A Closer Look Frames Nicholas Penny

Formerly part of the popular "Pocket Guides" series, "Frames" is published in a new edition as "A Closer Look", with a wealth of beautiful reproductions. This informative guide offers an insight into the various forms of frame housing some of the finest paintings in the National Gallery Collection. Frames often catch the eye of visitors to galleries, yet labels and catalogues rarely comment on them. In this elegant survey, Nicholas Penny conveys his passionate interest in the history of frames, the design and techniques of frame-making, what frames do for paintings and the part they play in an interior. The emphasis is on their changing function as well as the different styles, materials and techniques employed. This book is illustrated by frames from the National Gallery's magnificent collection, which has some of the finest examples of the frame-makers craft, reflecting the taste of individual artists and collectors over the centuries.

Nicholas Penny is Director of the National Gallery, London. He was previously Senior Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. He has published widely on painting and sculpture, including Giotto to Durer (Yale 1991); The Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum (1992); The Materials of Sculpture (Yale 1993) and the National Gallery Catalogues of Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings, vols I (2004) and II (2008).

"An excellent series, 'A Closer Look at...', which guides us through the collections of the National Gallery...so lavishly illustrated, they represent very good value for money indeed"
-Michael Glover, The Independent

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