> with no funny code ?
Sorry, you need funny code because its not supported directly in the API.
There are solution where you draw the image yourself, or where you use a Border as the image.
Search the forum using "background image" and you should find some of these solutions.
You might consider using a JLabel to display the image
ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon("images/myImage.gif")
JLabel label = new JLabel("con )
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.add(label);