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The need to enhance a picture or bas-relief with
a frame is evidenced from the earliest times.
The first decorations were necessarily crude; a
raised line sometimes being the only ornament.
The earliest examples of frame-like decorations
or borders bear a great resemblance to door
frames. They were composed of two columns
surmounted by a connecting entablature and this
form persisted into the 15th century. Even the
decorations painted by the artists around the
edges of pictures before the introduction of
movable frames were similar in form.
As a matter of fact, frames without pictures
eventually came into existence because the
desire to embellish with Moldings was so strong.
Rooms in palaces were arbitrarily paneled with
Moldings and their vestigial remains are to be
seen today in the senselessly paneled walls of
apartments in modern cities. |
