a longer period of time, and a long-running industry surrounds the act of framing artwork to enhance its visual display. However, this has exceptions as well, as Joan Miró

Joan Miró

Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...

once did a work specifically to frame with a flea market

Flea market

A flea market or swap meet is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent...

frame, and many painters and photographers who work with canvas "gallery-wrap" their artwork, a practice wherein the image extends around the edges of the stretched canvas and therefore precludes use of a decorative picture frame. As picture frames can be expensive when purchased new, there are also examples of people removing pictures from a frame and using the frame for other pictures.

Picture frames have traditionally been made of wood, which is still the most common material, although other materials are also used, including silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

, bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

, aluminum, and plastics such as polystyrene

Polystyrene

Polystyrene ) also known as Thermocole, abbreviated following ISO Standard PS, is an aromatic polymer made from the monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry...

, though these require specialized equipment in order to cut. A picture frame may be of any color or texture, but gilding

Gilding

The term gilding covers a number of decorative techniques for applying fine gold leaf or powder to solid surfaces such as wood, stone, or metal to give a thin coating of gold. A gilded object is described as "gilt"...

is common, especially on older wooden frames. Some picture frames have elaborate mouldings

Molding (decorative)

Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...

which may relate to the subject matter. Complicated older frames are often made of moulded and gilded plaster

Plaster

Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...

over a plain wood base. Picture frames come in a variety of profiles, but generally the lengths of moulding feature a "lip" and rabbet

Rabbet

A rabbet is a recess or groove cut into the edge of a piece of machineable material, usually wood. When viewed in cross-section, a rabbet is two-sided and open to the edge or end of the surface into which it is cut....

, the function of which is to allow a space to hold in the materials in the frame. The lip extends usually about a quarter of an inch past the edge of the rabbet

Rabbet

.

The picture frame may contain a pane of picture framing glass

Picture framing glass

Picture framing glass usually refers to flat glass or acrylic used for framing artwork and for presenting art objects in a display box .-Purpose:...

or an acrylic glass

Acrylic glass

Poly is a transparent thermoplastic, often used as a light or shatter-resistant alternative to glass. It is sometimes called acrylic glass. Chemically, it is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate...

substitute such as acrylite or plexiglas to protect the picture. In some instances where the art in the frame is dispensable or durable, no protection may be necessary. Glass is common over watercolors and other artwork on paper, but rare over oil painting

Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

s, except very valuable ones in some museums. Picture framing glass

Picture framing glass

Picture framing glass usually refers to flat glass or acrylic used for framing artwork and for presenting art objects in a display box .-Purpose:...

may be treated with anti-reflective coatings to make the glass virtually invisible under certain lighting conditions. When a picture frame is expected to be exposed to direct sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...

, or harsh lighting conditions such as fluorescent lights, UV filter

UV filter

UV filters are individual compounds or mixtures to prevent ultraviolet light from getting through. UV filters are used in sunscreens to protect skin or in photography to reduce the level of ultraviolet light that strikes the recording medium....

ing may be added to slow down the photocatalytic degradation of organic materials behind picture framing glass.

For pieces to be framed under glass, except for the most disposable and inexpensive posters or temporary displays, the glass must be raised off the surface of the paper. This is done by means of matting

Mat (picture framing)

In the picture framing industry, a mat is a thin, flat piece of paper-based material included within a picture frame, which serves as additional decoration and to perform several other, more practical functions, such as separating the art from the glass...

, a lining of plastic "spacers", shadowboxing

Shadow box

A shadow box is an enclosed case used in dioramas with a scene or object that has been specially designed to let light pass through from only one angle, so that objects within are less susceptible to damage from light....

, stacking two mouldings with the glass in between, and similar methods. If the paper (or other media) were to touch the glass directly, any condensation

Condensation

Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition....

inside the glass would absorb directly into the art, having no room to evaporate. This is harmful to almost any medium. It causes art sticking to the glass, mildew

Mildew

Mildew refers to certain kinds of molds or fungi.In Old English, it meant honeydew , and later came to mean mildew in the modern sense of mold or fungus....

or mold spore growth, and other ill effects. Raising the glass is also necessary when a piece is done in a loose media such as charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

or pastel

Pastel

Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....

