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Lot Essay
This frame was designed for the engraving of The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, which Ernest Gambart published in 1867. It was adapted from the frame of the painting, by Frederic George Stephens, a close friend of Hunt's and former studio assistant, who discussed the frame in a pamphlet of 1860.
When the oil painting went on view in London in the spring of 1860 the critic of the Manchester Guardian noted that 'the symbols have overflowed the picture, and expended themselves all over the frame'. The frame for the engraving is less elaborate than that of the painting, but both include the crescent moon and blazing sun carved in the centre of the top rail to suggest the passing of the Old (Testament) Dispensation and the resplendent New Dispensation of Christ. Both also include in the top left-hand corner a snake entwined around a cross, alluding to the brazen serpent of Mosaic law (Numbers 21: 8-9). At the time this would have been interpreted as a type (or prefiguring) of the Crucixion.
The carver of the frame is unrecorded, but it is almost certainly an employee of the firm of Joseph Green, who was responsible for the frame for the painting.
Christie's wishes to thank Judith Bronkhurst for her assistance with this lot.
When the oil painting went on view in London in the spring of 1860 the critic of the Manchester Guardian noted that 'the symbols have overflowed the picture, and expended themselves all over the frame'. The frame for the engraving is less elaborate than that of the painting, but both include the crescent moon and blazing sun carved in the centre of the top rail to suggest the passing of the Old (Testament) Dispensation and the resplendent New Dispensation of Christ. Both also include in the top left-hand corner a snake entwined around a cross, alluding to the brazen serpent of Mosaic law (Numbers 21: 8-9). At the time this would have been interpreted as a type (or prefiguring) of the Crucixion.
The carver of the frame is unrecorded, but it is almost certainly an employee of the firm of Joseph Green, who was responsible for the frame for the painting.
Christie's wishes to thank Judith Bronkhurst for her assistance with this lot.