236 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[JULT, 



simple as to believe (hat, presently, he would be invested with ability 

 to paint the famed fresco on the Vatican? It is true the drawings 

 will show the choice of subjects and manner of treating them, but 

 they will show no more. They cannot prove the artist's power to 

 transfer, embody, and permanently fix his colours into a material so 

 untraceable and capricious as a plastered wall. 



Whoever, like myself, has watched the slow progress of a fresco- 

 painting, from the "tracing" to the last touch, knows well that it is a 

 process beset with difficulties at every step, unknown in other branches 

 of the art, and to be learned and overcome by years of patient labour. 

 Yet upon this false notion the commissioners have resolved to rest 

 their judgment, and expend ,£2000. 



What motives could have induced the Italian masters to have per- 

 sisted in the use of a material so unmanageable, capricious, and pe- 

 rishable as stucco; at the best but a cheap and mean imitation of 

 marble? To answer this question, we must consider the various ma- 

 terials used as grounds for painting. These have beeu vellum, paper, 

 glass, ivory, marble, porcelain, copper, panel, canvass, and stucco. 

 For works of magnitude, the three last, panel, canvass, and stucco, 

 have superseded the rest. They were simultaneously used. But in 

 the early times of oil-painting, panel was preferred, not only for its 

 durability, but because it enabled the painter to enrich his figures 

 with inlaid jewels, pearls, and gold, agreeable to a custom transmitted 

 from remote antiquity. Though subject to rend, to warp, and to be 

 worm-eaten, panel is the most durable of these three substances. 

 The oldest works in the best preservation are those on panel. Many 

 are yet extant, on which 300 vears have wrought no visible decay. 



Canvass possesses many peculiar qualities as a ground for painting. 

 It may be woven of any size and texture; it is light, cheap, and easy of 

 tr nsport, for we must not forget that paintings form an article of 

 commerce. It may be stretched if shrunk, and what is truly admi- 

 rable, when rotten or worn out, it may be severed from the painting, 

 and replaced by new: an invention that has bestowed upon canvass 

 paintings the durability of those on panel, and has already saved 

 from crumbling to dust many precious works. Light, then, as the 

 fabric is, canvass paintings bave lasted for centuries; and if frescos 

 are older, it is not that stucco is fitter to preserve them, but because 

 painting in oils was an art invented or recovered in later times. Ha- 

 ving these substances in daily use, the question then returns, what 

 motives could the Italian painters have had for persisting to paint on 

 stuccoed walls, while some are said to have preferred them. 



Let us next proceed to the inquiry, in what manner sculpture and 

 painting may be most suitably employed in adorning the magnificent 

 seat of our legislature, by works worthy of its destinies, of the empire, 

 and the age. 



Whoever will be at the pains to duly reflect upon this subject will 

 find himself drawn to the conclusion, that these objects are not to be 

 attained otherwise than by the employment of those branches of the 

 arts wherein we have already attained to excellence. Now the 

 sculptors and painters of our country possess unrivalled pre-eminence 

 throughout Europe for statues and portraits. But here the question 

 comes, are statues and portraits the most suitable decorations for the 

 houses of parliament? We shall find the answer in the customs of 

 mankind. No custom wherein the fine arts have borne a part has been 

 more anciently or generally established, than for halls of council to be 

 adorned with the effigies of illustrious men. 



In the free states of Greece this custom served as the memorial, 

 the reward, and the incentive to noble deeds. 



In Rome it rose to the dignity of a political institution, placed 

 under the jurisdiction of the senate. Whence it was copied by the 

 municipal councils of that empire. The nations who formed king- 

 doms out of its conquered provinces preserved the usage where their 

 arts would permit. The Italian republics gave the custom the sanc- 

 tion of law. Undoubtedly, then, such ornaments must have been in 

 harmony with the feelings of free nations. Still more is required. 

 The custom ought to be congenial to the habits of England. Let us 

 recall what we possess in this sort. We see in Westminster, in the 

 cathedrals, even in the parish churches, how rich England is in monu- 

 mental statues, and how charmingly they harmonise with architec- 

 ture. 



In our ancient cities where is the council-chamber without portraits 

 of honoured citizens? Where is the college-hall unadorned with the 

 likenesses of its founders and benefactors? Where is the ancient 

 mansion without its family gallery? 



