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Photographs of the basement, seen by The Art Newspaper , show elaborate but damaged frames propped on the floor or crammed together on shelves. On 2 July, museum management posted a lengthy rebuttal on the Russian Museum's website, shifting blame to Lysenko and stating that the basement storage is due for modernisation in Two staff members wrote in the statement that they are withdrawing their signatures from the letter to Gusev. Photographs provided to The Art Newspaper show some historic frames are propped on the floor of the museum's basement.

Museum management had allowed Olaf Lemke, a frames expert who runs Antike Rahmen gallery in Berlin, to visit the collection several years ago. Russian art historians have only recently considered frames a subject of study, Lysenko notes, unlike in Europe where the 19th-century German museum director Wilhelm von Bode positioned them as an art form. Lysenko staged an exhibition of historic frames at the State Russian Museum in In November , she organised the first international conference on frames in Russia.

State Russian Museum staff decry damage to antique picture frames. I worked in the archives, I researched the history of interiors and the history of furniture, I systematized the information I acquired, I compared different styles and patterns, and bit by bit I built up a picture of the subject. And at that time I had no books about European frames, which made my work extremely difficult.

NeoClassical Revival parcel-gilt frame commemorating A. Ivanova, second half 19th century catalogue, p. FB : How were you trained, and what gave you such an interest in picture frames? OL : No institute or college in Russia teaches the history of picture frames — frames are not even mentioned.

And young people — students, who are our future specialists — are not interested in frames, they do not understand either their important role in the perception of painting, or the fact that the frames are also works of art. This is a great problem. I produced these lectures in order to explain the history of frames to the public, and to demonstrate how beautiful and how important they are.

And they are working! Members of my audience go to museums and exhibitions, and look again at the works of art — and this time they see the picture frames!

My interest in picture frames is unexpected even to me. After university I studied modern art, and curated exhibitions of contemporary artists. Then I was offered a place working in the picture frame store of the RussianMuseum, where there was a vacancy. I accepted this place, but at that point I had no idea how it would affect my ideas.

I realized the beauty and the variety of frames — and I fell in love! That was how I began to study the history of frames…. FB : Frames, as a subject of art historical study, have become far more visible, important and popular in western Europe over the last 20 years. Are curators and conservators in Russia becoming more aware of their importance — especially since your exhibition?

OL : Partly — yes; but only partly. Many people realized that frames really are works of art. After the exhibition, these museums began to build up collections of picture frames, and frames acquired the status of a museum category. This is surprising, and it is very sad! But it is quite natural phenomenon. Remember, in Europe it was only in the late 19th century that Wilhelm von Bode began to study picture frames, and to publish his research. After that other publications came along, and gradually the process accelerated, influencing public opinion and the attitude of curators.

In Russia nothing like this was happening. Over a hundred years after Bode, frames were still not receiving any notice. A great number of good books had been written about the history of the decorative and applied arts and the history of the interior, with not a word about frames in them. Academics and curators had certain entrenched opinions, and it is difficult to change these all at once.

It will take time — years, perhaps even decades. However, I think that a new generation is growing up which will think differently. For my part, I constantly conduct research and give papers at conferences in museums and institutions — for different audiences , in order to publicize, to as wide an audience as possible, the problems of studying picture frames, and to draw the attention of curators and conservators to the frames.

The prices of antique frames have increased dramatically, and demand for them has also significantly increased. Riza from an icon of the Virgin Hodegetria , c. FB : In you spoke at the frame conference held in Dresden. I remember your saying that picture frames did not appear in Russia until the last quarter of the 17 th century — why is that?

In western Europe we have frames dating back to the 12 th and 13 th centuries. But the icon has a covering the riza which is decorated and often very beautiful. It is usually made of metal gold, silver or brass , and can be enamelled, set with precious stones or glass, or even embroidered with beads or pearls.

As a rule, the riza covers the entire panel of the icon, except for the face and hands of the holy figure, so — strictly speaking — the riza cannot be called a frame. In my opinion, all these settings of icons are the predecessors of the picture frame in Russia.

The iconostasis of the Annunciation , Cathedral of the Annunciation, Moscow Kremlin , second half 16th century. FB : Did the tradition of iconostases in the Russian Church mean that there were no altarpiece frames, as in mediaeval and Renaissance western Catholic churches? OL : This is a very interesting question. In mediaeval Russia there were indeed altarpieces, but they were very different from European retables. They were small double-sided icons, with an image on either side of the panel, which were carried out of the Church on holy days, in religious processions.

On one side of the icon Christ or the Virgin would be depicted, and on the other side the image of the saint to whom the church was dedicated. Zubov, The wedding of pygmy Yakim Volkov, buffoon of Peter I , engraving, , showing an early hang of paintings in a state room. FB : Peter the Great r. Was this a question of keeping up with western fashions? So he sent his brightest students to Europe, where they studied crafts and sciences, such as shipbuilding, armaments, medicine and astronomy, as well as the arts.

Also, Peter invited experts in all these areas to come to Russia, in order to teach sciences, arts and crafts; Russia was in need of all sorts of highly skilled specialists. When Peter had travelled through Europe in , he had visited a number of museums and private collections, in order to profit from the experience of countries completely different from Russia.

And of course he noticed how interiors were decorated in different countries, what paintings were hung in them, and in what kind of frames. Peter the Great thought that this was necessary in order to modernize the country — and he managed to achieve his aim.

Rococo frame with asymmetric pierced cartouches, first half 18 th century catalogue, p. FB : Did western European craftsmen come to carve and gild for the Russian court? The earliest 18 th century Russian frames seem very sophisticated, given they had very few forebears. OL : The fact is that Russia had a very good tradition of carving; carved works of antique folk art are eloquent witnesses to this for our own time.

