The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-06-19
ON PIorunE FRAMING.

A very large per cent. Of the pictures
used to decorate our walls are ruined by
the framing. Why this should be so,
what particular fault has rendered this
or that picture so disappointing requires
power of analysis and nice discrimina-
ton few Of us have time or ability TO ex-
eTt. The decorator frequently knows no
more of the prOprieties in the ease than
the carpenter who saws out and fits the
moulding, and is firmly persuaded that
the most expensive is necessarily the
handsomest frame. At an army post,
with its meagre resources, one does not
expect TO find everything CONNIE Il .fdut
but few months ago parlOr was fur
nished by bride on the frontier that in
many respects might serve rs model
for more ambitious surroundings. The
pictures, especially, attracted attention
as something superior, but closer in
spectiOn showed that, though carefully
chosen, much of the beauty was due to
the appropriateness of the settings. The
etchings were enclosed by a mat, three
10 five inches in width, beyond which
was a strip of oak about an inch mide,
not vanished, but polished. If the
etching and mat made picture, say one
foot and a half long, the frame was two
inches wide, with narrow gilt stripe
next the mat. A picture, blue in tone,
had darker blue mat and very narrow
white frame with a bit of gilt beading.
A fruit piece with black background was
very handsome without mat, but with
a dark, old-oak frame, fiat, and fully
four inches in width. A black and gilt
beading Ornamented the outer edge.
Small water coloTs were framed in the
same manner as the etchings, and were
equally effective; while two photographs
larger than cabinet size, were simply
framed in two-inch board covered with
deep crimson velvet.
All this sounds commonplace enough,
yet one has but to compare two copies
Of an etching, engraving or photograph,
framed, the one as indicated above with
broad white margin and simple strip of
moulding, and the other with the old,
tiorid, gold-leaf square of plaster and
wood, rising like a wall from the edge of
the picture, to be convinced that half
the pictures are spoiled by the mode of
framing. Until within a few years, no
attempt was made to vary the stock pat
terms, but with the renaissance of art i'll
all departments a feeling has grown up
that the frame is a subject not unworthy
the artist himself. Indeed, the frame is
sometimes made to give a reflection of
the subject of the picture. And there is
danger that this very reaching after ar
tistic effects may OvershadOw the pie
tuTe itself. In the same way the re
marquee which is so much priced on
the margin of an etching, is rapidly
bringing itself into undue prominence,
and dividing attention that should be
centered on the main picture.
IN raosnuv fn,. n frame orp tlrpp- fold.
First, to strengthen the foundation,
whatever it may be.
Second, to hold the glass, if there be
one.
Third, to border the picture so as to
divide it from surrounding objects-to
cOniine the gaze, as it were.
With this in view it is evident that the
frame must be SO quiet in aspect as not
to contend for distracting notice, much
less for precedence.
1t seems to be universally conceded
that gilt frames are the most desirable
for oil paintings, but experience teaches
that even to this rule there are excep-
tions. If picture of modest cOlOrings
and low in tone be surrounded by one OF
! these glittering frames, half its value
will be lost Attention has often been
called to the Madonna di San SistO at
Dresden. which is mounted in dark
velvet frame, while the Madonna dell
Sedia at Florence. by the same aatist, is
surrounded by an elaborately carved and
rildod frame. The result is that the
lcomparatively cold and heavy picture at
Dresden seems to have the rich and lu-
minous coloring only present in the one
| i'm Florence while the latter is dimmed
| by the glitter of its surroundings.
In a downtown gallery two large
paintings by Mile. DyiekOuska, which
are said TO have received the approval of
the Paris Salon, are simply enclosed i'll
dark old wood frames, harmOniZing in
tone with the background, and yet those
pictures stood out with distinctness
Iuneoualed by any others in the room. 1t
may be they would have been as noticea-
| BILE or more so, under other eumstances
| it cannot be denied that gold always
seems to enrich whatever it touches, and
that the huge old-fashiOned, profusely-
carved frames around some Masters"
seem SO appropriate as to be inseparable
| from the picture: but, for us mOderns,
| it is wise to be careful that the picture
does not seem an excuse for the frame,
| instead of the frame being designed for
| the picture.
Gilt frames are plainly out of place on
engravings and photographs. Silver on
the contrary, goes detestably with color
ing, and the cOlOred frames that profess
to carry out the scheme of colOring in
the picture have the tendency to set ones
teeth on edge. The same may be said of
the so-called "golden mats, which rob
any picture of its brightness and look
like what they are-gilt paste-board.-
| Good housekeeping.