Giovanni Bellini, 1514: Frame and Fortune

By William B. Adair

This Renaissance Revival tabernacle frame, conserved by Gold Leaf Studios, brings the painting back to the way itwas first viewed by the donor, Joseph Widener, when he gave the painting to the National Gallery of Art in 1942.

Photo Credit: M

ax Hirshfeld

Giovanni Bellini, 1514: Frame and Fortune

FEAST OF THE GODS,

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It started about 20 years ago with a request to assistmy frame guru, Paul Levi, in the reframing of apainting for the National Gallery of Art: “Feast of

the Gods,” one of the most important and monumentalRenaissance paintings in America. The painting was oneof four originally commissioned by the Duke of Ferarra,Alphonso I, beginning in 1514. Levi understood thatthese allegorical scenes were intended to be viewedtogether in an architectural setting for the Duke’s pri-vate pleasure. They were housed in a narrow and inti-mate art viewing room off the bedroom. It was a timewhen having a mirror in your house was consideredvain, and to have paintings like these on public displaycould have caused an uproar of criticism.

Levi called the painting “abused,” because it suf-fered at the hands of many throughout its life. It wasfirst painted by the Venetian master Giovanni Bellini.Shortly after his death in 1516, Ferarra’s court painter,Dosso Dossi, altered the composition. The final artisticcover-ups were performed by Bellini’s student, Titian,who painted over it to match his other commissions inthe room around 1529. He blotted out most of Dossi’swork, except for the bird in the tree. Quite a spectacularpedigree—and the rest of the painting’s history just getsmore intriguing.

A Reframe and a RestorationLevi called me from London to discuss the reframingproject details and hash out a logical approach to find-ing the best possible solution for the piece. He wasalways concerned about the placement of the paintingin its proper setting by finding out the historical contextin which the painting was first displayed. His researchthus far had deduced that the painting was once part ofan elaborate architectural setting, and for him, there wasonly one perfect choice. He suggested we reframe it in

an architecturaltabernacle frame ofthe same periodand region.

When Levifirst came up withthis plan, heexplained that heowned a frame thatwould fulfill therequirements. In August 1967, he had acquired a Vene-tian frame of the same period. He proposed that GoldLeaf Studios adapt it to fit the Bellini painting. If thatdidn’t make sense financially, then it could certainly beused as a model for us to fabricate a replica. He insistedit was the only proper course of action to take. Any-thing else, he said, would be a compromise, all subjectto the restrictions of money and capricious style of cur-rent taste over historical accuracy. “Bill,” he said, “amuseum’s role is to educate, not decorate.”

But, of course, you must settle for what the clientwants to do. Much to Levi’s disapproval, the notion ofputting another tabernacle frame on the painting was

The frame was cleaned with various chemicals to remove dirtand save as much gilding as possible.

Methylene chloride was used to cleanbronze paint from the crevices.

Each section required meticulousattention before moving forward.

Details of the replacedcornice area on theupper right side wereskillfully blended tomatch the originalpatina, using thetraditional watergilding technique.

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not accepted at the time. TheNational Gallery staff decidedinstead to place the existing JosephWidener frame in storage andcommission us to make a morepractical secular design. Levi select-ed a suitable model from his exten-sive inventory of some 4,000frames from an array of time peri-ods and countries. The frame cho-sen to copy was a mid-sixteenthcentury Florentine manneristframe made from walnut andembellished with gilded bands of

running ornament.Levi’s protege in London,

Timothy Newbery, carved andgilded the exquisite replica framefor the gallery. It served the paint-ing well all these years, untilrecently the decision was made toput the Widener frame back on tothe painting. According to Nation-al Gallery senior curator and chiefof design Marc Leithauser, heremembered seeing the Widenerframe as a child when his parentsbrought him to visit the gallery,

The structural integrity of the frame is the primary objective of the conservator. The old blocks ofwood on the verso had split in half, requiring regluing and/or replacement with oak, a more sta-ble wood than pine, previously used to strengthen the frame.

and he was all for bringing it back.Also happy to see the frame putback on the painting was DavidAlan Brown, curator of Italian

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paintings at the National Gallery,who said the walnut frame couldstill be used as a travel frame whenthe painting is loaned to otherinstitutions, but the Widenerframe would be placed on a wall ofits own and would command thespace, as the donor had intended itto be seen.

My ‘Indiana Jones’MomentAs I crawled on the floor in thedark storage area behind the framewith a flashlight, I was glad to seethe frame was designed to be takenapart in sections. This is the typeof construction technique used forlarge frames that were fabricatedsince the nineteenth century. Itwas held together with 12-inchbolts with nuts and washers thatwere specifically designed for easytransport in four sections and sub-sequent reassembly on site. It wasessentially a good example of theRenaissance Revival movement ofthe late nineteenth century frames.

