Hello Gaston,

If your goal is to restore the original appearance of the frame, it would be more accurate to use traditional molding techniques instead of trying to model it in 3D.
Here is a link (it's in French) that describes the basic operations and needed materials :

http://www.pascalrosier.com/conseil/exemples/cadre/cadre.htm

Like Michael said, it's kind of hard to model these things with MoI, specially when they are altered by time or aging processes.

There may be an interesting link demonstrating how to achieve a Corinthian column with Form-Z.
Some of the techniques shown are quite similar to what you would do in MoI (ex. using sweep to draw a leave ).
And it's not to far from some types of ornaments found on frames.

http://formz.com/downloads/video/video.php?action=small&id=37

Good luck with your project,

-Michel