1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



341 



The writer here refers to the dome of the Pantheon, painted by Gros, 

 and adds, that the work has already suffered in some places. ' 



" It may be admitted," he continues, "that fresco is not better fitted to 

 resist the action of a humid climate ; yet the frescos of Mignard, in the 

 church of Val de Grace, are well preserved, although the retouches in co- 

 loured crayons, added by the artist after the work was completed, have faded. 

 After all, the question of durability need not be considered so all-important ; 

 even if we could succeed in rendering oil paintings on walls durable, it would 

 be impossible to give them those qualities fitted fur architectonic decoration 

 which belong to fresco, and which caused that method to be preferred by all 

 the great masters of the Italian schools. But although fresco admits of the 

 design being studied to any extent in cartoons, yet in its ultimate execution 

 it is not an art for the hesitating and timid. It requires a grand style of 

 drawing, a broad and simple treatment of colour, an eye steadily fixed on the 

 whole effect, and an energetic and rapid hand— all qualities which it must be 

 confessed are rare in these days. But if fresco cannot be successfully en- 

 countered by all artists, there is another method which is at least as ancient, 

 and which Prance had first the honour to revive, though its practice is now 

 familiar to many; I mean encaustic painting, which is applicable to ail 

 grounds, and which consists in employing the colours mixed with wax, and 

 prepared for painting by means of essential oils. The colours, which are 

 used as in oil painting, may be blended so as to give the effect of the highest 

 finish by subjecting them to the action of fire, by means of a cauterium. 

 This method, which has been employed with success of late years for monu- 

 mental decoration, has all the resources of oil-painting ; but the artist may 

 moderate the brilliancy of tints as he pleases, and give them to a certain ex- 

 tent the mat (unshining) but luminous tones of fresco ; be may return to his 

 work as often as be pleases ; while the painting, notwithstanding the changes 

 of temperature, attains a solidity greater even than that of fresco. 



" The school of Munich, which has at least the merit of adhering to the 

 ancient traditions of monumental painting, has employed these two methods 

 only ; one for religions and philosophic subjects, the other subjects borrowed 

 from history and poetry." 



To the above may be added the following extracts translated from 

 a " Memoir presented to the Prefect of the Seine, by MM. Lapere and 

 Hittorff, architects, relating to the decoration of the new church of 

 St. Vincent de Paul." 



" In the present advanced state of the church of St. Vincent de Paul, it 

 becomes necessary to consider its permanent decoration. We have therefore 

 the honour to submit our ideas as to the fittest application of painting and 

 sculpture for this end. 



"In studying the must remarkable monuments of the best ages of art, it is 

 invariably found that the architect's work was completed by the production of 

 the painter and sculptor, and that those monuments, by a happy union of the 

 three arts, presented the most striking and attractive effect which human in- 

 genuity could devise. 



" Another circumstance, not less important, which is apparent in such an 

 examination is that, wherever this union of architecture with painting and 

 sculpture has produced great results, one directing thought appears to have 

 influenced the whole. 



"If there are few instances in which a single individual has practised the 

 three aits with sufficient power to conceive and execute alone an entire mo- 

 nument, there arc many to prove that edifices prepared by the architect to be 

 decorated with paintings and statues have been intrusted to one painter and 

 one sculptor. This was the surest means of obtaining a characteristic result 

 in harmony with the architect's creation, and which, instead of weakening 

 the effect of that creation, would contribute to its complete impression. It 

 was thus that the immortal works of Greece and of ancient Rome were pro- 

 duced, as well as the masterworks of modern art. 



"That this system was in itself judicious, is easily comprehended. The 

 force and clearness of the idea, the agreement between the conception and 

 the execution, in a word, harmony— that quality without which no work of 

 art can be complete, was the result of one pervading feeling which, in the 

 infinite multiplicity of detail, preserved the unity of a whole." 



After referring to the decorated architecture of the Greeks, the 

 authors remark that 



" Many later edifices, imperfect as they may be in details, are yet admi- 

 rable for this unity of impression. 



" Among such examples may be mentioned the Basilica of Monreale and 

 the Koyal Chapel of Palermo, as true traditions of the principle of Hellenic 

 art; for in these, historical painting in the form of mosaic (the only decora- 

 tion employed) is so adapted as to leave no doubt in the spectator's mind on 

 two points, viz. that the buildings were designed for the paintings, and the 

 paintings for the places they occupy. 



Compare the opinion of Mr. Wilson, before quoted. 



