TUSCAN AND ITALIAN REGIONAL FRAMES

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During the Italian Renaissance of 15th-17th Centuries, framemaking became a major industry. Before this time the concept of moveable art and framing did not exist. Wall decoration was accomplished with tapestries, frescos, and murals. There was a long tradition of religious panel paintings, but they were surrounded by flat mouldings which were painted and decorated along with the art they contained.

As the story goes, an enterprising woodworker of the early 16th Century began offering his clients a choice of framing styles to go around paintings of the Madonna and modern framemaking was born. Carving, gilding, and painting techniques flourished in regions such as Tuscany, Lombardy, Venice, and Naples.

Styles such as the Tabernacle and Cassetta frame became standard, and particular decorative elements and motifs were done with a variety of gilding and painting techniques such as scraffito and pastiglia. Some of these frames have survived and are collected as priceless works of art.

At E.Greene we have humbly incorporated some of the early regional Italian styles and design elements to make our own line of ‘Tuscan’ frames. We have been careful to use the same methods and materials available to these early craftsmen, particularly water gilding, scraffito, and natural earth pigment paints. The palette is primarily warm, using earth tones.