The Frame Blog

Jacob Simon, Research Fellow at the National Portrait Gallery in London, examines a fascinating and perhaps less well-known collection of 16^th-18^th century paintings, which has been reassembled after years of dispersal and is now on show again in Siena. One of its notable features is the even more extraordinary group of original and near-contemporary frames in which it is partly housed.

 Introduction

 At the marriage in 1774 of Caterina Piccolomini to Giuseppe Spannocchi, the Piccolomini and Spannocchi collections were united. The collection as it is today, of some 165 paintings, has three strands: Siena for the Spannocchi family collection, Mantua for Piccolomini family acquisitions of pictures looted from the city in 1630, and Innsbruck for works acquired there by Lidovino Piccolomini in the 1640s and 1650s. The focus of this study is on Innsbruck and Lidovino’s acquisitions, some with remarkable frames. For Siena and Mantua, scroll down to the end of this article.

Façade of Santa Maria della Scala, Piazza Duomo, Siena. Photo: Jastrow

The Piccolomini Spannocchi collection was given to the city of Siena in 1835, only to be divided between several institutions. Most of the pictures have now been brought together in an ongoing display at the Sienese museum complex of Santa Maria della Scala (the old hospital opposite the Duomo). The excellent catalogue has essays on various subjects, but not the frames – although some pictures are reproduced with their frames [1]. What follows takes up from Francesca Scialla’s illuminating essay on Lidovino Piccolomini’s activities in Innsbruck and Trento [2].

While the catalogue and indeed the display are arranged by place, here the discussion is chronological by way of some remarkable frames, focussing on Lidovino’s acquisitions in Innsbruck. Some frames have been restored over the years but many are remarkably intact; they have not been examined off the wall for this account.

Innsbruck and Trento

Lidovino Piccolomini (1611-80) is the hero of our story. He was born at Modanella, near Siena, a younger son of Francesco Piccolomini and Onorata Vieri, into a branch of the noble Piccolomini family. He lost his father when he was young and it was probably through his mother’s influence that he became a page at the age of fourteen to Claudia de’ Medici, Archduchess of Austria (1604-48), wife of the Archduke Leopold V, and so served at the Habsburg court in Innsbruck. Lidovino studied at Freiburg university in south-western Germany, 1629-32. At Constance in September 1632, he was nominated as a canon of the city of Trento or Trent, a Habsburg possession in the Tyrol, administered from Innsbruck. In 1648 he was made provost at Trento, in addition to his canonry [3].

Lidovino was an enthusiastic collector, as we learn from his letters, sent from Innsbruck to his older brother in Siena, Francesco Piccolomini (1606-84?). At Innsbruck Lidovino admired the Archduchess’s gallery,

‘…which seemed like a little paradise.’ [4]

Tuscan, early 17^th century, including The Sorrowful Virgin with St John the Evangelist (centre), and St Jerome in the desert (centre right), black ripple frames, a set of six

Details; cat. 80

As early as 1646 the idea of establishing a gallery in Siena was mooted, a project he put to his brother several times over the years [5]. Lidovino had begun collecting in his early thirties. He is documented as sending his brother precious objects from Innsbruck in 1642, followed by paintings in 1644, among which were some small religious scenes on marble with black ripple frames (cat. 80) [6].

Stephan Kessler (possible attribution; 1622-1700), Madonna & Child; cat. 98

In 1645 he despatched a Madonna & Child, monogrammed ‘S.K.’ – possibly Stephan Kessler (cat. 98) – now housed in a rather worn ordinary gilt and ochred hollow section ogee moulding frame, undocumented, of a sort found on several other pictures in the collection. This process of occasionally sending pictures continued until 1652, but following the Archduchess’s death in December 1648, Lidovino faced problems at court, as well as difficulties in finding

‘…opportunities to buy some gallantry [gallantaria] here’, given that after her death ‘the craftsmen [artefici] no longer compete.’ [7]

 Lidovino’s shipments from Innsbruck, 1649

Various pictures despatched by Lidovino from Innsbruck to his brother in Siena were sent framed, as can be identified either from his descriptions in his correspondence or from his listings of the contents of the cases he sent. In July 1651 he told his brother that the pictures were not painted locally but came from other countries, some from Holland, others from Augsburg (a city that he knew), and yet others from Nuremberg [8]. Except for the court painters there were no artists of merit locally, he wrote. Lidovino also despatched various Italian pictures, some of which may have been loot from the sack of Mantua in 1630, as the catalogue suggests (see below), whilst others were probably traded internationally, only to be repatriated by Lidovino.

