Exceptional picture frames

In addition to being a decorative object, the frame is an essential part of the presentation of a painting. It helps the viewer direct their gaze to the centre of the composition and focus their attention on it, while separating the physical space in which they are located from the fictitious scene represented by the artist. 

The museum is presenting an installation of eleven works from the Permanent Collection dating from the 14^th to the 17^th centuries which have frames - three of them the original ones - that exemplify the artistic importance of this element. Originating in Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, they reveal a wide variety of styles depending on the artistic period in which they were made and the criteria of changing tastes, fundamentally in relation to furniture, while also contributing added value to the paintings which they accompany, embellish and protect.Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza paid particular attention to this aspect of collecting and even commissioned two scholarly studies on the frames in his collection in the 1980s.