A North Italian Renaissance style painted and parcel gilt gesso and wood tabernacle frame, probably Tuscany, incorporating old elements

The present frame evokes the typical type of frames that were produced in Tuscany in the late 15th century with grotesques ornaments. An almost identical frame was in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 07.287.17) and previously belonged to the American architect Stanford White (1853-1906). The later frame is illustrated in Italian Renaissance Frames (T. J. Newbery et al., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1990) and was then dated from the late 15th century.

The first bearer of this name, Hugo, is mentioned in 1136, naming himself after Liechtenstein Castle in the south of Vienna. Across the next few centuries, the family properties enlarged into Lower Austria and South Moravia. From the early 19th century until the Second World War, the Liechtenstein collections were housed and exhibited in the Garden Palace in Vienna. With much strategy involved, the collections largely survived the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the turbulences of World War II. With the reopenings of the Liechtenstein Museum in 2004, the collection was once again put on view for the public to enjoy.