An Overview of the History of Matting

Circa 1730  Hamlet Winstanley after G.B. Castiglione, Two Rams, Engraving,  published in England After training on the Continent, Winstanley returned to England and took the life-long position of recording Lord Derby’s massive collection of art in the ancestral home, Knowsley. The engravings were bound in volumes for Lord Derby’s library. During the late Baroque period, nationalistic trends emerged.  In France, the Regence, from 1715 to 1723, was a transitional period from Louis XIV Baroque to Rococo.  Louis XV ( 1715-1774 ) was five years old when his father died and did not actually rule until 1723.

Rococo, or miniature Baroque, emerged about 1730 characterized by extravagant decorative effects, curved lines and asymmetries based on organic models. In England,  the Early Georgian period    from George I ( 1714-1727 ) through George II ( 1727-1760 ) was characterized by residual Queen Ann ( 1702-1714 ) mixed with French Rococo influences.  William Hogarth was the most influential artist/social critic of that time.  The English had contempt for foreigners and most indigenous artists allied themselves to seventeenth century Dutch traditions ( Bruegel, for example ). The mat is a replica of an English paper mat of the period, showing the inevitable, but simplified, French influence.  The frame, typical of English drawing frames of the time, combines the influence of Dutch secular frames ( black ) with French decorative elements ( carved entry detail and sand panel in gilt ).