344 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[OcTOBERj 



as it approaches, or expands as it recedes from the eye, detail is 

 either less compatible with effective representation, or is less per- 

 ceptible. 



The following considerations may tend to explain the practice in 

 art to which this statement refers. The scale of mere magnitude 

 still increases with increasing distance, as the picture becomes en- 

 larged, and it would at first appear that, at any and every degree of 

 distance, the eye must continue to receive an equivalent impression. 

 This cannot, however, be literally the case; for the scale of other 

 qualities, such as sharpness and softness, and light and darkness, may 

 be already complete in a picture requiring to be seen near; conse- 

 quently, that scale cannot be increased by increased dimensions, while 

 it must be reduced by increased distance. But as it becomes re- 

 duced — as sharpness, force and gradation become impaired, notwith- 

 standing the increase of dimensions, the omission of detail becomes 

 unavoidable ; for it is essential to completeness that the quantity of 

 parts should not surpass the existing technical means of expressing 

 their relative importance. 



The restrictions which in this instance are a consequence of dis- 

 tance and dimensions, are more or less expedient in all modes of imi- 

 tation in which the organ of sight is less fully informed. The incom- 

 pleteness in the appearance, as in the case of the absence of colour 

 in sculpture, being compensated by greater general distinctness, and 

 by a representation unencumbered bv accidents. 



Perhaps the most remarkable examples of this relative completeness 

 or independence of style occur in the outlines and monochroms of 

 Greek vases. In these works, the line being assumed to vary but 

 little in thickness, the means of representation may be said to be re- 

 duced to the lowest degree. Yet a certain gradation is still pre- 

 served. The quality of smoothness in forms is expressed by the 

 omission of internal markings ; without background, the scene is in- 

 dicated by a significant stenography. Parts only of some objects are 

 introduced ; others (the presence of which may be inferred or imagined 

 from the position of the figures) are entirely omitted ; as if that which 

 reduced figures to a mere outline, rendered subordinate objects in- 

 visible altogether. 



Flaxmau has shown that the language of abstract form ("apparently 

 requiring no addition of light and shade to assist its meaning) can be 

 employed quite as emphatically with less convention ; but the same 

 general principles are recognised in his designs. 



The consistency which is maintained even on so limited a scale, is 

 not less apparent in the works of great artists, in modes of imitation 

 which afforded ample means of expression. From the restricted de- 

 partment of art referred to, in which so much beauty was nevertheless 

 condensed, to examples of painting, which have exhausted the resources 

 of imitation, the world has always awarded its approbation to com- 

 pleteness of style, and to the docility which has kept it in view under 

 the conditions o! subject, material, place, and dimensions. 



Sir Joshua Reynolds observes that Michael Angelo, in the Sistine 

 Chapel, attempted little more than could be attained in sculpture; 

 nevertheless, it has been remarked that the ceiling of that chapel, as 

 an example of decoration and of the due adaptation of painting to 

 architecture, has never been surpassed. ' ■'■ The inference is, that dis- 

 tance, large dimensions, and the grandeur of style which is the result, 

 are favourable to the fulfilment of the union proposed. But a'though 

 there are few examples of perspective or of backgrounds in the com- 

 positions of the Sistine Chapel, the individual figures are remarkable 

 for roundness, and the fresco of the Last Judgment may originally 

 have exhibited the quality of depth in a remarkable degree. 



The extreme doctrine which assumes the necessity of aiming at 

 flatness, because a wall is flat, may therefore be pronounced erroneous 

 on the authority of the best mural paintings, and may be considered 

 unnecessary, even as regards the end proposed. As a proof, it may 

 be sufficient to remember that examples of oil-painting in which the 

 effects of aerial perspective have been represented with consummate 

 mastery, when hung up in a room are immediately seen to be flat sur- 

 faces, more or less agreeably coloured. At the same time it is appa- 

 rent that the breadth of treatment which must ever be an attribute of 

 " monumental " painting, must tend to reduce the fulness of relief. 

 The limitation of chiaro-scuro which this supposes, involves, however, 

 an especial attention to colour, and it is to be observed that the prac- 

 tice, common with the painters of Venice and Friuli, of executing 

 large figures, calculated to be seen at a considerable distance, on the 

 exterior of buildings, may have led those painters to feel the import- 

 ance of depth of local hues, and the necessity of laying a stress on the 

 permanent rather than on the mutable qualities of nature. The requi- 



15 The remarkable alteration in the size of the figures before referred to, 

 interfering as It does with the architectural symmetrv, is not however to be 

 overlooked. 





site which M. De la Roche thinks essential, viz., the predominance of 

 light masses, is quite compatible with this aim ; and the lightness of 

 effect, without deficiency of force, which is the result, is a quality sel- 

 dom wanting in Italian frescos. Those by Annibale Carracci, in the' Far- 

 nese Palace, form a remarkable contrast to the heaviness of some oil- 

 pictures by the same master. 



