416 



EXHIBITION, BRITISH INDUSTRIAL. 



nesses, the centres of the outer planks covering 

 the joints of the inner ones. 



" I therefore decided on following the form 

 of the construction, and adopted panellings of 

 blue and red alternately, relieved by colored 

 lines, intersected at the joints by circles of 

 black on which are gold stars, and from these 

 spring ornaments in vellum color with green in 

 the filling, to make the constructicn evident, 

 and I therefore colored the two outer edges in 

 chequers of black and vellum color, and the 

 centre edge full red. As to the bracings above 

 the polygonal arches I colored them the warm- 

 wood color, with red or blue colored lines on 

 the face, and the under thicknesses red. 



"I decided on warm gray for the roof of the 

 nave to give space and lightness ; and on its sur- 

 face I introduced an upright scroll ornament 

 in red, with gold, star-like rosettes, sparingly 

 introduced. My object in this ornament was 

 to raise the apparent pitch of the roof, and to 

 relieve and warm the effect of the gray. The 

 horizontal purlins, on the contrary, I kept 

 purposely light, so as not to depress the rise of 

 the roof, or interfere with or confuse the effect 

 of the principals. The ridge piece of the roof, 

 in itself comparatively small, I marked as 

 strongly as possible, as the apex, in black and 

 vellum white, en chevronne ; on each side I 

 colored a margin of maroon red, and a little 

 below that a bordering of very warm green, 

 shaped to accord with the top scrolls of the 

 red vertical ornament, the green being relieved 

 with rosettes of gold color. At the base of 

 the slope of roof this green is again introduced 

 in much the same way, and the band of maroon 

 also. Below this are the clerestory windows. 



"The next important features in the nave 

 are the iron columns, supporting the principals 

 as well as the galleries, painted pale bronze 

 color, relieved with gold color vertical lines. 

 The capitals are gilt ; the grounds of the orna- 

 ments being picked in rich red or blue alter- 

 nately; the centre blocks of the columns are 

 also colored red, with bands of blue, or, vice 

 versa, the mouldings being gilt, and the same 

 style of color is continued to the bases. The 

 top plate above the columns is painted bronze 

 color, relieved with light gold color ornament 

 on the upper _ part, and a Vitruvian scroll in 

 gold color, with a maroon red base on the 

 lower part. 



"The gallery railings are light bronze color, 

 the rose, shamrock, and thistle ornaments being 

 partly gilt, and the whole backed with deep 

 red cloth. The plate under the gallery is 

 painted oak color, relieved with deep brown 

 interlaced ornaments. 



"1 have kept the part below the line of 

 arches purposely quiet in color, in order that 

 the brilliancy and richness of the various ar- 

 ticles exhibited may not be interfered with. 

 The roof, on the contrary, is rather vivid in 

 color, to carry up, as it were, in some degree, 

 the gayety of the scene below ; and this will be 

 Ptill further sustained by a series of banners of 



the various countries whose products are as- 

 sembled in this International Exhibition. 



" In the roof of the Upper church of Assisi, 

 in the chapel of St. Corporale, of Orvieto, in 

 the choir of Santa Croce at Florence, and in 

 the Palazzo Spinola, examples are to be found 

 of counterchanging of coloring, and in the 

 roof of the cathedral of Lucca, of the chevro- 

 neze of black and gold. 



"Those decorations, so beautiful, so inter- 

 esting, rich, glowing in color, full of fancy 

 and taste in the ornament, the masses well ar- 

 ranged, show the most perfect harmony every- 

 where, and are dignified by often acting as the 

 framework of the highest gems of art. 



"My principal difficulty in carrying out the 

 decoration of the domes was, that I could see 

 nothing of them. The scaffold formed a series 

 of solid stages or floors, through which it was 

 impossible to view anything ; and I confess I 

 never could mount the ladders above one hun- 

 dred feet ; but even there the scaffolding was 

 so thick that I could see nothing of the top, and 

 very little of the cornice, facia, and walls. 



" At last, Mr. Ashton, the engineer, contrived 

 to get for me an open square box, into which 

 I got, and I was drawn up by means of las 

 beautiful little engine very pleasantly to the 

 top; yet when I got there the ceiling almost 

 touched my head, so that I had no opportunity 

 of judging beforehand of the effect of distance 

 and light upon my coloring, and I knew well 

 that they were very formidable elements for 

 consideration. The knowledge that the scaf- 

 fold would be taken down before I could pos- 

 sibly judge of the effect, and that when once 

 down, I could never hope to touch my deco- 

 ration again, caused me many an anxious 

 thought. 



" In coloring the top of the domes, the main 

 ribs are painted bright red, with spaced black 

 and white at the edges, and a fine gold line up 

 the centre spreads at intervals of about four 

 feet into lozenges and circles containing gilt 

 stars on a blue ground ; where the main rings 

 reach the ring plate I carry round the red, 

 marking the points of intersection with black 

 and white; thence the eight main ribs are 

 painted deep blue, relieved with red, gold, and 

 black, nntil they meet in the centre pipe or 

 pendant, which is gilt bordered with red. The 

 shaped covering, or umbrella, as I am accus- 

 tomed to call it, is painted light blue; gold 

 color and gilt rays diverging from the centre 

 and streaming a considerable way down the 

 blue, the shaped outline of which is bordered 

 with red and gold ornament. 



"In decorating the walls of the domes, the 

 solid parts between the arches, and the spring- 

 ing of the roof, it was necessary to consider 

 the probable effect of the great mass of light 

 above. On the one hand it was desirable to 

 sustain it with sufficient strength of color, on 

 the other it would be dangerous to make it too 

 heavy. 



" The moulding of the cornice and facia are 



