Exceptional Picture Frames
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
7 October 2024 - 21 January 2025
The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is presenting a display of eleven paintings from its permanent collection dating from the 14th to 17th centuries with frames - three of them the original ones - that reveal the artistic importance of this element. Made in Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, they exemplify a wide variety of styles which reflect both the artistic period in which they were made and changing tastes, principally in relation to furniture, while contributing additional aesthetic value to the works they accompany, embellish and protect.
While the collection does not include a large number of the original frames, it does feature many old and important examples. Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza paid particular attention to this aspect of collecting and in the 1980s commissioned two scholarly studies of the frames in his collection. The examples chosen for the present exhibition are of a high technical and stylistic level, making them unique and valuable objects in themselves. They also provide additional information which assists in a more complete understanding of the historical and artistic context of the works they surround.
Portable Triptych with a central Crucifixion, ca. 1370 - 1375
Tempera and gold on panel
Central panel: 83.6 x 30.7 cm
Lateral wings: 83 x 15 cm
Venician frame from 14th century
Carved and gilded wood. Original
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
The Annunciation Diptych, ca., 1433-1435
Oil on panel
Left wing ( The Archangel Gabiel): 38.8 x 23.2 cm
Right wing (The Virgin Mary): 39 x 24 cm
Frame: Flemish, 15th century
Carved and polychromed wood. Original
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Of the eleven paintings included in the exhibition, three have their original frames. One is the Portable Triptych with a central Crucifixion (ca. 1370-75) by Lorenzo Veneziano. Its frame, of a type termed “architectural”, is carved from the same panel on which the artist painted the work and imitates the portico of a Gothic church. Secondly, The Annunciation Diptych (around 1433-35) by Jan van Eyck falls within the tradition of Northern European Renaissance altarpieces and is unique in the fact that the artist painted two, trompe-l'oeil frames; a principal one imitating reddish marble and a secondary one that simulates grey stone, seemingly marble or alabaster.
Portrait of Johann von Rückingen (recto), 1487
Oil on panel, 37,3 x 27.5 cm
Frame: German, 15th century
Carved wood. Original
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Figure with Coat-of-arms (verso), 1487
Oil on panel, 37,3 x 27.5 cm
Frame: German, 15th century
Carved wood. Original
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Finally, Portrait of Johann von Rückingen (recto) and Figure with Coat-of-arms (verso) (1487) by Wolfgang Beurer has a typically German Renaissance frame with pictorial decoration on the vertical moulding, indicating that it was made specifically for the painting.
The Parable of the Sower, ca., 1560
Oil on canvas, 139 x 129 cm
Frame: Tuscan, ca. 1650-1700
Curved and gilded wood
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
The frames in this display have characteristics and elements which reveal the diversity of styles and techniques used in the different geographical areas and chronological periods in which they were made. These features include the different types of decoration; from the zigzags and circular motifs on the possibly Spanish frame used for Portrait of a Young Man (1490s) by Andrea Solario to the foliate motifs on others such as the frame employed for Portrait of Doge Francesco Venier (ca. 1554-56) by Titian, made in Italy in the 17th century, and that of The Parable of the Sower (around 1560) by Jacopo Bassano, a style of decoration known as “Auricular Medici” which was devised to re-frame the paintings displayed by Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici in the Pitti Palace in Florence.
Christ with the Cross, ca. 1587 - 1596
Oil on canvas, 66 x 52.5 cm
Frame: French, Louis XIII style
Curved and gilded wood
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Foliate decoration is also to be seen on the moulding of the two works by El Greco present in the exhibition, which furthermore create interesting interplays of light and shade that add volume to the paintings and frames as a whole. These are Christ with the Cross (ca. 1587-1596), which has a French, Louis XIII-style frame, and The Immaculate Conception (ca. 1608-14), painted in collaboration with the artist’s son Jorge Manuel Theotokópoulos, which has a typical Spanish Baroque frame.
Also notable is the use of parcel-gilt or luminolegno on the frame of View of a River Port with the Castel Sant'Angelo by the Master of the Monogram IDM, a technique employed in the Veneto based on the interaction of the gilding and the wood, and the sobriety of The West Façade of the Church of Saint Mary in Utrecht (1662) by Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, which has a Baroque frame typical of Holland and southern Germany, of a dark tone and made in hardwood with a decoration known as Dutch ripple.
The most recent frame in the exhibition is the one surrounding the painting by Michiel Sweerts Boy in a Turban holding a Nosegay (ca. 1658-61), which dates to between 1735 and 1750. Made in Rome, this type of frame was widely used in the 18th century and was named after two Italian painters, Carlo Maratta and Salvator Rosa.
Curator: Mar Borobia, head of Old Master Painting at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Technical curator: María Eugenia Alonso, curator of Old Master Painting at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
Room 17 of the Permanent Collection
Paseo del Prado, 8. 28014, Madrid
