Gilding (also known as gold ground) refers to the use of real or imitation gold in a painting. It was a common feature in medieval and Byzantine art, especially in mosaic, illuminated manuscripts and panel paintings.
In 1907, the Symbolist artist Gustav Klimt created this portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer in his “Golden Period”. The painting demonstrates how Klimt’s use of gold paid tribute to centuries of traditional art.
Golden leafed bronze animal sculptures
Bronze is an inherently durable alloy, and with proper care it can last for decades and centuries. It is not a material that lends itself to any particular era or style, and its versatility makes it an ideal choice for modern furniture, gardens, and fountains. The animal sculptures offered by Kunst und Ambient vary in size – making them appropriate for rooms, terraces, and gardens – and in style, from traditional to modern. They also include military statues and erotic nudes.
Many bronze statues that look gilded are actually painted. A clever restorer can use high quality enamel paint that looks exactly like gold-leaf. This is often done if a statue has been damaged or if it needs to be touched up. It is much cheaper than restoring the original patina and it will last just as long.
The exhibition features works by artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and highlights the rich collection of the museum’s holdings of the artist’s works. The exhibit is accompanied by a scholarly publication and a lecture series. The event is free and open to the public.
Gilded relief painting replicas
There is nothing like a gilded painting to capture the spirit of an era. However, a recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is curiously reticent about exploring the relationship between art and its era. Instead, it offers a hodgepodge of artworks, many by lesser lights, and focuses on the rare work of Thomas Eakins. This is a missed opportunity to present a fresh and nuanced view of the period.
Amid these crosscurrents, artists embraced the materiality of their craft by embellishing paintings and sculpture with floral garlands, elaborate carvings, and gold leaf to elevate their religious subjects and enlarge their visual vocabularies. Gilded, Carved, and Embossed is the first book to showcase frames as Tranh thu phap works of art in their own right and to demonstrate how these antique frames informed the choices made by their paintings.
At Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center, framer Albert Lewis is responsible for hand-crafting the frames that encase the works of art displayed there. His skill in water gilding is apparent in the sparkling results of his labors: four paintings — Street Scene: Enterprise by William Wallace Wotherspoon, Chelsea Houses by James McNeill Whistler, Portrait of Ida Weher as a Young Woman by John Hoppner, and Coastal Scene with Fort Dumpling and an Ocean Scene by William Trost Richards — are now encased in dazzling gilt frames.