, to prevent smudging. Care should be taken with these works however, if acrylic glass

Acrylic glass

is used, as a static charge can build up which will attract the pigment particles off the paper. Using real glass helps to prevent this.

Certain kinds of pieces do not usually need glass when framed, including paintings done in acrylic

Acrylic paint

Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...

or oil paint

Oil paint

Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the...

(the former is usually waterproof; the latter actually needs to "breathe" due to the decades-long drying process), stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

or tile

Tile

A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...

s, and laminated poster

Poster

A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...

s. These kinds of pieces are still sometimes put under glass though, if for example they are framed using mat

Mat (picture framing)

s, or (in the case of oil paintings) they are kept in a carefully climate-controlled environment.

There are some examples in which the protective function of the frame is ironically dispensed with, such as in Daniel C. Boyer's gouache

Gouache

Gouache[p], also spelled guache, the name of which derives from the Italian guazzo, water paint, splash or bodycolor is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water. A binding agent, usually gum arabic, is also present, just as in watercolor...

The Three Sphinxes of the Metis in the Meadow of Louis Riel's Shameful Career, in which slits are cut all the way through the frame from the outside of the picture to its inside, and Boyer's The Distant Landscape allows for a figure inside the frame to raise and lower her arm by means of a brad attached through the backing, letting the sword she is holding move up and down in such a slit. Such techniques are unusual, and require customized construction compared to mainstream picture framing.

The treatment of the back of the framed artwork varies widely, from usually nothing in the case of oils, to the frequent use of foam-core

Foamcore

Foam core or Foam board is a very strong, lightweight and easily cut material used for the mounting of photographic prints, as backing in picture framing, in 3D design, and in painting. It is also in a material category referred to as "Paper-faced Foam Board"...

boards and other backing boards to provide support, or backing paper or "dust covers" to keep dust and insects out. While these are almost invariably simply functional, there are some examples of works in which they have been decorated (such as Daniel C. Boyer's After the Age of 50, The Angry God and His Rabbit Harem), with this being considered part of the artwork. The use of backing boards is common with watermedia

Watermedia

In art, watermedia is the general term for media that are distinguished from oil or other media by being diluted with water when used. Watermedia include watercolours, gouache and acrylic, amongst others...

and other art on paper. Usually paper dust covers will be inexpensive craft paper, but sometimes this can tear, so at least one website sells Black Tyvek

Tyvek

Tyvek is a brand of flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers, a synthetic material; the name is a registered trademark of DuPont. The material is very strong; it is difficult to tear but can easily be cut with scissors or a knife...

as an alternative. Another common backing paper in use for archival-quality framing is the acid-free Lineco backing paper, with some citing the risk of tearing of craft paper.

Plique-à-jour

Plique-à-jour

Plique-à-jour is a vitreous enamelling technique where the enamel is applied in cells, similar to cloisonné, but with no backing in the final product, so light can shine through the transparent or translucent enamel...

picture frames, made of enamel

Vitreous enamel

Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...

by Bulushoff, are among the most expensive frames in the world.

Shapes

Picture frames are generally square or rectangular, though circular and oval frames are not uncommon. Frames in more unusual shapes (often appropriately coloured) are usually frames intended for photographs, such as heart-shaped frames to go around wedding pictures and the like, and there have been shaped shadowboxes made, though these have generally been used to roughly follow the outlines of sports jerseys and other memorabilia rather than pictures. There are also picture frames designed to go around corners. Another popular design for a picture frame is the scoop, an indent in the frame that adds depth.

History

One of the earliest frame examples was a discovery made in an Egyptian tomb dating back to 2nd century A.D. in which a fayum mummy portrait was discovered at Hawara still within its wooden frame. This finding suggests the mummy portraits may have been hung in the owners' homes prior to inclusion within the funerary equipment. The portrait and its frame were most likely preserved by the desert climate, according to frame historian and installation expert Marilyn Murdoch explained in a historical talk to museum docents.

