Louis XIII style Ovolo frame (for Ingres's Portrait of the Princesse de Broglie)
Unknown Artist
1950–60
Medium
Pine; plaster ornament. Gilt; pink-orange bole.
Dimensions
Overall: 61 13/16 × 49 7/16 in. (157 × 125.6 cm) Sight: 43 1/8 × 35 1/16 in. (109.5 × 89 cm) Rabbet: 48 7/16 × 36 7/16 in. (123 × 92.5 cm)
Classification
Frames
Culture
French (made United States)
Department
Robert Lehman Collection
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number
1975.1.186b
Art Historical Context
This elegant Louis XIII style ovolo frame, crafted in the United States between 1950 and 1960, was specially designed to house Jean-Auguste-Dominiquegres's masterful *Portrait of the Princesse Broglie* (1853). Drawing from early 17th-century French aesthetics—evoking the reign of King Louis XIII—the frame features a classic ovolo profile a gently convex molding that mimics the refined architectural details of historic European palaces. Though a modern creation, it bridges centuries, enhancing the Neoclassical elegance of Ingres's portrait with period-appropriate grandeur. Made of pine with in...