1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



95 



cellent and original, we imist like them seek for original types in the works 

 of nature. 



That such a course of study would be analogous to the practice by which 

 the ancients themselves attained so high a reach of perfection, we have suffi- 

 cient proof. Nothing in art can be imagined more conventional than the 

 orders of architecture, and yet Vilruvius endeavours to derive them all from 

 simple principles. Vitruvius sufficiently indicates it to have been a received 

 principle that the m6st conventional forms — and a more conventional form 

 than the Corinthian capital it would be difl!ic\ilt to point out, were supposed 

 to have been originally suggested by the forms and accidents of nature. 



To follow up the subject of these remarks, would open a boundless field of 

 inquiry. I offer them in the present instance merely as prefatory to a few 

 observations on the arabesque style of decoration, illustrated by a short re- 

 view of the arabesques in the Loggia of the Vatican, of which the engravings 

 are liefore you. I propose to inquire how far the artists who designed and 

 c-\eeuted these arabesques have been indebted to the antique, and how far 

 they have modiiied the hints derived from that source, so as to adopt their 

 compositions to the purposes they are destined to fulfil. 



In speaking of these sorts of compositions as arabestiues, I of course adopt 

 the term as it is commonly understood, and need not explain that we disre- 

 gard both the etymology and the meaning of the term in applying it to the 

 paintings and stuccoes of antiquity, which represent not only foliage and 

 fruits, but also beasts of every species, and imaginary creatures combined and 

 interlaced together. These decorations have also acquired the name of gro- 

 tesque, from the grottoes or underground buildings in which they have been 

 found — a term we have perverted still more from the sense in which the 

 Italians invented it. 



It is remarkable, that the only mention Vitruvius makes of this style of 

 decoration is in^reprobation of it — but he describes it so accurately, that the 

 passage is worth repeating, if for no other reason. After pointing out and 

 classifying what he considers legitimate objects for painting walls, such as 

 architectural compositions, landscapes, gardens and sea pieces — the figures 

 of the gods, and subjects drawn from mythology, and the poems of Homer. 

 He proceeds thus, " I know not by what caprice it is, that the rules of the 

 ancients — (observe, that Vitruvius looks up to the ancients in his day, that 

 is to say, to the Greeks) — who took truth for the model of their paintings, 

 are no longer followed. Nothing is now painted upon walls but monsters, 

 instead of true and natural objects. Instead of columns we have slender 

 reeds, which support a complication of flimsy stems and leaves twisted into 

 volutes. Temples are supported on candelabra, whence rises, as from a root, 

 fobagc on which figures are seated. In another place we have demi-figiires 

 issuing from flowers, some with human faces, others with the heads of beasts, 

 all things which are not, never have been, nor ever can be. For my own 

 part, I hold that painting is to be esteemed only so far as it represents the 

 truth. It is not sufficient that objects be well painted — it is also necessary 

 that the design be consonant to reason and in no respect ofl'ensive to good 

 sense." Pliny also laments that in his time, gaudy colouring and quaint 

 forms w^ere held in greater estimation than the real beauties of art. But w ith 

 all deference be it spoken, there is another side to the question, which these 

 great authorities seem to have overlooked. Conventional decorations of this 

 kind were within the reach of thousands to whom paintings in the higher 

 branches of art were inaccessible, and a more general diffusion of taste must 

 have been at once the cause and eff'ect of their universal adoption— how uni- 

 versal, the remains of Pompeii reveal to us. If we examine the ancient ara- 

 besques independently of these prejudices, we shall find endless beauty, variety 

 and originality ; graceful details combined in consistent and ingenious mo- 

 tives and analogies, and great skill and freedom in the mode of execution. 

 We shall also find reason to doubt whether the introduction of the ar.ibesque 

 style really had the effect of discouraging painting of a higher class, since 

 even at Pompeii, poetical compositions of great merit are frequently combined 

 with the lighter ground work of the general decoration. 



However fanciful and capricious the arabesque style may at first sight ap- 

 pear to be, there can be no doubt that it may be treated according to the 

 general fi.xed principles of art, and that the artist will be more or less suc- 

 cessful as he keeps these principles in view. A due balance of the composi- 

 tion is essential, so that the heavier parts may sustain the lighter thiough 

 every gradation, and there must be such a disposition as not to cover too 

 much or too little of the ground. Unity of design is to be studied in a con- 

 nexion of the parts with each other, and in the harmony of the details and 

 accessories, which ought as much as possible to tend so some general aim. 

