1845.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



125 



to mention some facts regarding the history of polychrome in England, iiy 

 a canon of the Second Council ofCalcuith, held in 816, every bibliop was 

 enjoined to paint the saints to whom a church is dedicated, either on the 

 wall, on a board, or on the altar, before consecrating it. 'Jervasius (de \ it. 

 St. Dunst.) describes St. Dunstan as a skilful jiainter; and the same writer, 

 in his Chronica, mentions the " ca-luui-egregii' dcpictum" of the old cathedral 

 built by Lanfranc, at Canterbury. Mr. P. then read an extract from Mr. 

 Dawson Turner's work on the topography of Norfolk, in which the author 

 throws out a hint that the position of that county may have given rise to tlic 

 decided resemblance to the elder Dutch school which characterises many of 

 these works. He proceeded to enumerate various frescoes from several 

 churches figured in Carter's Ancient Sc^ilpturc and Painting in England. As 

 an instance of the ancient practice of colouring monumenlal brasses, he 

 pointed out a remarkably fine one in Elsing Church, Norfolk, given in Carter, 

 and noticed the traces of colour remaining on the lectern in Eton college 

 chapel. He also noticed the use of tapestry in decorating churches, adopted 

 in most countries to this day. In conclusion, Mr. Patterson coincided with 

 a remark which fell from Mr. Freeman at the last meeting of the Society, 

 that Overbeck, Cornelius, and the Munich school should be our models, as 

 aflFording, to his own mind, a combination of the best characteristics of the 

 later ecclesiastical style, with those of the great sccularizers, RatTaelle and 

 his successors ; he would go so far as to deprecate any but a sparing use of 

 half-tints, and even of chiaro-oscuro, in any attempts to restore polychrome 

 to its legitimate position in this country. 



Mr. Freeman presented some drawings " of Si. ifary's, Leicesler, givhir/ 

 an nccounl of llie church," which is a highly interesting one, originally of 

 Romanesque character, of which style the old chancel, with its magnifient 

 sedilia, a rare feature at that date, is a valuable specimen. In the nave, 

 early-English arches have been cut through the Romanesque walls, and a 

 very large aisle added to the south. He called the attention of the Society 

 to the church at the present time, on account of some restorations being in 

 progress, which he could not approve, althougli he would attribute their de- 

 ficiencies rather to the want of skill and funds, than to any lack of gooid 

 spirit on the part of those concerned. Among other errors, he more part - 

 cularly alluded to the patching the noble oak roofs with deal, and to the in- 

 tention of setting up a fine parclose screen, (already taken down,j as a rere- 

 dos to the altar, which is about to be moved from its present position in the 

 great south aisle to its correct place in the chancel. He implored all mem- 

 bera who had any influence in Leicester or its neighbourhood to use it with- 

 out delay in endeavouring to rescue a venerable and already much abused 

 building from further disfigurement. 



ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. 



The Institute have resolved that the Medals of the Institute be awarded 

 next year to the authors of the best Essays on the following subjects : — 



J. On the Adaptation and Modification of the Orders of the Greeks by the 

 Romans and Moderns. 



2. On the History and Manufacture of Bricks. 



Each Essay to be written in a clear and distinct hand, on alternate pages, 

 and to be distinguished by a mark or motto, without any name attached 

 thereto. 



That the Soane Medallion be awarded to the best Design for a Royal 

 Chapel, with seats for five hundred persons inclusive of the suite, attendants, 

 and choir ; the building to be detached, and in a classic Roman, or Italian 

 atyle. 



The drawings of the elevations and two sections, to be to a scale of } of 

 an inch to the foot, — the plans and perspective view to J of an inch to the 

 foot, and tinted with India ink or sepia only. 



The competition is not confined to Members of the Institute. 



DIRECTIONS FOR CANDIDATES.— Each Essay and set of Drawings Is to be ac- 

 foinpanieii by a sealed letter, containing tlie name of the writer within, and on the out- 

 llde the same motto as that attached to the Essay or Drawings -, this is to be enclosed in 

 a sealed envelope, containing an address, to which a communication may be seiit of the 

 decision of the Institute, and directed — 



" To the Honorary Secretaries of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 

 Essay for Medal (or) Drawings for fliedal (Motto)." 



The packet, so prepared and directed, is to be tlelivered at the Rooms of the Institute, 

 on or before the 3Ut of December, 1B45, by 12 o'clock at noon. 



The Council will not consider themselves called upon to adjudge a premium, unless thtf 

 Essays or Drawings be of sufficient merit to deserve that distinction; and, if the best 

 Drawings should be by a candidate who has been successful on a former occasion, the 

 Institute reserve to themselves the power of adjudging such other adequate reward ;i3 

 they may think (it, and of awarding the medals offered to the second m merit. The 

 Essays and Drawings, to which premiums are awarded, become the property of the Insti- 

 tute, to lie published by them if thought lit. In case of the papers not being published 

 nltbiii 18 months after receiving the medals, the authors will be at liberty to publish 

 them. 



Further information may be had on application to the Secretaries. 



DECORATIVE ART SOCIETY. 

 Feb. 26.—" The Interior Decoralioits of the celebrated Collegiate Chapel 

 of St. Stephen, as finished by Edward III. in hin Palace of Westminster, 

 A.D. 1348. By Mr. Crabb, V.P. 



