PICTURES 397

Mounts or Mats. Water colors and prints of all types are usu-
ally mounted on mats before framing. Oil paintings are sometimes
mounted, but this is not a general custom. When a picture is hung
against a patterned wall paper, a wide mount is usually necessary.
A mat also improves a picture that is crowded with many objects
and has little background, or one that has much movement and
carries the eye too abruptly to the frame.

The color of a mat may be white, a neutral tone lighter than the
frame, slightly darker than the lights in the picture, or a more un-
common color, such as dark brown, Tuscan red, black or silver,
depending on the room and the picture. See pages 120 and 259.
A mat may be covered with a -fabric drawn tightly over it and
held in place on the back of the mat with quick-drying household
cement procurable in tubes. The best fabrics are grass cloth, raw
silk, pongee, shantung, homespun linen, and velvet. Any appro-
priate fabric with interesting texture can be used.

Unusual materials such as marbleized wall paper, wall board,
leatherette, thin wood, cork, mirror, metal, or matting would make
appropriate mats for certain pictures and certain rooms. See
page 171.

The size of the mat depends upon the size and type of the pic-
ture, upon the space where it is to be hung, and upon the scale of
the furnishing in the whole room. A picture that is a horizontal
rectangle should have the narrowest margin at the top, medium
margins at the sides, and the widest margin at the bottom. An
upright rectangle has the medium margin at the top, the narrowest
at the sides, and the widest at the bottom. A square picture usually
has the same margin at the top and sides and a wider one at the
bottom. A 4-inch top margin on a mat for a water color about
16 by 20 inches is reasonable. The tendency is now to use a large
mat in order to increase the size of the framed picture. Since a
wall is such a large area decorators consider that only large pic-
tures have any architectural significance,

It is he uful to study the mats and frames on the pictures at con-
temporary exhibits, although it should be realized that the aim of
the picture gallery is to display the pictures as advantageously as
possible under crowded conditions. The home, on the other hand,
employs pictures merely as notes in interior decoration for the
purpose of enriching the total effect.