“A historic frame,” said Christopher Swan, senior conservator of wooden artifacts, “is a bridge between the past and today. It is the line you cross when you go from a gallery to another world.
“I love historic frames.”
So in 2019, when Colonial Williamsburg acquired a 1697 portrait of Williamsburg’s namesake, King William III, Swan’s eyes immediately turned to the frame. It was clearly wrong — an undersized 20th-century intrusion on a 17th-century painting.
What was needed was a frame in the Baroque style, and Swan and his fellow conservators saw an opportunity to learn by doing.
Few intact examples of Baroque frames have survived, especially in highly fashionable silver because “silvering” — the 18th-century term for silver gilding — went out of style early in the 18th century. Many that did survive had been regilded with gold.
“This was our chance to dig in,” Swan said.
Blending Art and Science
Digging in was no small matter. The unframed portrait measures nearly 8 feet in height, so the frame required quite a lot of carving.
Like Colonial Williamsburg’s tradespeople, conservators study the materials and techniques that were used in the past. Fortunately, the Foundation has in its collection a model from which the team could work: an early 18th-century silver frame with all of its original materials including the top varnish. This British frame once hung on a wall at Blandfield, a plantation in Essex County, Virginia.
Analysis confirmed that the materials and construction matched the practice of the period and that the frame was unrestored. The materials include preparatory chalk and glue layers called “gesso,” a white burnishing clay called “bole,” pure silver leaf and a protective clear natural resin varnish. The type of varnish used indicated that the silver leaf was to be presented as silver and not tinted to look like gold, as was sometimes the case, especially in the 19th century.
Consulting with Laura Barry, the Juli Grainger Curator of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, conservators created a design based on the Blandfield frame as well as other frames for royal portraits.
“A historic frame is a bridge between the past and today.”
Christopher Swan
“It was a bonus to have in the collection a British-made frame with a strong Virginia history fashioned in a style commonly seen on royal and aristocratic portraits of the period,” Barry said. “This frame provided us with the perfect prototype to study and reproduce for our likeness of King William.”
Since the project began during the pandemic, the frame became a sort of kitchen-table project. Sometimes Swan took the project home. Then it might go to Senior Conservator Albert Skutans. Sarah Towers, an assistant conservator, and intern Caroline Shaver also got their turns carving the four individual wooden moldings that would constitute the frame.
The work on the frame, like much of the work conservators do, required a knowledge of art history and of material science — and some artistic abilities.
Period techniques were defined by 18th-century treatises, especially Robert Dossie’s Handmaid to the Arts, which has a chapter entitled “Of Silvering.”
“A conservator’s work is multifaceted, incorporating analysis, historic and condition assessments, treatments and the occasional informed reproduction,” Swan said. “We like to say, or pretend, that we’re Renaissance people.”
A Public Project
The undertaking was a chance not only to do research and construction but also to demonstrate the work. The final stages took place in the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, where between May and August 2023 Swan and his colleagues talked with and worked in front of about 2,300 people.
The public stages of the project included a process called “recutting,” from the French reparure. The numerous coats of gesso and bole fill in and obscure the intricate carvings. Recutting, an important aspect of the craft, redefines the shapes. The craftsmen who did the recutting in the 17th century were among the most skilled workers involved in producing the decorative arts of that period.
After the recutting, conservators applied silver leaf to the tops and outsides of the moldings and then patinated them with tinted varnish to make them look older and better integrated with the old canvas portrait. Then the moldings were joined into a single frame.
Finally, the painting was fitted into its new frame. In addition to being in a Baroque style appropriate for the painting, the sturdy new frame provides the necessary long-term support for the old canvas portrait.
The painting currently hangs in the British Masterworks gallery of the DeWitt Wallace Museum.
Who was William III?
A member of the Dutch royal family, William of Orange was born in 1650 at The Hague. In 1677, William married his cousin Mary, daughter of the Duke of York who later became King James II of England.
William was a Protestant and James a Catholic. In 1688, William and his army landed in Devon and marched to London, dethroning his uncle and father-in-law. James fled to France, and the invasion succeeded largely without bloodshed.
In 1689, William and Mary were proclaimed king and queen, restoring Protestantism to the British Crown. Theirs was the first joint English monarchy.
During their reign, Parliament passed laws limiting the power of the
monarchy. The couple granted a charter for the College of William and Mary in 1693, and Williamsburg was named after William when it was established in 1699. Mary died in 1694 and William in 1702.
William III’s likeness portrays him in his royal regalia. He was painted by the studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller, principal painter to William and Mary.