The frames listed by Lidovino in 1649 are particularly well-documented. Perhaps he reserved his descriptions for the frames that he found remarkable; he never suggests that he chose the frames himself, so it may be that he purchased pictures on the market already framed. Where and when were the pictures framed?  – from Lidovino’s position in Innsbruck, it would seem that these works were framed in northern Europe, rather than in Italy. They illustrate two features of the period, sometimes in combination, the gilt running patterns of strapwork and pierced foliage of a vaguely Auricular kind applied to a black ground, and the ripple mouldings of a type often found in the second and third quarters of the 17^th century.

Gold and black frames

  Flemish school, 16^th century, The Visitation, c.1550-1600, o/panel, 40.5 x 30 cm.; cat 92

Two very fine re-framings probably belong to the 1640s, judging from their complex and confident gilt strapwork and foliage. The larger of the two, on a 16^thcentury Flemish painting, The Visitation (cat. 92), is a 6 inch or 15.5 cm. reverse section frame, very probably that listed by Lidovino in 1649 as a

‘cornici dorate, e traforate’ [the frame gilded and pierced]

Bernardino Cesari (1571-1622), Holy Family with the Infant John the Baptist, c.1606, o/panel, 29 x 21 cm.; cat 83

Bernardino Cesari’s slightly smaller early 17^th century Holy Family with the infant John the Baptist (cat. 83) has a 5 inch or 12.5 cm. reverse frame of exactly the same pattern but slightly scaled down, described in the next entry in the listing, as a

‘cornici parimente indorate, e traforate’ [the frame likewise gilded and pierced]

Were the frames made in Innsbruck?  – or in another centre, perhaps in southern Germany? In the absence of documentation or strictly comparable examples, it is not possible to say at present. It is worth noting that frames with gilded running foliage set on a black or coloured ground can be found elsewhere, for example in England in the 1630s , albeit of scrolling foliage but flatter and more open in character and not closely comparable.

Walthère Damery (1614-74), Putti around the bust of a satyr, 1649, o/c, 58.5 x 69.5 cm.; cat. 102

The original or very early frame on Putti around the bust of a satyr of 1649 (cat. 102) by the Liège artist, Walthère Damery, is similar in character: flatter but still bold, with pierced burnished gilt scrolling foliage, grotesque mask centres and Auricular corners, applied to a black ground, set between an inner gilt ripple moulding and inner and outer black ripple mouldings.

Damery, Putti around the bust of a satyr, details; cat 102

This frame is not mentioned by Lidovino but the picture features in his correspondence in 1655 and possibly in 1651 (letters from 1650 and 1654 have not been located).

More frames with gilt ripple mouldings

The copy after Rubens, Weeping Mary Magdalene (cat. 58), has a most unusual frame, responding to the Magdalene’s upward gaze.

Rubens (after; 1577-1640), Weeping Mary Magdalene, 1640s?, o/c, 68.5 x 57 cm.; cat. 58

The picture relates to Rubens’s large Penitent Mary Magdalen of c.1620 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, but perhaps derives from an engraving. Whether original to the painting or an early reframing, the frame was described in 1649 as,

‘…una cornice negra di pero, larga, et ornata di certe cornicine a onde, indorate’ [a black frame of pearwood, wide, and decorated with certain gilded wavy little mouldings]

Rubens (after), Weeping Mary Magdalene, 1640s?, details

The frame has gilt ripple mouldings on the sight edge and more prominently beneath the top edge, with further gilt ripple mouldings enclosing a central frieze of extraordinary radiating wavy gilt ornaments (‘cornicine’), all set against a polished black ground [9].

