362 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[September, 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF A VISIT TO WESTMINSTER HALL. 



Witliout liaving at all canvassed tlie opinions of others in regard to 

 this Exliibilioii, I give it as my own that if the public went to it with 

 expectations in any way exciti'd by what has been said and written 

 about fresco-painting during the last two years, they must be not a 

 little disappionted and dissatisfied. The chiaro-seuro cartoons exhi- 

 bited last year were looked upon only as preparatory studies — pro- 

 ductions in an incipient stage of their progress, remaining to be 

 awakened into life and transfigurated into the beauty and poetry of art 

 by the fascination of colour; and, no doubt, most persons conceived 

 that fresco would of course manifest a decided superiority to all other 

 modes of painting, and would accordingly captivate the eye in an un- 

 usual degree by lU prima facie appearance. The present exhibition, 

 on the contrary, shows us fresco-painting itself — at least what it is, 

 and what it is likely to be in the hands of those who have sent their 

 samples of it to Westminster Hall. 



I am aware that very great allowance is to be made for the peculiar 

 circumstances of the case; I was prepared to find defects arising from 

 inexperience in the requisite manipulation and technical process, but 

 not to the extent liere observable, and unaccompanied by the evidence 

 of any of those other qualities which are indispensable in the higher 

 branches of art — the historic and the poetic, since without them what 

 is intended to be grand is almost sure to sink into bombastic bathos. 

 Considered with regard to execution merely, these performances ex- 

 hibit great ciudeness and extravagant tawdriness of colouring, yet 

 feebleness and flatness as to general effect, and not only incorrect but 

 feeble drawing. Considered again, with regard to the more inteUec- 

 tual qualities of the art — conception, composition, expression, senti- 

 ment, they are equally deficient, some of them even absolutely null, as 

 if, not being stipulated for iii their 'bond,' they might be omitted 

 with impunity. Some of the subjects are most miserably namby 

 pamby and mawkish stuff', with just about as much mind or soul dis- 

 played in them as in tbose of the 'Boydell' period, and in the book- 

 plates of forty years ago. 



It will probably be said that I judge far too harshly of works that 

 are avowedly first attempts ami studies in abranch of the art requiring 

 unusual dexterity of pencil ; still it is more surprising tban satisfac- 

 tory to find that so many who, it may be presumed, are tolerable 

 judges of painting should have fallen so much below the mark, or 

 having done so, should have sent their abortions, with all their imper- 

 fections on their lieads, as likely recommendatory specimens of their 

 handiwork, on such an occasion. It seems, however, that I do not see 

 the full extent of the silly presumption and imbecillity of all the aspi- 

 rants to fresco-painting emploi ment, since the catalogue informs us 

 that '• The Commissioners have exercised their judgment in altoge- 

 ther exchuling some of the works submitted to them;" which, if we 

 may judge from many of those they have admitted, must have been 

 vile indeed. 



I do not say, that after such a beginning as we here behold, I ought 

 actually to despair of fresco-painting making any progress in this 

 country ; but I must say that I do not liere perceive anything like that 

 promise which the inunediate occasion requires. All things must 

 liave tbeir beginning, and in the course of time we may have a school 

 of frescanli ; but I should be truly sorry to see Mr. Barry's edifice 

 made, in the interim, a school for embryo artists to practise in, trying 

 their 'prentice hands upon its walls, and covering them with such 

 daubing as we behold in this exhibition. 



On no account ought the Palace of Westminster to be treated as a 

 corpus rile, or pauper patient, on whom it is allowable to make expe- 

 riments, no matter how hazardous, for the benefit of science. I know 

 not how far Mr. Barry himself may relish the idea of his building being 

 turned over to tyro fresco-painters, in order to receive from their 

 hands the finishing touclies of embellishment : or whether, if not 

 exactly satisfied with any of the specimens liere assembled, he is 

 nevertheless gifted with such consolatory prophetic ken as to be able 

 to discern in them talent, boih of mind and hand, that will be suffi- 

 ciently matured for the occasion when the time shall have arrived for 

 commencing actual operations. I only know that was I in his place I 

 should look forward to the latter event with considerable alarm — even 

 with dismay, and be able to take comfort only in despair, in the as- 

 surance derived from it that unless very far more satisfactory evidence 

 of talent for fresco can be produced beforehand, the idea of adopting 

 such embellishment will be postponed sine die. At present there is 

 hardly one thing which would induce me to invest its author with de- 

 corating a few square yards of wall, except in some dark corner or 

 imperfectly lighted passage, where his work would be befriended by 

 shadow m\d gloom. 