■ The information contained in this paper was derived from Mr. Crahb's 

 acquaintance with the original painting, and with Mr. Lee, who for twenty- 

 five feats VIA the officer in trust of the building that bad foimed the ancieut 



palace. In 1800 the Act of Union rendered it necessary to provide accom- 

 mod,ition for the Irish members, and in taking down the wainscot ling it was 

 discoviTcd that the walls of the House of Commons were covered with paint- 

 ings and gilding. Copies of those at the east end were taken and published 

 by Mr. Smith, in 1807, as also by the Antiquarian Society. Extensive dis- 

 coveries were subsequently made, and Mr. Lee eventually obtained sufticient 

 information to trace out the original plan of the painted decorations which 

 had .idorned this chapel, and to restore them in a miniature series of watcr- 

 colniir drawings. Mr. Crabb described the localities of the ancient palace, 

 the decorations of various apartments, particularly the chamber of the Holy 

 Cross, built by Henry 111. and adorned with historical paintings, and which 

 coniinued to be used as a council-room to the time of ({ueen Elizabeth ; also 

 many precepts of this king. In one, he directs "that a list or border shall 

 be made, well painted with images of our Lord, and Angels with incense pots 

 scattered over the border, also the four Evangelists." Another was thought 

 to justify the inference that the paintings ordered to be done in a certain 

 low chamber in the King's garden were intended to be representations of the 

 siege of Antioch, taken by the Christians in the first crusade, 109S,as a book 

 in French on that subject is ordered by a former mandate to be delivered to 

 " Henry the keeper of llie wardrobe, for the Queen's use." The ceiling of 

 the painted chandler of St. Edward's was Hat, and curiously designed with 

 scroll work and the heads of the Prophets, and the seraphim with seven wings, 

 from Isaiah. The w.iUs had been painted with subjects, part of which were 

 battle pieces, taken from the two Books of Maccabees ; these were certainly 

 as old as 1322, probably older, for in a M.S. of Simon Simson and Hugo the 

 Illuminator, in the year 1322, preserved in the library of Benett College, 

 (C.C.C.) Cambridge, there is the following passage : — " At the other end of 

 the city (London) is a monastery of Black Monks, named Westminster, in 

 which all the Kings of England lie buried, and immediately joined is that 

 most famous palace of the king in which is that well-known chamber on 

 whose walls all the histories of the wars of the whole Bible are painted 

 beyond description, and with most complete and perfect inscriptions in 

 French, to the great admiration of all beholders, and with the greatest regal 

 magnificence." Many other records exist where the name of Master William 

 the painter, a monk of Westminster and of Florence, is mentioned, and thus 

 we know he was an Italian. Henry III. was an admirer and encourager of 

 the Fine Arts, and by the Exchequer Mandates we obtain an insight into the 

 nature of the painted decorations in use at this early period, and by the enu- 

 meration of the items in the Exchequer Rolls of Edward I., relative to the 

 first chapel of St. Stephens, such as white lead, red lead, Vermillion, azure, 

 gold and silver, oils and varnishes, we have further proof that oil painting 

 was in use as early as the thirteenth century. 



Mr. Crabb then proceeded to mention, that in conformity with the ancient 

 custom of attaching a chapel to every residence of importance, the first 

 chapel for the use of the palace of Westminster was founded by Stephen, 

 A.D. 1150. And upon Edward III. and his Queen Philippa's return from 

 their conquests in France, they determined to rebudd the chapel with the 

 utmost magnificence in a style that should surpass whatever had been pre- 

 viously attempted in any land. The principle of design upon which the 

 arrangements and decorations of the chapel were made, was explained — with 

 observations upon the richness of dress at the period, and the interest at- 

 tached to these pecidiarly illuminated edifices, raised at a time when the 

 Arts, struggling for existence, yet appear to have held no inconsiderable 

 power over the warlike taste of the period. Bearing in mind this feeling for 

 magnificent cflfect, we can easily understand the desire for its extension to 

 buildings and architectural embellishments by an assimilating sumptuousness 

 of style in coloured decorations — and much more easily the plan of the 

 design adopted for his Chapel Royal, produced on the principle that no work 

 of beauty "should be void of signification," the architectural design would 

 be formed in conjunction with the sculptured and pictorial embellishments. 

 The chapel consisted of a nave without aisles, the roof rising to a very high 

 pitch, the five windows on each side were remarkably enlarged by deep 

 splayings, and thus a striking and peculiar effect was obtained. The piers 

 narrowed, richly painted, and relieved by grey purbeck marble shafts, em- 

 bellished with thousands of gilt pater.T, continued one successive, varied, but 

 unbroken effect of magnificence along the whole side, again carried upwards 

 by the coloured and gilded cornice and timber roof. In the piers it was 

 proposed to place the statues of our kings from the Norman Conquest down 

 to Edward HI. Upon the v/alls, under a superb canopy of open tracery and 

 slender clustered columns, were p.tinted figures of angels, each bearing a 

 mantle, emblazoned, and of ditt'erent colours, being the armorial bearings of 

 noble contributors, and the Holy Knights, to whose honourable keeping the 

 edifice was particularly intrusted : at the east end upon each side of the altar 

 were to be introduced the king and bis family kneeling; and upon the walls 

 themselves, together with the windows, were to be depicted the history of 

 the Bible, all the leading events from the Creation to the death of the Apos- 

 tles. The quarterings of the French Arms and English Lions were to be 

 freely introduced, as also the Fleur-de-Lis and French Lily, as marks of Ed- 

 ward's supremacy. Thus the general notion will he understood as one to 

 create an apartment of magnificent size, adorn it with a picturesque roof, rich 

 architecture, elaborately sculptured, and to fill the walls and windows with 

 a connected series of historical paintings of our faith, and the minor portions 

 with single figures, emblazonry, gilded and painted tracery work. The 

 habiliments of the priests were also provided, and of the richest materials, 

 and others for the Court to wear during mass. The paintings were pecu- 

 liarly treated, and the most careful finish pervaded the whole. 



17 



