Object Notes

This frame is among the finest 18th-century frames in the Reves collection at the DMA. Although it has lost a small portion of the cartouche at the bottom center (which would have looked like those on the left and right sides), it is otherwise in a fine state, having never been adapted to fit another work of art, and having never been regilded or resurfaced to play a role in an updated interior.

The independent easel picture was an Italian invention of the 15th century, and quickly came to dominate the idea of "art" in the Renaissance. An equally new kind of furniture was developed in order to house these new portable "illusions." The picture frame is now so ubiquitous that one forgets that, like all familiar forms, it was an invention.

This frame is finely carved with typical Louis XV period motifs of scrolls, shells, and frilled swags of naturalistic flowers. The quality of the carving on this small frame makes it one of the masterpieces in the Reves collection at the DMA. Yet its unusually squat proportions indicate that it might have been cut down from a larger frame.

Dutch and Flemish still-life painting reached a high point in the 17th century, and influenced designers of marquetry panels for case and seat furniture, mirror and picture frames in England and France, as well as&nbsp