They had their own techniques and instruments for carving, and their own very recognizable style. When European master sculptors arrived in Russia with their different approaches, the Russian carvers quickly learned from the new techniques and style of carving, and the new ornaments.

If you look at Russian-made frames from the first third of the 18th century, you will see the characteristic style of the traditional Russian masters; but by the midth century this has almost completely vanished.

German influenced Rococo frame, second third 18 th century catalogue, p. FB : Was there a fashion for importing frames from France and Germany in the 18 th century? There seems to be a mixture of very refined and very rustic patterns existing together. However, there was no fashion for importing frames from these countries, apart from the frames which entered Russia with the pictures they contained.

It was more the case that migrant craftsmen continued to work in Russia, and they were very influential. Also Russia, like most European countries, was greatly affected by the pattern books and albums of engraved ornament which were brought in; these included patterns books of frame designs.

They were enormously influential for Russian framemakers, who took over some designs wholesale, and also added their own variations. Frame of pendant to Rotari portrait above ; Transitional style, s, painted white and green catalogue, p.

FB : In your talk at Dresden, you noted that many frames were removed from the Russian Museum collection and put into a frame store. Has it been possible to reunite many of them with the pictures they belonged to?

OL : Reuniting frames and their paintings is one of the most important parts of my work. The picture in its own specially-created frame: this is a magnificent spectacle, a beautiful example of the synthesis of two arts, fine and applied.

In particular, I recently wrote two articles about frames in the Hermitage Museum in the Romanov gallery, and the gallery with views of St. These were particularly joyful discoveries, because the frames in question have remained in the possession of the Russian Museum and the Hermitage, and until now no one knew which paintings they had been made for. However, I have no idea when my discovery will be realized, and the frames reunited with the paintings.

This is not first time that pictures and frames remain apart in the face of the evidence — the frames in store and the paintings hanging on display in new and frequently unsuitable frames, or the frame used for a different picture.

This is a great problem in the bigger museums, with a large collection of picture frames. Unfortunately, this is often the way of large museums with their frames, and the reason is the same. However, in small museums the situation can often be very different — especially for museums with historic interiors such as the wonderful Pavlovsk Palace State Museum Reserve , not far from St.

As a rule, the curators of such museums view historical integrity as very important, and they respect the frames in their care generally these museums all have small collections of picture frames. I hope that over time the situation will change in the larger museums, such as the Russian Museum and the Hermitage.

FB : The catalogue of the exhibition you curated illustrated mostly empty frames. Is this because they are still empty, or was it an aesthetic choice? OL : Yes, it was an aesthetic choice. I wanted to show the frames as works of art; to focus on their beauty. For the first ever exhibition of picture frames in Russia this is was especially important, so at the exhibition frames were mostly hung without the paintings associated with them. Ivan Adolskiy , Portrait of Catherine the Great in replica Rococo trophy frame, created s catalogue, p.

FB : On page 38 of the catalogue, you illustrate an extraordinary Rococo trophy frame, around a painting of Catherine the Great. Was this made in Russia? The authentic midth century frame did not survive — it was lost during the Second World War. Ivan Adolskiy, Portrait of Catherine the Great , original midth century Rococo trophy frame, shown in early 20th century photograph. It continued to hang in one of the halls of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo for nearly thirty years without being gilded, and what you see in the photo in the catalogue is the bare, untreated wood of the frame.

However, in it was gilded. Miniature portrait of Emperor Paul I r. Russian carvers executed many magnificent Rococo and NeoClassical trophy frames during the 18th century.

They also produced splendid carved Rococo boiseries in the interiors of palaces , designed by the architect Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli Florence, , St Petersburg. Both the frames and the boiseries were gilded, producing an impression of extraordinary opulence and grandeur. Unfortunately, all these magnificent Russian Rococo trophy frames were lost during the revolution of and during the Second World War. We have only old photos of these frames.

Gau, Field Marshal Hall in the Winter Palace , watercolour, , showing the hang of paintings in trophy frames catalogue, p. FB : In western art history, the study of frame history has been greatly helped by the number of paintings of interiors from an early period. Apparently this was not a genre which had much popularity in Russia? Gau, The cabinet of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna , watercolour, , showing a domestic hang of paintings, ex cat.

OL : Yes, in Russia this genre only became popular during the ss. Before that — during the first third of the 18th century — there were only a few engravings of interiors which showed the frames, and this makes it difficult to research the early history of Russian frames. We have to use comparative analysis and archival documents to help our work. FB : You, together with Maria Kolosova, curator at the Hermitage, seem to have invented the study of picture frames: the styles, the history, and the wood used to make them?

OL : Maria Kolosova is a wonderful specialist. Together we conducted extensive work to determine what kinds of wood were used in various frames. The results of this work are shown at the back of the exhibition catalogue. I gave Maria tiny fragments of wood from the frames, and she analyzed them by microscopic study to determine the taxonomic category of the wood, through studying features of their biological structure.

Of course, quite often the kind of wood involved can be determined visually, but we wanted to get a really accurate result, so we sampled fragments of wood from different parts of the frame. We also studied the carved ornaments closely, and the provenance of many frames. As a result, we can draw interesting conclusions: for example, that in the 18th century Russian frames were usually made from limewood.

Of course such data can then be applied to further scientific study of frames, in order to establish their attribution to particular locations and periods — but only as an additional factor, not as the principal evidence. Its frame was acquired by Kiprensky himself in Italy, specifically for the portrait of Thorvaldsen, and brought to St.

And finally, an important proof of its Italian origin was that it was made of poplar this was established by Maria Kolosova. OL : I can not give an exact date. It was in the first quarter of the 19th century. FB : Many 19 th century Russian frames seem generally more inventive and more beautifully made than, for example, 19 th century non-artist designed frames in Britain.