RKD STUDIES

I now turn to an analysis of the emergence of frames with similar design in the Netherlands. Kwab design had been used for church carving ten years prior to its manifestation on picture frames after 1650.¹ The beginning of kwab frames coincides with the arrival into the Netherlands of many examples of Leatherwork frames from England, as well as painters experienced in using them. Reiner Baarsen considered how relatively slow the adoption of kwab for frames was in comparison with other types of object including, most likely, furniture:

‘[…] the moment at which auricular ornament pervaded as an art form was partly dependent on the development on that art form itself. There were hardly any sculptural picture frames produced in the early 17th-century Netherlands. A type of object that was all but non-existent could not be conquered by a new ornament: it had to be created first. In the case of picture frames, the auricular actually seems to have played a significant role in this process: the taste for auricular cartouches probably stimulated the development of carved frames […]. Moveable paintings [in the Netherlands] were throughout the first half of the century almost invariably given flat frames with carved mouldings, stained black and occasionally partly gilded or painted with decorative motifs in gold’.²

It is interesting to note that kwab panelling and cartouches were starting to be carved in oak for church panelling in the Netherlands from about 1640, for example at Stevenskerk in Nijmegen by Joost Jacobsz. [28a-b].³ However, kwab ornament is not found on picture frames for another decade; at which time much of the character of the kwab carving that had become established in church ornament was adopted for gilded limewood frames.

In England, the start of the Civil War in 1642 disrupted framemaking. Painters who left England for the Netherlands around this time, for example the aforementioned Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen I (1593-1661), had first-hand experience of the innovative carved and gilded Leatherwork frames. Jonson was born in England to Flemish/German parents, though it is not clear where and with whom he was trained.⁴ He worked for many years in England before moving (back) to the Netherlands in 1643. Numerous examples of auricular frames survive on paintings attributed to him that were made before and after he left England. He also included fictive auricular frames in his paintings and drawings.⁵ An anonymous painting of Hugh Norris, Merchant of London includes a heraldic shield with a fictive frame [29-30] that is similar to the Van Dyck Self-portrait frame [13].⁶ Such designs could be adopted and disseminated through the movement of makers, patrons and objects, especially during a period of great flux.

28a
Joost Jacobsz.
Pulpit in the Servaas church, Nijmegen, 1640

28b
Detail of fig. 28a. Image: Gerry Alabone, 2018

The sale of much the King’s collection following his executionson in 1649, along with other important aristocratic collections, also led to a huge number of paintings being dispersed on the continent, passing first through the Netherlands.⁷ At least some of these paintings would have been in Leatherwork frames initially.⁸ The return to the Netherlands of painters like Jonson – who were already using auricular frames – and the arrival of prime examples of Leatherwork frames along with dispersed collections seems to have influenced framemaking in the Netherlands, as this was just prior to when kwab frames started being made.

The pair of original carved and gilded limewood frames joined by half laps, by an unknown maker, on the portraits of Jasper Schade and his wife Cornelia Strick van Linschoten painted by Cornelius Johnson are described in Prijst de Lijst as dating from 1654 [31ab].⁹ Reiner Baarsen identifies them as the earliest extant kwab portrait frames. Jacob Simon has stated that: ‘[…] the idea that it was Dutch frames of this sort which formed the starting-point for English Sunderland frames of the 1660s and 1670s is no longer tenable given the strength of the auricular tradition in picture framing in England’.¹⁰ These frames were created over a decade after Johnson left England, and he may have contributed significantly to the adoption of kwab frames in the Netherlands. Baarsen states that ‘Auricular frames probably came into fashion in London earlier than in the Netherlands, which reinforces the suggestion that Johnson exercised a decisive influence on Schade’s choice of frames’.¹¹ Baarsen argues convincingly that kwab frames were being made by 1650 but, as none are dated prior to 1653, thoughts of them being made earlier are conjectural. Additionally, as kwab picture frames often feature prominently in paintings from the late 1650s depicting Dutch interiors it seems unlikely that they were being made from much earlier.¹²

31a
Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen (I)
Portrait of Jasper Schade (1623-1692), dated 1654
Enschede, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, inv./cat.nr. 698a

31b
Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen (I)
Portrait of Cornelia Strick van Linschoten (1628-1703), dated 1654
Enschede, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, inv./cat.nr. 698b

Thus, despite already being used in church carving, kwab ornament was applied to frames later in the Netherlands than in England, possibly in part because the Netherlands was not making carved and gilded frames to the same extent as England. Kwab picture frames steadily developed in popularity in the Netherlands during the first half of the 1650s following the arrival of Leatherwork frames from England as well as painters experienced with them. Nevertheless, choices of timber, joinery, ornament and, to some degree, gilding were distinct in the Netherlands, indicating separate craft techniques to England.

The visual differences between Leatherwork and kwab frames have been already alluded to, in connection with their different choices of timber – the skilfully lean carving of oak in England, and sinuously carved lime in the Netherlands. Shallow auricular frames are a sophisticated foil between picture and wall – working visually very differently to deep architectural frame mouldings. From their outset, Leatherwork frames were punctuated by masks at the top and bottom centres, often being extended forwards and outwards. Cut leather was evoked by overlapping motifs, folding, scrolling, and sometimes pierced through the timber. Prior to the Sunderland, Leatherwork frames typically had a concave moulding directly around the painting, but a strongly irregular back edge. Symmetry was always maintained left to right. Kwab frames initially also maintained this symmetry and often had mask-like centres at the top and bottom. Ornament flows seamlessly around the corners of both Leatherwork and kwab frames. However, early kwab frames varied from Leatherwork by often tending to have a straighter back edge; and they adopted the beautiful sinuous carving that had been developing in Netherlandish churches for over a decade. This clear sinuous ornament on kwab frames soon became carved deeper with undercuts, incorporating profusions of realistic fruit, festoons, pierced tendrils, dense trophies and boldly extended centres, until the kwab ornament becomes almost smothered.¹³ These festoons and trophies demonstrate an ultimately classical Italianate influence overriding the kwab ornament.