340 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[October, 



which has thus signally failed. That the project, on the contrary, was con- 

 ceive I by other architects, was adopted by the municipal council on the re- 

 port of its own commission, was afterwards sanct ; oned by the council of 

 buildings for the department of the north ; and as for M. Petiau, it was on'y 

 after having unsuccessfully contended against this project for four years, 

 that he at length consented, with equal modesty and resignation, to lend his 

 exertions towards its execution. " When these exertions have proved unsuc- 

 cessful, is it right that the punishment of failure should be visited upon his 

 head alone ? 



" The prisoner is accused of not hiving foreseen immediate danger to the 

 whole mass from the great rent which took place on the 3rd of April, but 

 have you not heard, on the testimony of a municipal councillor, that similar 

 rents had existed in the tower for the last forty years ? Figure to yourselves 

 a doctor of medicine placed at this bar on the charge of having promised life 

 and recovery to a patient whom it had pleased Heaven to remove the very 

 next day; and then mark this difference, that the doctor has the advantage 

 of receiving responses from the patient himself as to his most inward feelings 

 and the symptoms which might indicate an approaching dissolution. But 

 on the other hand, this massive and impenetrable tower was silent to all 

 inquiries, and gave forth no sound in answer to the voice which might de- 

 mand the inward symptoms which preceded its sudden destruction 



" The architect, then, is irreproachable in every point of view. Let justice 

 address herself to oihers. if a victim be indeed necessary. But in my opinion, 

 the individual is not to be found upon whom the punishment of offended law 

 ••an with justice be visited. The fall of the old tower was one of those mis- 

 fortunes which Providence, alas, too frequently sutlers to fall upon poor 

 humanity. These arc the consolations which remain for the able though 

 unfortunate architect. Pardon, then, in the name of justice! pardon, for the 

 sake of the academic laurel which yet crowns his youthful brow." 



This able address was followed by an honourable acquittal of the architect, 

 and the court, reversing the judgment of the interior tribunal, ordered him 

 to be set at liberty without costs. 



STYLES AND METHODS OF PAINTING SUITED TO 

 DECORATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS.' 



By C. L. East-lake, Esq. R.A. 



The numerous public edifices which have of late been completed 

 in France and Germany have, in almost every case, been embellished 

 with the productions of painting and sculpture. This application of 

 the imitative arts has prompted inquiries into the principles which 

 may regulate the adaptation of those arts, and especially of historical 

 painting, to architecture; not without reference to the examples of 

 sue -ess and failure which the decorated buildings of former ages pre- 

 sent. The same question which is now proposed for solution in this 

 country, in the intended decoration of the Palace at Westminster, has 

 been considered and practically answered with various success in 

 Munich and in Paris. The experiments that have, been made in those 

 cities by artists of eminence, and the opinions that have been expressed 

 thereupon by competent judges, form, therefore, an important addition 

 to the evidence of older works of art, and may assist in the examina- 

 tion of the subject. 



The union of painting with architecture supposes a principle of 

 adaptation or sell Ction, in the style of one or both. The architect, in 

 arranging his spaces, might find it advisable to adapt their size to the 

 distance to which the spectator could conveniently retire to contem- 

 plate* the paintings; or might be induced to vary the form of such 

 spaces, with a view to certain subjects. But the principle of adap- 

 tation is most indispensable for the painter; for if, in sucli a combi- 

 nation, the productions of painting should appear as adventitious or- 

 naments, v. uying according to the taste or caprice of each artist em- 

 ployed, the result might be a mere gallery of pictures. This mistake 

 seems to have been committed to a certain extent in the church of the 

 Madeleine at Paris. The defect is said to be the more striking, as 

 the subjects of several of the paintings relate to the life of the Saint, 

 who is represented very differently in different works according to the 

 conception of each painter. In such an assemblage of pictures, 

 whatever might be the degrees ot merit, the spectator would look in 

 vain for any evidence of a similarity of aim. 



It therefore appears that, whether one or many hands be employed, 

 some common principle is necessary as a means of ensuring a due 

 harmony of treatment. But before entering further into the consi- 



1 This paper forms Appendix No, 6 to the Second Report of ihe Comnrs- 

 sioncrs on the Fine Arts. 



deration of this question, it may be desirable to examine the opinions 

 that have been expressed elsewhere in similar circumstances, reser- 

 ving for the concluding observations the comments which particular 

 passages may appear to require. An Essay in the " Revue Generale 

 de l'Architecture " maybe quoted first. The remarks of the writer 

 are. suggested by the celebrated work of M. Paul de la Roche, painted 

 in oil on a semicircular wall in the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Paris. It 

 is unnecessary to refer to the opinions relating to that particular work, 

 but some of the more general observations may not be undeserving of 

 attention. The following is a translation. 



