Watch ‘Picture Frames: History, Purpose and Hidden Significance’

GK Chesterton asserted that “the essence of every picture is the frame”, but how often have you noticed the frames on the paintings?

Designer and architectural historian Alexander Wyndham Ashworth discussed changing tastes and theories in how to present a painting, highlighting some fine examples (and the odd horror) in the Inn’s own collection. The lecture demonstrated how a frame can perfect or ruin a painting and how it can be used to trace a painting’s history.