FAMAG 2010.33
A replica of a late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century Italian Baroque bolection frame, finished with varying shades of blue paint with cream hollows; supplied by Paul Mitchell Limited.
About this work
view without frame
Hewlett, Francis (1930-2012): Trellis at Penwerris, signed, oil on canvas laid on board, 36.5 x 41 cms.
More information about the frame
Baroque architecture is based on the dramatic sculpting of surfaces in order to produce complex and theatrical contrasts of light and shade, and the same is true of the picture frames produced during the Baroque period. Instead of the shallow cassetta profiles employed during the Renaissance, with their flat friezes between two sets of small mouldings, the Baroque frame set round toruses against deep hollows, canted planes and ogee (or ?S?-shaped) mouldings to produce the maximum contrast of light and shadow, often paired with bolection or reverse profiles which projected the picture plane out from the wall.
The present frame has a bolection profile, sloping forward from the back edge, and pushing the painting out towards the spectator, increasing by this means the drama of the vibrantly-coloured ?Baroque? flower beds. The lines of light and shade generated by the different mouldings and enhanced by the mitres enhance the perspectival recession into the painting, and help to create the illusion that the spectator is entering the pictorial space.
The distressed painted finish, which allows the warm tones of the wood to show through, is an effective foil to the dark foliage and tropical hues of the flowers.