At all events, therefore, it is to be hoped that, unless very great 

 advance in all the pre-requisites for fresco-painting shows itself in the 



interim, the Commission of Fine Arts will experimentalize very cau- 

 tiously, and lock the doors of all the principal galleries and apartments 

 against the painters, allowing them to operate at first only on those 

 parts of the interior where failure would be attended with compara- 

 tively little mischief. And on such an important occasion mere de- 

 cent mediocrity must be positive failure ; medium there is none 

 between the dignified and the paltry; and a very long stride in art 

 must be taken by almost every one of the present exhibitors of fresco 

 specimens, ere they can attain the former, and qualify themselves for 

 suitably decorating the new Palace of Westminster. It would be al- 

 most a profanation of the term "Art," to apply it to very many of the 

 tilings sent thither to obtain the suffrages of the public. Not a few of 

 them seem to belong to the now obsolete school of sign-painting, and 

 in regard to subjects, too, miuiy of them are as inappropriate as can 

 well be imagined ; for instance, No. 10, " Beatrice Cenci meditating 

 the murder of her Father." Her ill-favoured expression shows indeed 

 that she is meditating no good — at least, that her meditations are not 

 of the most pleasant kind ; but no one could possibly guess at the sub- 

 ject of them without the Catalogue to [inform him, and when so in- 

 formed, he is not better satisfied with the work itself than before. By 

 way of strong contrast to the preceding, as one of the curiosities of 

 the exhibition, may be pointed out No. 44, which shows us one whose 

 meditations are evidently of a more jovial complexion — of a kind, in- 

 deed, likely to scandalize Father Mathew, he being a jolly old toper 

 regaling himself with a jug of brown ale! The judgment exercised 

 by the Commissioners must surely have been in the same very good- 

 natured condition as this merry old blade himself, when they allowed 

 such a subject to pass muster. After this we should not have been 

 very much startled had we found the moral of " Sairey Gamp" as a 

 candidate for the honour of figuring in fresco. I can account for (he 

 admission of such an alehouse subject only by supposing that it was 

 thought likely to act favourably as a foil to most of the others, render- 

 ing their historic dignity and poetic mysticism all the more impres- 

 sive by comparison with it. Still it was rather dangerous to do what 

 looks like throwing ridicule upon the whole affair. 



As to the taste shown in the ornamental borderings to some of the 

 frescos, I can safely aver that I have frequently seen very much better 

 in patterns of paper-hangings for rooms. Some of them are vulgarly 

 tawdry, others mean, insignificant, and ineffective. 



Taking it altogether, 1 am opinion that its very unsatisfactoriness 

 may be in some degree beneficial, as it must open the eyes of the 

 Commissioners, of artists themselves, and of the public, to the real 

 state of matters, and convince them that, unless very much better ear- 

 nest of talent for fresco and historic painting can be obtained, it would 

 be little less than madness to think of it for the embellishment — alias 

 degrading — so noble an architectural pile as, when completed, will be 

 the Palace of Westminster. Should, by-and-bye, any of the Commis- 

 sioners themselves feel perfect confidence as to ultimate success, it is 

 to be hoped that they will impart some degree of it to the public by 

 affording some of the artists most likely to be engaged in the scheme 

 of decorating that national edifice the opportunity of proving their 

 qualifications for the important task, by confiding to their pencil the 

 walls of even a single room in their own mansions. Such course 

 would, at all events, show their sincerity and their patriotism. 



Z. 



DOCKRAY'S SELF-ACTING RAILWAY SIGNAL. 



Sir — Upon perusing the 5th volume of your Journal, I observed at 

 page 115, a description accompanied by a sketch of the above inven- 

 tion, in which there appears an inconsistency; to point this out it may 

 be necessary, (to save the trouble of reference), to explain the princi- 

 ple upon which it acts ; its first impulse is from the weight of a pass- 

 ing train depressing a pin, communicating by a bell ciank a connecting 

 rod to a lever which raises a piston in a cylinder, which piston upon 

 fulling by its own gravity, expels the air trom beneath it by degrees, 

 according to some regulated time. To the piston rod is attached 

 wheel work, which causes a band to rotate on a dial, showing to an 

 after train how many minutes the other has preceded it — this arrange- 

 ment would be excellent but for one circumstance, viz., tliat wlien a 

 train has passed and pressed down the pin, tbe connecting rod before 

 mentioned has moved to its place, there is a catch which holds it in 

 that position, and the lever which has raised the piston is therefore 

 prevented from allowing it to fall, thereby causing the stoppage of 

 the whole apparatus. 



If these remarks are not too late, by inserting them you will oblige, 

 Your constant subscriber. 



Bow Street, Covent Garden. J. Jones, Jun. 



