An Overview of the History of Matting

1606 Guido Fawkes & The Gunpowder Plotters Engraving,  published in Germany This is a political cartoon, poking fun at events across the channel.  Although this was the age of Bacon         ( 1561-1626 ) and Shakespeare ( 1564-1633 ),  England had her problems!  James IV of Scotland had been crowned James I of England in 1603.  Determined to rid England of its Scottish king, a fanatical band including Guy  ‘Guido’  Fawkes, hatched a plot to level Parliament and James I with a single blast of gunpowder.  Fawkes was to fire the charge on November 5, 1605 but was arrested and tortured along with the others.

The Baroque, originating in Rome circa 1600, has begun to spread throughout Europe, but the immense popularity of secular art ( landscape, still life, genre ) north of the Alps continued.  In Holland, distinctive, secular frames were developed for the art-buying public including plain black and natural, polished wood frames with continuously machined designs we sometimes describe as “Dutch ripple”.  The dark frames were sometimes relieved by oil-gilding the ornamental bands. This framing treatment reflects the simplicity of Alpine/Netherlandish secular designs of the period.