The biggest surprise we foundwas an old inventory numberpainted with red ochre paint, alongwith a name and number thatappeared to be written in a Cyrillicalphabet, possibly indicating Russ-ian ownership. Steve Wilcox,

retired frame conservator of theNational Gallery, had it translatedby some Russian friends. It reads,“St. Petersburg Community Asso-ciation No. 136546.” It is not cur-rently known if the painting wasever in Russia, but it appears theframe may have been at one timein its life. In the last century, thepainting was owned by the Dukeof Northumberland, then sold toWidener, who donated it to theNational Gallery of Art in 1942.

In short, the frame was awreck. There was the typical sur-face degradation of a fragile watergilded frame: deteriorated gesso,missing and damaged ornaments,and even the entire upper rightside of the carved entablature wasmissing. This was going to be achallenge, to say the least.

The ProcessThe frame arrived at Gold Leaf Stu-dios in early December 2016, andwe began the fastidious procedure ofsurface cleaning in conjunction withthe consolidation of loose and flak-ing gesso. We used a new Swisspolyacrylic acid product by Lascauxto do the consolidation, and itworked far better than the formerlaborious two-step method. It pene-trated the loose gesso and when

Adair discovered an old inventory number in red ochre paint that may offer art historians aclue to the painting’s previous ownership.

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dry, all the fragile areas were stable.There were also numerous areas

of damaged gesso covered withbronze paint. Radiator paint wasused by handymen as an expedientmethod to cover up gilding damagein the past, and unfortunately, thistechnique obscured much of theoriginal gilding. In addition to theLascaux medium, we also used anew gel product that containedorganic solvents of acetone andmethylene chloride and we appliedit carefully with cotton swabs. Thisseemed to be the best improvementin the most noxious part of the job.In the past, we had to use commer-cial paint strippers that were hard tocontrol and extremely toxic, requir-ing us to use elaborate safety equip-ment. Now, with the gels and amore controlled fume extraction sys-tem, we seem to spend more timeon the bench focusing on the task athand.

Once these areas of overpaintwere removed, we exposed severelydegraded gesso and traces of the

Major areas of missingornamentation werereplaced with hand-carvedwood. Spring clampswere used to apply pres-sure to the newly fabricat-ed wood. Smaller areaswere left alone to showthe effects of age.

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original gilding were revealed. Wethen repaired the broken gesso andre-gilded and toned them using tra-ditional materials that matched thedelicate soft patina of the frame.

The biggest challenge was toreplace the entire part of the carvedentablature that was missing on thecornice. We started the task bydrawing the profile of the moldingto be carved. Based on this drawing,we then shaped the wood by tablesaw, router, and then by hand withchisels to refine the details. Then wejoined the missing piece with splinesand PVA glue to create a strongbond. We reinforced the weak jointsalong the back of the frame withstrips of oak affixed to add support.Once all the repairs were done, wereassembled the frame in our studioand called the curators in for a view-ing and critique. After theirapproval, we were all set to deliverand install it the following week.

Perhaps the artwork was owned

by Catharine the Great. Perhaps theobscure Russian clue on the framewill give future scholars a chanceto reassess the history of the paint-ing. One thing is certain: its fullstory has yet to be told. For us, itwas a proud achievement to beable to save much of the frame’soriginal surface and allow it to beseen and appreciated by the publiconce again. PFM

The installation at the gallery, prior to thecompletion of the reframing.

Once restored, the frame was installed atthe National Gallery of Art, housing theBellini painting.

William Bruce Adairreceived his B.F.A. in StudioArt from the University ofMaryland in 1972. For thenext 10 years he worked forthe Smithsonian Institution'sNational Portrait Gallery as amuseum conservator, spe-cializing in the treatment ofpicture frames. In 1982 he formed Gold Leaf Stu-dios to make frames and conserve gilded antiques.His clients have included the U.S. Department ofState and the National Park Service. He is thefounder of the International Institute for FrameStudy, a non-profit archive dedicated to collectingand disseminating information on the history offrames. In 1991, he was awarded the Rome Prizein Design from The American Academy in Rome.Over the years William B. Adair has written articlesin PFM that describe in detail some of the tradition-al embellishment techniques, as taught to him byItalian master carver and gilder Alex Gagna fromthe House of Heydenryk in New York City. The firstarticle, published in September 1991, was “Sgraffi-to: Like a Moth to a Flame,” followed in August1993 by “Granito and Sgraffito: Two Methods ofSurface Adornment,” and, recently, in August 2015by “Sgraffito and Granito: Revitalizing an AncientTechnique.”