Ludovico Dondi (attrib., 1585-1614), after Titian (originals painted in 1536-40), The twelve Caesars, c. 1600-40?, o/panel, each 42 x 30 cm.; cat. 2

The collection also includes a set of twelve small copies of Titian’s Roman Emperors in black and gilt ripple frames (cat. 2). The originals in the Gonzaga collection at Mantua were purchased by King Charles I and brought to London. They passed at the Commonwealth to the Spanish royal collection where they were destroyed by fire in 1734.

Ludovico Dondi, The emperor Otho, after Titian; cat. 2

The frames on these copies may be those described by Lidovino in 1649 in a packing list as

‘cornici di pero, negre, et assai grandi, e sono di ottima mano’ [frames of pearwood, black, and very large and of excellent quality],

although gilding is not mentioned. These copies may be Italian, possibly by Ludovico Dondi as the catalogue suggests, but their history before 1649 is uncertain. Whilst ripple mouldings can be found on Italian frames, the provenance of these copies from Innsbruck may suggest a northern origin.

Ludovico Dondi, after Titian, The twelve Caesars, corner details of four of the frames; cat. 2.

Black ripple and wave frames on natural history illustrations

 Angel Maria Colombini (possible attribution; 1611-73), natural history illustrations of birds, insects, flowers and fruit, a set of ten, 1640s?, tempera/vellum, 15.2 x 21.3 cm.; cat. 79

The catalogue suggests that a set of ten small tempera on parchment natural history illustrations (cat. 79) are possibly by Angelo Maria Colombini. They depict birds with insects, flowers and fruit. Their black frames with wave and ripple mouldings are certainly early and probably original.

The frames appear to be those specified by Lidovino to his brother Francesco, probably in 1649 from the context. He refers to

‘14 quadretti di vari ucelli dipinti in pergamena, con vaghe cornici negre’ [14 small pictures (ten remain) of various birds painted on parchment, with wavy black frames

Angel Maria Colombini (?), details of four black wave and ripple mouldings; cat. 79

‘Wavy’ or ‘fuzzy’ are possible translations of ‘vaghe’ in this context. The frames have a prominent wave ornament on the main frieze, set between a larger ripple moulding at the top edge and a smaller-scale version at the sight – not unlike some northern frames of the period, such as that thought to date to about 1640 on Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet’s Interior of the Oude Kerk in Delft (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) [10].

Such black frames of Dutch and Flemish inspiration can be found on other natural history paintings of the period. A slightly later set of twenty by Giovanna Garzoni was commissioned by Ferdinando II de’ Medici and completed in 1662 and is now housed in the Galleria Palatina in the Pitti Palace in Florence.

Giovanna Garzoni (1600-70), Chinese plate with artichokes, a rose and strawberries, c.1655-62, tempera, 24 x 32 cm., Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

These works in tempera on parchment depict fruit and vegetables. They are housed in black mouldings, ornamented with three projecting undulations (or ripples) on the back edge of the frame, a plain frieze, and an inner band of six rows of small-scale running waves[11]. Presumably made in Italy, they could be the work of Leonardo van der Vinne, who is recorded in Ferdinando’s employ in 1668 as the author of

‘cornice in legno di pero tinto di nero’ [pearwood frames, stained black]

Lidovino’s final shipments from Innsbruck, 1652

In Lidovino’s final letter from Innsbruck to his brother in December 1652 he lamented,

‘…so it ends after so many years. Oh, what a transition, oh, what a change. God help us’ [‘così dopo tanti anni si finisce. Oh che passaggio, oh che mutazione. Iddio ci aiuti’] [12]

Jacopo Palma il Giovane (1544-1628), Adoration of the brazen serpent, 1598, o/copper, 70 x 98.5 cm.; cat. 17

He sent a few further pictures, two of which were Italian. Their frames feature richly carved and gilded pierced foliage decoration set on a black ground, somewhat like those illustrated above. Jacopo Palma the younger’s Adoration of the brazen serpent of 1598 (cat. 17) is housed in a deep black frame, a reframing probably dating to shortly before Lidovino’s acquisition, with a frieze of gilded leaf ornament set between inner and outer gilt mouldings. The frame has been regilded at some stage.

