We decided that since the painting evokes the spirit of Lawrence Alma Tadema, John Godward, and other Victorian painters who used these architectural frames (also called "aedicula" frames), it might be fitting to create a new one along those lines. (Above: "Antony and Cleopatra" by Tadema in a vintage frame.)
Troy has specialized in the forgotten art of building tabernacle frames, and has mastered techniques used by frame builders over a hundred years ago. He has built similar frames for actual Tademas, and he was willing to take on the challenge. Above: another Tadema in a Stafford frame.
I began by drawing up a sketch for the frame using the Roman Corinthian order as the basis of the design. The painting itself actually quotes Roman architecture in the buildings behind the dinosaurs.
Troy ordered the pilaster capitals and the egg-and-dart moulding along the bottom from Decorator's Supply in Chicago. Founded in 1883, the company still has original moulds from the days of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. We were lucky to get workers at Decorator's Supply to cast the capitals for us because the company was working with a skeleton crew and was about to close up shop for the season.
Troy then constructed the parts of the frame from basswood, poplar, and pine. It’s lock-mitered together with mortise and tenon. He formulated the gesso and red bole undercoat by hand from raw ingredients. He finished it in an oil-gilt 23.5 carat gold leaf.
The Dinosaur Boulevard frame was decorated using the pastiglia process, a bas relief process used in the Renaissance. The detail in the design is a three-toed dinosaur footprint.
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The paintings--and frames--will be exhibited later this month at the Woodson Art Museum
Dinosaur Parade will also be at the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania starting June 3, 2012.
Dinosaur Parade will also be at the Allentown Art Museum in Pennsylvania starting June 3, 2012.
Photos byArthur Evans of Williamstown, Massachusetts
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