Although framing borders in ancient art were used to divide scenes and ornamentation by ancient Egyptian and Greek artists in pottery and wallpaintings, the first carved wooden frames as we know them today appeared on small panel paintings in twelfth and thirteenth century Europe. According to a historical series published in Picture Frame Magazine, these early "framed panel paintings were made from one piece. The area to be painted was carved out, leaving a raised framing border around the outside edge, like a tray. The whole piece was then gessoed and gilded. Painting the image on the flat panel was the last thing to be done."

When it was realized this method of producing a frame and the image within in one slab of wood was too costly, "a more efficient method was eventually developed which used mitred moulding strips. These strips were attached to a flat wooden panel which produced a similar result to the carved panel, but were more cost effective. This type of frame is known as an engaged frame. The early ones were made of simple wooden moulding strips attached to the outside edge of a wooden panel."

Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, most European frames were church-commissioned and largely unmovable as they were altarpieces and a large part of the church's architecture. The frames were ornamented with architectural elements mimicking the exteriors of the great cathedrals. However the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

of 14th and 15th century Italy saw the rise of arts patrons extending beyond the church. Wealthy nobles such as the Medici

Medici

The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...

family could now bring art and frames into their estate by commissioning allegorical, devotional and portrait paintings. This was the advent of the portable or moveable frame.

Under the reign of Francis I

Francis I of France

Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...

, France's first Renaissance monarch from 1515 through 1547, art came to the forefront of daily life and flourished along with picture frames. Many workers came from Italy to partake in the arts trade, including Leonardo da Vinci, whom "Francis convinced to leave Italy in the last part of his life." Frames were now designed by furniture builders rather than the artist, sculptor or architect as in the past. Books on furniture and interior design were published and in distribution to a wider market than ever before.

From 1610 to 1643, under the reign of Louis XIII in France, the influence of court and refinement takes center stage in frame designs. The profiles became thinner than their Italian predecessors, and continuous design such as egg-and-dart

Egg-and-dart

Egg-and-dart or Egg-and-tongue is an ornamental device often carved in wood, stone, or plaster quarter-round ovolo mouldings, consisting of an egg-shaped object alternating with an element shaped like an arrow, anchor or dart. Egg-and-dart enrichment of the ovolo molding of the Ionic capital is...

, ribbon and flow of leaves, and pronounced low relief corner designs appear. This paves the way for Baroque design in picture framing, and "Spanish, Flemish, and Italian influences were all at work to produce a curious intermingling and exchange of ideas."

Pictures frames as art were highly developed in Ortodox countries (e.g., Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

) and used to cover icons in churches.

Styles

"L"-style frames are a simple variety that are constructed with a single L-shaped border of wood, with the bottom part of the L, or rabbet, at the front of the frame to hold in the glass, object and backing, which are secured in from the back.

A photo cube is a special type of picture frame, often used to show members of a family, a vacation

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

, or a timeline of someone's life.

Other styles are clip frames (not really a frame at all), box frames and shadow boxes. A digital photo frame

Digital photo frame

A digital photo frame is a picture frame that displays digital photos without the need to print them or use a computer.- Features :...

is an example of the changing technology of the 21st century.

Macaroni picture frames are a popular craft

Craft

A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...

project for children. Uncooked pasta

Pasta

Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, now of worldwide renown. It takes the form of unleavened dough, made in Italy, mostly of durum wheat , water and sometimes eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the...

in various shapes are glue

Glue

This is a list of various types of glue. Historically, the term "glue" only referred to protein colloids prepared from animal flesh. The meaning has been extended to refer to any fluid adhesive....

d to a frame in a pattern

Pattern

A pattern, from the French patron, is a type of theme of recurring events or objects, sometimes referred to as elements of a set of objects.These elements repeat in a predictable manner...

. Sometimes the entire frame is painted.

External links

Art of the Picture Frame Resources from the National Portrait Gallery.
American frames

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Construction

Shapes

History

Styles

See also

External links