Francesco Curradi (1570-1661), Holy Family, early 1600s, o/c, 65 x 52 cm.; cat. 76

Francesco Curradi’s Holy Family (cat. 76) also has a deep black frame, perhaps made of pearwood, stained and polished, with top and sight edge of gilded ripple mouldings; the hollow frieze has very fine repeating gilt strapwork and foliage, set between black ripple mouldings. The distinctive curving gilt corner ornaments, like the tail of a scorpion or some other organism, are somewhat Auricular in type.

Lidovino in Trento, 1653-80

Lidovino left Innsbruck late in 1652 and settled in Trento. Having to move there permanently, he told his brother, aroused in him an

‘…incredible and unspeakable aversion of spirit, antipathy to the place, and extreme sorrow.’ [13]

Nevertheless, he refurbished the provost’s palace in Trento, the Palazzo della Prepositura, and sent his brother a few further pictures [14]. Documentation is limited, but amongst payments in the early 1660s was one to

‘Tisler per delle cornici’ [to Tisler for frames] and another for nails ‘to hang the paintings in the gallery’ [15]

Jacob Marrel (1614-81), Flowers in a vase, 1655, o/copper, 36 x 25 cm.; cat. 101

The ivory frames on a pair of small paintings on copper, Flowers in a vase (cat. 101), date from Lidovino’s period in Trento. They were painted in Frankfurt in 1655 by the Frankfurt and Utrecht artist/dealer, Jacob Marrel – who was, incidentally, the stepfather of the artist, Maria Sibylla Merian. These flowerpieces, undocumented in Lidovino’s lifetime, were recorded in 1774 as having ‘belle cornici d’avorio’ [fine ivory frames] in a detailed inventory drawn up by the Sienese scholar, Giovan Girolamo Carli (published as an appendix to the catalogue) [16].

Jacob Marrel (1614-81), Flowers in a vase, a pair, 1655, o/copper, 36 x 25 cm.; cat. 101

The frames, with a frieze of a four-deep wave ornament, have gilt wood acanthus leaf clasps set at right angles in the centre of each side. More remarkably, the ivory mouldings are cut through to either side of these clasps and outset so that they stand proud of their setting by a fraction. Given the long German tradition of works in ivory, these exceptional frames were probably made for the pictures in Frankfurt, or in another German ivory-working centre such as Augsburg, in 1655 or soon afterwards. In the same inventory there were four pietre dure flowerpieces with ivory frames, but these are no longer known [17].

Lidovino’s palazzo in Trento was singled out in 1673 in Michelangelo Mariani’s Trento con il sacro Concilio as a remarkable palace. Lidovino’s nephew, Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1643-89), wrote home in 1676 that he had been his uncle’s guest in Trento and had found

‘…a house so well built’ and filled with ‘precious paintings and other noble curiosities.’ [18]

Antonio Piccolomini in Trento, 1680-1709

Following Lidovino’s death at the age of 69 in 1680, another nephew, Antonio Piccolomini (1657-1709), succeeded as Provost and to the collection in Trento. The Piccolomini Spannocchi collection as it is today includes several poorly-documented pictures with late 17^th century Italian frames. These could perhaps have been framed for Antonio. At his death in 1709, some 155 pictures were removed from Trento to Siena, whilst various artefacts were sold to pay his debts.

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (c.1500-c.1569), Head of a young man, c.1540-60?, o/panel, 33.5 x 22.5 cm.; cat. 8

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli’s Head of a young man (cat. 8) has a frame with gilded running husks at the top edge and scrolling acanthus leaves on the central ogee, all set on a black ground (the husks at top right have been renewed). It seems to have been made for the picture in the late 17^th century. The picture itself, mid-16^th century in date, is tentatively included in the catalogue in the section on Mantua pictures. It appears to be a study for a three-quarter length at Knole in Kent, on loan to the National Trust, An unknown youth, once called Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, attributed to Bedoli.

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (attrib.; c.1500-c.1569), Madonna & Child with John the Baptist and angels, c.1557?, o/c, 84 x 53 cm.; cat. 7

The Madonna & Child with John the Baptist and angels, also attributed to Bedoli (cat. 7), and the Ecce Homo, attributed to Felice Brusasorci (cat. 55), have matching 17^th century Auricular frames in the Medici style, of a sort seen in the Pitti Palace collection in Florence. They are decorated with great scrolling leaves, but with the distinguishing feature of a gadrooned sight edge.

