The modern picture frame was born in the Renaissance. Prior to that, "in the tradition of Byzantine icons the earliest Italian panel paintings were carved with their frames from single pieces of wood." This third NYU frame conference examines the spectrum of frame design: the dialectical tendency to veer from ordered, symmetrical, classical and restrained forms to more exuberant, asymmetrically embellished, and dramatic expressions. We consider frames from the Renaissance on, examining such high points as the Italian Renaissance to modern movements. We compare regional expressions, materials, tools and techniques, and decorative motifs. We study the relationship of frames to their architectural, functional, and decorative environments, and to the works of art they surround. We document the rise of a consciousness of the frame as artifact, and the relatively recent notion that appropriate historical context, rather than simply harmony within decor, merits considera tion in determining a frame's appropriateness. We discuss the role of the artist, patron, and dealer in frame selection and design, and contemporary artists who consciously use frames and those for whom environmental context is the only frame necessary. Evening events at The Hispanic Society of America, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Dahesh Museum complement the formal sessions that take place at New York University and at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

The speakers include: Philippe Avila, frame scholar, restorer and conservator of gilded and polychrome works of art and Associate Restorer at The Hispanic Society of America; Hubert Baija, senior conservator of frames, Department of Paintings, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Jared Bark, founder of and principal, Bark Frameworks; Giovanni Bucchi, master gilder; owner of Ennio Restorations; Brian Considine, head of Decorative Arts and Sculpture Conservation, The Getty Museum; Elizabeth Easton, chair, Department of European Painting and Sculpture, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Richard Ford, conservator of frames, National Gallery of Art (NGA), Washington; Tracy Gill, frame scholar and consultant to museums and private collectors, and co-owner of Gill & Lagodich Fine Period Frames & Restoration; Marco Grassi, conservator, consultant, and dealer in the field of fine arts, particularly European Old Master Paintings; Michael D. Hall, sculptor, educator collector, and critic, who formed a collection of American scene paintings with his wife Pat Glascock that comprises a singular study of 20th-century regionalist frames; Edgar Harden, frame and furniture consultant and authority on French frames; Susan Larkin, independent art historian, who contributed an essay on Childe Hassam's framing choices to the catalogue of the Hassam exhibition to open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2004); Nannette V. Maciejunes, executive director and chief curator, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Eva Mendgen, frame authority and author In Perfect Harmony: Picture + Frame 1850-1920 (1995); Marilena Mosco, director, Museo degli Argenti and of the Museo delle Porcellane, Pitti Palace, Florence; Tessa Murdoch, deputy keeper, Department of Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass, Victoria & Albert Museum; Timothy Newbery, frame maker and historian; Lynn Roberts, art historian, whose publications include FRAMEWORKS and A History of European Picture Frames (both with P. Mitchell, 1996); Franco Sabatelli, researcher, consultant and dealer of antique frames and author of La Cornice Italiana dal Rinascimento al Neoclassico; Suzanne Smeaton, gallery director, Eli Wilner & Co., has been involved in the study of antique frames and framing works of art for over 26 years; Jonathan Thornton, professor, Art Conservation Department, State University College at Buffalo; Bartholomew Voorsanger, FAIA, principal, Voorsanger & Associates Architects, P.C. Lisa Koenigsberg, director, programs in the arts, New York University/SCPS, has organized the conference and will speak on the frame as a work of art.

Fee: ***The conference fee is $355. Brochures will be available in January at www.scps.nyu.edu/frames where you can now register, or complete the form below and fax it to (212) 995-4293. For further information, or to register call Programs in the Arts at (212) 998-7130 or email lisa.koenigsberg@nyu.edu or pav3822@nyu.edu.