1985.R.35.b, Picture Frame, France, c. 1650

Elaborate frames carved for portraits or mirrors exist in greater quantity than do the physically fragile and adaptable frames made for small paintings or drawings. Thus, it is remarkable that this elegant frame survives almost unscathed, with its original dimensions, if not its subtle gilded surface, preserved. Like many frames of the late 16th centuries, it adapts its shape to both the wall on which it rested and the picture it protected, as it rises in profile from the picture to its greatest height and then gradually recedes through smaller carved crests and gilded valleys until it meets the plane on the wall. Each of the four ornamental bands is placed on a different plane, and each contrasts in motif and rhythm so as to pick up and distribute light, creating a gentle penumbra around the missing image. 

Nearest the work of art is a spiral of gilded ribbon that must have challenged the frame's carver as he created a continuous curve in the grainy oak. Next are two bands of repetitive decorations. The most elaborate of the bands has frilly acanthus leaves that seem to sprout from the frame and grow in the direction of the wall, curling back at the very end to return our attention to the picture. 

Dallas Museum of Art. Decorative Arts Highlights from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection. (Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1995), 65.

- Image of this frame not found/entered in TMS under the accession number 1985.R.35.b, but the physical frame can be found in Reves' storage framing the ink drawing "Le Bouchon" by Edoiuard Manet (1985.R.35). Image of frame does not exist in Brain or Piction. Marked %inadequaterules as a result -- so the rule for this ON links back to the Bouchon drawing itself as opposed to the frame. As a result, it appears that there is a disconnect. The Object number 1985.R.35.b needs to be associated with the frame around this drawing. 

TMS Updates that need to be added once frame is entered into TMS: 

Until 1985: Emery Reves (1904-1983) and Wendy Reves (1916-2007) (owned jointly), La Pausa, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France [1]

From 1985: Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, gift of Wendy Reves (1916-2007) [1]

[1] According to: Olivier Meslay and Martha MacLeod, From Chanel to Reves (Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art, 2015), 4-5.

Apply to objects where number equals 1985.R.35.b