 It woidd lead us much too far to enter upon the subject of colour — but it may 

 just be observed, that in the ancient decorative painting, the balance of colour 

 is strictly attended to. Their walls usually exhibit a gradation of dark pian- 

 nels in the lower part— a breadth of .the most brilliant colours in the middle 



and principal division, and a light ground thinly spread with decoration in 

 the upper part and in the ceiling— an arrangement dictated by the natural 

 effects of light and shade, and reflection. As lightness and grace are the pe- 

 culiar attributes of arabesque, the foliage which forms its most fertile resource 

 should never be overloaded; its details and modes of ramification ought to 

 be drawn from nature. The poems of Schiller and other Gennan authors 

 have lately been published with a profusion of arabesque decoration in the 

 margin, which are well worthy of attention, both for the ingenuity with 

 which they are rendered illustrative of the text, and for the accuracy, the 

 botanical accuracy, with which some of the foliage and flowers are represented, 

 and which form one of the greatest charms of these clever and original com- 

 positions. 



Although the paintings in the Loggia of Vatican pass under the name of 

 Raflaelle, it is not pretended that they are the work of his hand, nor were his 

 designs. He was indeed the originator and director of the whole, and tlie 

 character and influence of his taste is visibly stamped on every part. But 

 his coadjutors in the work were artists whose names are inferior to none in 

 the Roman school but his own, such as Guolano Romanino, Perino del Vaga, 

 Benvenuto Tisi, and others, who were occupied not only in the execution but 

 the invention of the details. Francesco Penni, and Andrea da Salerno are 

 particularly noticed as being employed for the figures. Giovanni da Udino 

 for the fruits and flowers, and Polidoro Caravaggio for the releivos. It may 

 be worth digressing to mention, that M. Quatremcre de Quincy is of opinion 

 that the sculptures of the Parthenon were produced by similar means, Phidias 

 there peiforming exactly the same part as Raffaelle in the Vatican — and it 

 IS indisputable that the combination of unity of design, with variety of detail 

 which characterizes gothic architecture, could have been produced only by 

 the same system, and by employing the minds as well as the hands, of those 

 Ijy whom the decorations were executed. When we see perfection attained 

 in three distinct styles of art, in three distinct ages, by means precisely simi- 

 lar, it is not too much to assume that these means are probably the right 

 ones. 



The Loggi ofa Raffaelle. as you will see by the large section w hich forms one 

 of the permanent ornaments of this room, is an arcade in thirteen compart- 

 ments. The arches are open, or at least were so originally, toward the court 

 of which the Loggia forms one side. The opposite side, that namely which 

 is represented in the drawing before you, is a wall pierced with windows, one 

 in each arch, giving light to the suite of rooms which contain the great 

 frescoes of the prince of painters. The ceiling of each compartment forms a 

 square cove, on the sides of which are the pannels containing the series of 

 scriptural paintings, the engravings from which are known as Rartaelle's 

 bible. These are his own designs, and some are known to have been touched 

 with his own hand. Both the lateral and cross arches are supported by 

 pilasters about 16 (feet high, panelled, and decorated with coloured arabes- 

 ques on a white ground. It is to these pilasters the present remarks will be 

 confined. Each pilaster on the w all side is flanked by a half pilaster, in w hich 

 the arabesque is carried through on a smaller .scale of composition. 



The description of these pilasters will be taken in the order in which Vol- 

 pato has engraved them, that is to say, beginning on the side next the wall. 

 I. Notwithstanding the great variety in the composition and details of these 

 works, we shall find a general unity of design pervading throughout, with 

 the exception of the last five of the series, which will be particularly noticed 

 in their turn. Whatever form the composition may take, it is rendered sub- 

 servient to the introduction of four medallions, or tablets relieved from the 

 back ground in stucco, of contrasted shapes — one like an antique shield — the 

 next circular — the third rectangular — and the fourth spindle-shaped. These 

 medallions occupy the upper part of the pilaster to the extent of about one- 

 third of the w hole panel, whde the lower part, to the height of the dado, or 

 somewhat higher, is generally filled in such a manner as to afford a weight 

 nf colour, sufficient to support itself by the side of that member of the archi- 

 tecture, and the marbles introduced into its panels, following in this respect 

 the practice of the ancients. These medallions might appear to violate the 

 due balance of the arabesques if they were identified with them— but the com- 

 position is rescued from that fault, by the separate character given to the 

 decoration of the medalhons, and by their being detached, and hung as it 

 were, independently upon the back ground. In the general arrangement of 

 the whole, these medallions perform a most important part, connecting the 

 pilasters with the panelled stuccoes adjoining, by their relief, and by means 

 of an accordant style of decoration and a similarity in the subjects repre- 

 sented upon them, neither of which could have been well embodied in the 

 arabesque itself. 



It must be admitted that these compositions considered separately are 

 somewhat unequal, and the examples to be first passed in review are by no 

 means the best, but instruction may be derived from a consideration of their 