" When first the architect opened to the painter the doors of a recently 

 finished edifice, and showed him the walls which were to be adorned by his 

 skill, an elevated art arose, the essential principles of which were at once 

 defined by the conditions of this union. This art may be called mural, or 

 monumental painting. Its characteristics are so pronounced, and so distinct 

 from easel-painting, that perhaps the relation between the two might be 

 aptly expressed by the circumstances attending their respective modes of exe- 

 cution; by comparing the eternal walls of a temple with the fragile stretch- 

 ing frame under which the easel trembles. 



' Painting being employed to decorate large and solid surfaces, the artist 

 is no longer intent on the re-production, however ingenious, of reality in its 

 most limited sense. A dignified subject is essential, and tu this genius is 

 required to add ideality or elevation of treatment. Lastly, simplicity, the 

 indispensable characteristic of great works, must be apparent in the compo- 

 sition and in the execution. Hence arises the especial condition of excluding 

 from mural painting all that m ly interfere with grandeur of effect — all that 

 aims at literal imitation and illusion. It is to be remembered that the painter 

 is, in this case, not alone ; his art is employed, together with that of the 

 architect, in decorating the same interior. There can be no difference of pur- 

 pose between these two exponents of one and the same thought ; and if one 

 art is dependent on the other, it is that of the painter. It is further to be 

 remembered that the walls must always be felt to exist under the decorations 

 that cover them, and the skilful and magic effects by means of which the 

 painter gets rid of the flat surface would here be out of place. 



'• Thus, under whatever point of view this question is considered, munu- 

 mental painting must still be limited to an elevated region, where all is 

 grand, simple, and unaffected. It is thus that its style was defined by the 

 great masters who, from Giotto to Michael Angelo. covered the walls of the 

 palaces and temples of Italy with their works. They painted in fresco; and 

 Michael Angelo, foreseeing the decline of the grandest style, had reason to 

 call easel-painting an occupation for women. 2 From this period (ihe middle 

 of the ltifh century), the tradition of elevated art was unstable. Succeeding 

 painters, down to Pietro da Corlona. poured over vast surfaces their crowded 

 compositions in which the qualities of fresco became useless. To complete 

 the decline i f monumental art. it remained only tu neglect the process itself. 

 Accordingly, from the beginning of the 17th century, oil-painting was intro- 

 duced commonly on walls, particularly in Fiance ; and the artists looking 

 00 this mode ul painting as an opportunity for displaying the effects of fore- 

 shortening, perspective and colour, produced what the Italians called vast 

 ' machine,' differing only from the decorations of the theatre by better 

 slit lied forms and a more finished execution. We have no right to consider 

 modern artists responsible for this practice ; it is to be dated from those 

 painters who first lost sight of the conditions which regulate the style of 

 painting when that art is applied to architecture. 



"The rich and varied effects which characterize cil-painting are ill appli- 

 cable to a severe style of architecture. The brightness uf tints, powerful 

 relief, the finish of details, arc resources easily abused, especially when till 

 artist has been long accustomed to them. Such means require, on the on- 

 trary, to be subdued and simplified, so as not to transgress the limits of a 

 well-understood style of decoration. To these objections it may be added 

 that oil painting applied to walls has no principle of durability or solidity, 

 especially when employed on large surfaces. The experienced chemist, M. 

 Darcet, who has made science available for soma' y practical objects, thought 

 that he had remedied this defect by preparing walls with new grounds for 

 painting."' 



'■ Tins often misrepresented expression of Michael Angelo appears to have 

 been uttered in a moment of irritation, and to have been intended as a re- 

 buke to Sebastian del Piombo. Vasari thus explains the occasion, in bis life 

 of thai artist : •■ A misunderstanding arose between them, in consequence of 

 Fra Sebastiano having persnaded the I'ope (Paul III.) to direct Michael 

 Angi lo to paint the Last Judgment in oil, whereas lie would only consent to 

 execute it in fresco. But as he was silent at first, ihe wall was prepared for 

 oil painting, under the direciion ol Fra Sebastiano. Michael Angelo suffered 

 several months to pass without beginning, and being at last pressed to pro- 

 ceed ii the work, be declared that he would not undertake it unless he was 

 allowed to execute it in fresco ; adding that oil painting was an art for wo- 

 men, an 1 for persons in easy circumstances and of indolent habits, like Fra 

 Sebastiano. The Prate's priming was therefore removed from the nail, and 

 the surface was prepared anew for fresco.'' 