The custom, then, is truly English. Shall a usage so honoured, in- 

 terwoven with all we hold dear, find no place in parliament, where 

 are concentrated the ranks, intellects, and feelings of the country ? 

 Shall its adoption by the senates of antiquity, whose attainments in the 

 fine arts we are now vying to emulate, be of no weight, not even to pre- 

 fer the memorials of departed worth to the projects of unknown men? 



In sculpture and painting it will be found that the likenesses of the 

 renowned dead affect the feelings more deeply and lastingly than the 

 loftiest creations of fancy, even when their subjects are chosen from 

 actual events. 



A comparison taken from the highest works of art will best explain 

 this principle. Whoever has resided at Rome may have seen the 

 frescos of Raffaelle in the Vatican, and probably passed onward to 

 the gallery of statuary where are arranged the sages and statesmen of 

 Greece. In the frescos are seen the designs of the loftiest genius 

 expressed with consummate art. In the statues are seen in the cold 

 marble the features and expressions of those mighty men of old 

 whose names bave been familiar to us from boyhood, whose fame still 

 fills the world, perchance whose intellect may have guided our own. 



The paintings charm and excite, the statues calm the feelings, and 

 lead the mind onward through grave trains of thought. Which of 

 these conditions is most suitable in senates and courts of justice ? 



Nor is this difference due to the contrast of painting with sculpture, 

 for substitute portraits for statues, and we may observe a similar ef- 

 fect. Both are triumphs of simple truths long treasured in our minds, 

 over the utmost powers of invention. 



And here I cannot let slip the occasion to remark, that France and 

 Germany are now employed in reviving this wise and noble custom of 

 antiquity, each applying it to their respective conditions. France 

 has devoted the deserted palace of Versailles to place the statues and 

 portraits of her illustrious men, and by this act the present generation 

 have done their utmost to repair the ravages of the last. 



The plan is admirable for comprehension and arrangement. There 

 are seen the kings, warriors, statesmen, presidents of parliaments, and 

 whoever was renowned in times authentic and known, all classed and 

 arranged. 



The Walhalla, erected by the king of Bavaria, is a similar design 

 to commemorate the renowned men of Germany. 



I do not cite these national works as models to be followed by 

 England, but as proofs how the spirit of antiquity still lives in mo- 

 dern times. 



These principles stated, I submit the following outline of a plan; 

 for an outline is all that can be offered, yet distinct enough for precise 

 ideas, which failing to satisfy the judgment may perhaps hereafter 

 serve for some happier suggestion. 



1. The subjects for sculpture and painting should be chosen from 

 the constitution of parliament itself, and in a manner to illustrate its 

 history. 



By a gallery of the kings of England represented in statues of 

 marble, arranged in the order of time. 



For in all ages, in fact as in law, the sovereign has been the " prin- 

 Cipitim <//«/«" of our parliaments. 



The series should begin with Alfred, as founder of the English 

 monarchy, by union of the Saxon states under bis sole dominion ; and 

 as his memory is revered, for the wisest and best of that long illus- 

 trious line by his successors to the throne, who claim him as their 

 common ancestor. 



Of the later Danish and Saxon kings, most of whom are known 

 only by name, a selection should be made; and Athelstan and Canute 

 merit to be preferred. For the former, by arms and treaties, united 

 Great Britain under one supreme sovereignty, leaving the more dis- 

 tant provinces under the immediate rule of their native princes and 

 laws — an event that imperial Rome bad contended for in vain during 

 300 years. And the latter was the most powerful monarch of his 

 age : under him the rival races of Saxons and Danes were united by 

 equal laws. 



From the conquest until the reign of her present majesty, a statue 

 should be erected to each sovereign. 



2. I propose that an historic gallery be formed in portraits of the 

 most distinguished members of the House of Peers, arranged in the 

 order of time, less to commemorate individuals than to illustrate 

 the institution — in former ages, the guardian of public and private 

 rights against the usurpations of monarchy; in our own, against those 

 of the populace ; holding the balance between custom and change, 

 principles that contend for the government of society. 



3. I propose a similar gallery of portraits of those who have been 

 the most distinguished members of the commons. 



The series must begin with the reign of Elizabeth. 



Lastly, adhering to the constitution of parliament, another gallery 

 falls to be added of the most eminent judges of the land. 



In fine, this plan consists of historic galleries to be formed from 

 past and future times. And as the age is more distant from our own, 

 the easier will the choice become, for then it will be guided by es- 

 tablished renown. 



