The History of Picture Framing, Part I

When I first decided to write about the history of picture framing, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. As I began looking around at local bookstores, on the Internet, at the library, etc., I found that there was very little information on the subject.

Be that as it may, I have decided to take it on myself to be your framing historian, collecting all of the data that I can possibly pull together.

To start at the beginning might prove to be the most difficult part, but here goes…

The first frame could have possibly come from Egypt circa 200 A.D. At the time, it was en vogue to paint portraits of mummies, aka dead ancestors (See image above:

Female mummy. Excavated in 1909 at Antinoe. AD 3rd-4th century, Museum of Fine Arts, Rennes. Courtesy of wikicommons)

From WikiCommons: "Fayum mummy portraits is the name given to a large number of paintings from the first to third century. These were tempera or encaustic paintings made with hot, pigmented wax on wooden panels, which were inserted into the mummies of the deceased. The surviving paintings are predominantly from the Fayum region in Roman Egypt, where the practice was common and the dry heat preserved many of the paintings until today."

The portrait was usually a bust (head & shoulders), and when somebody died, their portrait was attached to the cloth that the mummy was wrapped in. These ancient frames were very plain and made out of indigenous woods. The purpose of the frame was most likely to preserve the portrait and keep it out of the way—on a wall or in someone’s home until the mummy had been prepared and was ready for burial.

What do you think?

Frank