Italian School, early 17th Century

Private collection, Kent.

This elaborately decorated frame, dating to the early seventeenth century, was originally a frame for a painting. The lower half shows scenes from the life of the Virgin, while the upper half displays episodes from the Passion. The iconography suggests that it was once a frame for a religious composition, perhaps a Madonna and Child or a Pietà, both subjects that are missing from the cycle on the frame. The plaster leaf ornament is a later addition, probably added in the nineteenth century.