Felice Brusasorci (attrib.; 1539/40-1605), Ecce Homo, c.1590?, o/c, 81 x 54 cm.; cat. 55

The frame of the Madonna & Child was made for the painting, whilst the Ecce Homo was cut down to fit the frame. The presence of the gadrooning on the sight edge points to a late 17^th century origin.

 

Siena and Mantua

The Spannocchi collection in Siena seems to have originated in 1565 with the acquisition of several preparatory cartoons by Domenico Beccafumi for scenes in the marble floor of the Duomo in Siena. These cartoons, displayed at the Pinacoteca in Siena, are the subject of a catalogue essay. Of some fifty other paintings originally in the Spannocchi collection, twenty-three remain, mainly Italian, mostly with fairly standard gilt or ochred frames, not reproduced here.

Mantua was celebrated for the famous gallery of the Gonzaga ruling family. In the late 1620s King Charles I purchased the best of the Gonzaga pictures and had them transported to London, and then in 1630 Mantua was plundered by the Imperial troops during the Thirty Years War. Some pictures were taken, apparently without their frames, and then subsequently reframed. The Mantua collection is the subject of a detailed essay in the catalogue by Stefano L’Occaso. [19]. Certain of the looted paintings were later acquired by Lidovino Piccolomini, through family connections – as is apparent from his correspondence – but quite which paintings in the collection as it is today have a Mantuan provenance is open to review. Indeed, it is quite possible that several pictures catalogued in the Mantuan section of the catalogue may have been acquired by Lidovino whilst in Innsbruck, with some other provenance.

Albrecht Dürer (attrib.; 1471-1528), St Jerome, 1514, o/panel, 33.2 x 25.6 cm.; cat. 20

Examples include St Jerome, attributed to Albrecht Dürer (cat. 20) and the Portrait of a jeweller, described as 16^th century Flemish or German (cat. 25), both with frames, perhaps altered, with gilded ripple mouldings on a black ground, not unlike some of those already discussed.

16^th century Flemish or German school, Portrait of a jeweller, c.1540s?, o/ panel, 65 x 45.5 cm.; cat. 25

In summary, the great achievement of the exhibition of the Spannocchi Piccolomini collection in Siena – and the accompanying catalogue – is to have reunited an unusual collection of significance both in the history of collecting and in the history of picture framing.

Jacob Simon

November 2025

All the images of works in the collection are the author’s own.

*******************

See also the article in Finestre sull’Arte, ‘A treasure reunited‘, 24 May 2021

[1] See the book, La collezione Piccolomini Spannocchi, Pacini Editore, 2021, 519 pp.; 118 catalogue entries, documentary appendices

[2] Francesca Scialla, ‘Nuovi documenti senesi sulla collezione di Lidovino Piccolomini tra Innsbruck e Trento, in La Collezione Piccolomini Spannocchi’, in La collezione Piccolomini Spannocchi, cited in note 1, pp. 61-78

[3] Ibid., pp. 64-65

[4] Ibid., pp. 74-75. Translations into English are those of the author

[5] Ibid., p. 73

[6] Ibid., p. 66

[7] Ibid., p. 67

[8] Ibid., p. 71

[9] Ibid., p. 68, n. 51

[10] Reproduced by Helge Siefert, Rahmen Kunst: Auf Spurensuche in der Alten Pinakothek, 2010, p. 75

[11] See Marilena Mosco, Medici Frames: Baroque Caprice for the Medici Princes, Florence 2007, p. 96

[12] Scialla, cited in note 2, p. 71

[13] Ibid. p. 64

[14] Ibid. pp. 71, 73

[15] Ibid. p. 74

[16] La collezione Piccolomini Spannocchi, cited in note 1, p. 436, nos 56, 58

[17] Ibid. p. 436, nos 61, 63, 68, 70

[18] Ibid. p. 75

[19] Stefano L’Occaso, ‘Le collezioni Gonzaga e il sacco di Mantova’, in La collezione Piccolomini Spannocchi, cited in note 1, pp. 43-60