" We here find pictures in » Inch the subjects, importance, number, treat- 

 ment, and distribution have depended on the situations which the architect's 

 arrangements afforded, all as if guided by one directing thought. 



" In contemplating the harmony and majesty which these churches present 

 in their masses, and the poetic and moral impression produced by their. 

 decorative details, the spectator at once feels that this grandeur of eftect is 

 mainly owing to the unity of creation. It is also easy to conceive that this 

 impression would have been destroyed, or would have been far weaker, if the 

 decorations had been subdivided and allotted to a great number of artists, 

 whose works would have been variously conceived and executed. The merit 

 of such productions, in individual instances, would nut have compensated so 

 great a defect." 



The authors proceed to express their conviction that the similarity 

 of the grounds on which the figures were painted, in addition to the 

 similarity of style, contributes to the effect of the whole. 



" The use of gold for these grounds shows, besides, that the artists did not 

 then attempt to do away with the walls, but only to give to the stone the 

 appearance of a precious material. The simplicity and sedateness in the 

 attitude and expression of the figures, as well as in their execution, are not 

 calculated to disturb the impression as to the reality of this wall of gold. 

 Hence we find none of those abrupt effects produced by grounds of all colours 

 and varieties, nor those attempts at illusion which in historic mural painting 

 are so injudicious, presenting hollows where there should be solidity, undu- 

 lating lines where there should be plane surfaces ; in short, uncharacterizing 

 the architectural forms — forms which painting should preserve and assist, buj 

 never alter or suppress." 



The authors then refer to three kinds of art which have been re- 

 vived or invented of late years, namely — encaustic painting, painting 

 on glass, and enamel painting. The last, it is observed, combines all 

 the qualities of mosaic and porcelain with many important advan- 

 tages. The authors remark, that 



" Painting even on the exterior of sacred public edifices was not confined 

 to the south, but bad been employed in severer climates. Germany and the 

 old and new capitals of Russia contain examples. Such external decorations 

 lasted better in Egypt than in Greece and Italy, and better in the south of 

 Europe than in the north. Hence more durable materials are required in 

 the latter cases. Mosaic had been first adopted with this view ; porcelain, 

 treated as it was at the revival of art, could in some degree have answered 

 the same purpose, but nothing could fulfil all the desired requisites so satis- 

 factorily as the enamelled lava.-' More durable than mosaic, more under the 

 command of the painter, so as to enable him to give the greatest perfection 

 to his work, this beautiful invention, in its application to the exterior of the 

 Church of St. Vincent de Paul, may rival the most remarkable effects of the 

 kind that art has produced." 



The authors afterwards propose that Raphael's compositions from 

 the Old Testament should be executed in enamel, to adorn the cella 

 of the portico of the new church. 



In the decoration of the interior they recommend encaustic paint- 

 ing, 



" Now sufficiently tried at Fontainebleau, at Munich, and in Notre Dame 

 de Lorette and in the Madeleine, at Paris." 5 



MM. Lepere and Hittorff next recommend that certain prominent 

 portions of the internal decoration in the nave and sanctuary, and 

 which belong to the general coup d'ceil should be entrusted to one, or 

 at most to two artists ; but the side chapels and various other places, 

 they admit, might be allotted to various hands. They assume, how- 

 ever, that the universal gold ground which they propose to adopt, 

 will compel all the artists to a sufficient unity of style and effect. 

 The observations on sculpture are dictated by the same principle of 

 preserving a harmony in the general effect and in the style of those 

 works that are seen together. 



The opinions of German artists and critics, on the adaptation of 

 painting to architecture, correspond with those above quoted. 6 Mr. 

 Wilson states in his notes: — 



" Professor Hess observed to me that great care must be taken to avoid 

 contrasts of effects in a series of pictures on the same wall. The same sp rit, 

 he observed, must pervade the whole in the design and colour, and as nearly 

 as possible in the light and dark. If, for instance, an artist were to repre- 

 sent a broad daylight in bis first picture, in the next a fiery sunset, and be- 

 side that again a night scene, such contrasts would interfere with the archi- 

 tectural unity which is essential." 



4 Lava slabs of large dimensions are obtained at Volvic in Auvergne ; they 

 are fire- proof, and figures the size of life are executed on them in enamel. 



5 The trials of encaustic hitherto made have in many instances been far 

 from satisfactory, chiefly owing to the effects of dump in ill-prepared walls. 



Sec the article Fresco, in the " Conversations Lexicon." 



