Renaissance Picture Frame

Reproduction of Renaissance picture frame with painted gilt decorations on black paint. This Siena 16th-century model is available for any particular painting size.

Structural properties

This reproduction frame is made with ayous and tulipwood combined. We use ayous for the front side and tulipwood for the backside of the frame. As a result, we obtain the maximum strength with the minimum weight.

You can customize the rabbet width as you prefer. For instance, if you need to cover a bigger part of the painting, you can ask to enlarge it. The rabbet depth, instead, depends on the thickness of the painting. In most of our models, it is between 1.5 and 4 cm. Sometimes, it is even deeper due to structural reasons or upon request.

Section width cm 11.5
Rabbet cm 1

Renaissance Decorations

The decoration process is entirely hand-made. Each black square is diligently painted one by one upon a gilded surface, giving this frame an extraordinary look. The town of Siena, during the Renaissance, manifested its art with a particular focus on painted and gilded squares. This kind of decoration can easily be seen all over the town’s architecture.

Even the corner decorations are typical of Renaissance art. The logic of their structures is always the same, and very few details change from frame to frame. Below, we share a video that shows the gilder in action using an innovative technique to realize the gold corner decorations.

It is a technique that allows prices to remain relatively affordable. On the contrary, using the original gilding technique would raise the final price quite a lot.

Gold painted decorations for Renaissance frames

Patina (aging process)

“Patina” is an Italian word that refers to how dark and old the frame looks. Apart from dark gold, the age of a frame is determined by a few cracks and tiny broken parts around the sides. For this purpose, our gilder hits its surfaces with stones.

Also, the wormholes are simulated, and you will be able to notice them by analyzing the pictures above deeply. The presence of wormholes does not indicate activity within or a recent flight of beetles. Remember that we faked them to specifically age the frame.

See below a video showing all the steps of the Patina.

More videos related to the aging process 

Explanation of the aging process
Distressing the gold surface
Rub off the gilding
Dark shellac
Applying shellac
Final result

CHEAPER FRAMES

See below for models of frames with similar structures but at a lower price.