With respect to the alleged expediency of intrusting the execution 

 of a series of pictures to a single artist with a view to unity of effect, 

 it appears, from the examples before given, that the change of stvle 

 consequent upon first experiments, which may be exhibited in a series 

 by a single artist, may interfere as much with architectural symmetry 

 as the varieties of treatment resulting from the employment of manv. 



In the instance of the frescos in the Stanze of the Vatican, it should, 

 however, be remembered, that although the contrast which some of 

 those works present to the rest might not have been satisfactory had 

 they formed a series in a vast hall, yet as each picture occupies an 

 entire side, and is seen almost aloDe, the incongruity which to a cer- 

 tain extent exists is not apparent. Again, the architectural and other 

 back grounds, which are sometimes elaborate, might have been too 

 prominent had the compartments been of the ordinary shape ; as it is, 

 their semicircular form sufficiently reduces the space above the 

 figures. 



The condition of a peculiar style of architecture is altogether a 

 question of taste; even authority here fails, the greatest Italian mas- 

 ters never having been called upon to paint in a Gothic building. The 

 example which is most applicable may be found in the works of Luca 

 Signorelli, at Orvieto. In those works there can be no doubt that the 

 artist's object was not to imitate, but to surpass the ruder productions 

 which may have been executed, there or elsewhere, about the time 

 when Italian-Gothic structures were erected. The Tudor style of 

 Gothic (the style of the Palace at Westminster) is coeval with the 

 highest development of art in Italy; and buildings erected in the 

 time of Henry VII. or Henry VIII. might have been decorated by the 

 hand of Raphael, bad he accepted the invitation of the last-named 

 monarch to visit England. 1<; 



From the foregoing considerations and examples it appears that, 

 whether the decoration of a wall or ceiling consist of one or of manv 

 paintings, the treatment should have reference to the whole extent of 

 such wall or ceiling; and that, consequently, if the compartments be 

 small, that circumstance does not of itself involve the necessity of a 

 corresponding style. Hence the dimensions of the figures are not 

 always referable to the size of the compartments, but are rather calcu- 

 lated for the distance from which the whole, or a considerable portion 

 of the decorated surface can be conveniently viewed ; and the usual 

 consequence is that little space remains in the pictures for background. 

 The cartoons of Raphael may in general be cousidered as models in 

 this respect, the tapestries for which they were designed having been 

 to all intents permanent mural decorations. It may here be further 

 remarked that, when figures differing in size from those in the prin- 

 cipal compartments are introduced among the architectural embellish- 

 ments, they are often painted in chiaro-scuro, or in imitation of bronze, 

 gold, or some such material, or, if imitative of nature, the subjects are 

 supposed to be on tapestries. Such portions thus profess to be works 

 of art, and the difference of size, as compared with that of the figures 

 in the principal compositions, involves no inconsistency. Such, with 

 occasional exceptions, examples of which have been before noticed, 

 was the practice of the Italian painters. 



'« Dallaway's Walpole, vol. i. pp. 106—187. 



Ap.rii.Eoi.ui.ir.M. Institution of Rome. — The annals of last year's pro- 

 ceedings of this Society have been recently published, and contain drawings 

 and description of the Temple of Mount Ocha, near Carystus, in Euboea, 

 communicated by Professor Ulrichs. of Athens. This temple is generally 

 believed to be the oldest and best preserved specimen of the kind in (ireece, 

 ami is particularly remarkable for the massiveness of its walls, and the pe- 

 culiar structure of its roof. The prize proposed by this Academy in 1842, 

 for the best essay on the Coinage of Italy, has been gained by Dr. Achille 

 Gennarelli, author of the text of the " Museo Gregoriano." lie opposes 

 many of the opinions advanced in the work published by Marche and Tes- 

 sieri, under the title of " Acs grave del Museo Kercheriano," which al- 

 though up to this time the standard work on Italian coinage, was yet so 

 faulty as to indue the Areha-ological Society to propose a prize for another 

 on the same subject. 



St. Mary's (nine h, Reading. — During the course of last month three 

 very ancient sedilia, of the early English architecture, were discovered in 

 ruins behind the wainscotting on the south side of the chancel, the fresco 

 painting at the back of them and the encaustic tiles being still in excellent 

 preservation. 



