Design for a Decorative Oval Frame (Recto). Half sketch for a Decorative Oval Frame (Verso). 1652 - 1725

Curator: Here we have Giovanni Battista Foggini’s “Design for a Decorative Oval Frame,” created sometime between 1652 and 1725. It’s a drawing, though you can also see elements of etching and printmaking in its construction. Editor: Oh, it's absolutely flamboyant, isn’t it? It feels like someone took the essence of rococo, that love of ornamentation, and just distilled it. The empty center is slightly unnerving. Curator: Frame designs such as this showcase the elaborate tastes of the Baroque period. Imagine the politics tied up in owning something encased in this! Who gets to be immortalized within such confines? Editor: Right, what kind of power does that commission represent? Is it royalty? A bishop? It’s like visual bling for your legacy. But stepping back, I also feel a curious lack of control. The lines are messy, and that torn corner gives me anxiety. Curator: Interesting! Those rough edges do take away from the finished monumentality we might expect. However, don't forget it's a design sketch; so function informs the visual decisions at play here. These materials suggest to me this work lives within the grand scope of larger workshops and a whole apparatus of design in this period. Editor: Fair enough. It’s a reminder of the labor and planning involved behind the art. I keep thinking of that vacant center and how what is included and excluded frames the perception of our realities. So who are we in all of this? Curator: And perhaps that is exactly the conversation that the artist wished to elicit, isn't it? Thank you for giving us new dimensions to consider within the artistic process, which I now see that much clearer. Editor: No, thank you! I'll go frame that consideration for a while now. It might suit me.