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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[November, 



doubts as to the fitness of the walls of this edifice to receive frescos. The 

 ceiling frescos in the upper Loggia of the Vatican hy Giovanni da Udine 

 are upon stoja or lath : the wooden framing to which the lath is attached is 

 executed with a rudeness that would seem almost incredible, and these 

 works have suffered severely from the original defective carpentry and from 

 neglect and damp. (See Figs. 1 & 2.) 



Fig. 1. 



L, T.allung or Stop. 

 I.. Boarding. 

 R, Rihs. 



From various instances quoted in the Report it appears that frescos may 

 safely he executed upon lath. 



The Mortar. — It is not possible to make many observations on the 

 mortar on which mural pictures of the period before referred to are executed, 

 as, fortunately, there are not a great Dumber which are in such a state of 

 dilapidation as to permit a particular examination of th< in in this respect. 

 The majority of these pictures arc painted, as is well known, upon an into- 

 naco composed of lime and sand. It is evident that there was a diversity 

 of opinion with regard to the quantity of sand to lime to be used, and the 

 same diversity of opinion exists amongst the modern freacanti. From such 

 examination as it was possible to make, it appears certain that those frescos 

 have stood best in which it is apparent that there is a considerable proportion 

 of Sand in the lime ; and 1 am disposed partly to attribute the bad st ite of 

 the frescos by Correggio in the Duomo of I'arina to bis having used what is 

 called a rich intonaco (that is, with a small proportion of sand), and the 

 faintness of the colours is perhaps to be attributed to the same cause. 



A number of mural paintings are executed upon an intonaco formed of 

 lime and marble dust; these however arc not frescos but distemper pictures; 

 that is, pictures which, although in many instances commenced in fresco, 

 yet were finished in distemper. Pictures of this description arc also found 

 upon intonacos of lime and sand ; and if at first the practice may have 

 arisen from necessity, it appears to have been continued afterwards from 

 choice, even after complete works in pure fresco had been executed. 



There is nothing to be learnt apparently from old Italian plastering. In 

 point of execution, it is surprising that such careless work could ever satisfy 

 the artists. The Venetians have shown themselves in many instances clumsy 

 plasterers beyond all others ; the works of Pordenone especially exhibit the 

 rudest, workmanship, the surface being very uneven, and the joinings of the 

 intonaco which mark the different day's work being very carelessly executed: 

 such is also the case in the frescos of Titian. The Florentine practice is 

 better, but still far from presenting, in many of the early examples, sufficient 

 attention to the preparation of the surface. If the wall was even, the plaster 

 was made even, but if the wall was altogether the reverse, the plaster was 

 allowed to he so also, and it is only in the works of later masters that we 

 find this workmanship so attended to as to secure an even surface : the 

 frescos of Allnri in S. Lorenzo and in the Palazzo Vecchio are models in this 

 respect. 



In the Baths of Titus examples will be found of — first lime and coarse 

 sand, half an inch thick; then lime and pozzolana, of one inch in thickness, 

 in which, however, there is an admixture of sand and pounded brick ; the 

 last and upper coat is of lime and pounded marble. It will be found that 

 this, a-, regards the two last coats, is the identical preparation which is so 



commonly used in Italy for floors under the name of Venetian pavement, 

 except that in the latter the fragments of brick in the substratum and the 

 fragments of marble in the superstratum are much larger. It is also quite 

 plain, from the size of the fragments of marble in the specimens of ancient 

 plaster, both in the Baths of Titus and at Pompeii, that the wall could not 

 possibly be brought to a smooth surface cither with the trowel or float ; it 

 must have been allowed to dry, and was then polished. It follows that in 

 walls of this description the red, yellow, and other tints with which it was 

 painted must have been subsequently applied, and had nothing of the nature 

 of fresco, an art which, however, is apparently exemplified in ancient exam- 

 ples, for instance, in the Nozze Aldobrandini. 



It may be generally stated, without adducing other examples of this pe- 

 riod, that where the plastering is uneven, the ruin of the fresco, or its se- 

 rious injury, is the result, whilst those frescos which have smooth and even 

 surfaces will be found to be generally in good condition; and the most per- 

 fect specimens in point of workmanship and preservation arc the frescos of 

 the Caracci and of their scholars. These, in the majority of instances, are 

 quite perfect, and may be quoted as triumphant specimens of the durability 

 of this mode of painting. 



The Execution of the Picture. — We find that whilst several mechanical 

 modes of outlining (first Report) were adopted for fresco, each artist used 

 these means in his own peculiar way, little influenced apparently by any 

 received rule ; and as every artist commonly adheres to his own method, 

 the execution of the outline may assist in deciding on the authorship of a 

 work of art. 



The practice of indenting the plaster with a point or stylus is very ancient, 

 and we find that the figures painted in Etruscan tombs were thus outlined, 

 that is, the point was used to mark the external outline of the figure only. 

 It was employed by the early masters at the revival of art in Italy precisely 

 in the same way in outlining their works in distemper on panel; thus Giotto 

 drew, and his followers ; and we find the same practice follow in the Sienese 

 school, with a singular exception, which is, that the figure of the Madonna 

 is entirely marked in with the stylus, that is, not merely the external outline, 

 but the outlines of folds in the drapery are drawn in in the same manner ; 

 and a notice of this practice, confined to the school of Siena, is useful, as it 

 establishes a clear distinction between the early pictures of that school and 

 those of the contemporary Florentine masters. It has been supposed by 

 some that these outlines were intended as a guide to the plasterer in spread- 

 ing the intonaco, but in no case do the joinings in the plaster coincide with 

 them. If we suppose that the composition was thus sketched in to enable 

 the artist to judge of the proper proportions and positions of the figures, 

 n hat then was the use of his cartoon in this respect? it would have been 

 more easy to place it against the wall, as is now frequently done. 



Another mode of outlining, that is by pouncing, was extensively adopted ; 

 this method, as well as the last-mentioned, of course implies the preparation 

 of a large cartoon ; and there was still another mode, or rather union of the 

 modes above alluded to, viz. the outline was first pounced and then, the car- 

 toon being removed, the forms were retraced with the stylus; this is the 

 practice of the modern Italians, and although imposing names may he quoted 

 in support of it, an uncertain and feeble outline is the result, and besides, in 

 sudden turns it breaks out bits of the plaster, leaving unsightly holes in the 

 picture. 



Painting. — In studying the art of fresco- painting, it is necessary to con- 

 sult the works of the old masters for examples of execution. In everything 

 that is merely mechanical, we may profitably study the proceedings of the 

 modern Germans: every process may be learnt from their practice, without 

 visiting Italy, the graceful use of the brush excepted. Amongst the works 

 of the present Italian fresco-painters, there is perhaps no example which it 

 would be desirable to follow. The execution of these artists is to the last 

 degree mannered and heavy, and however satisfactory may have been the 

 progress of the French in other modes of painting, they have entirely failed 

 in the few attempts which they have made in fresco. 



Avoiding the errors into which we may conceive that our continental 

 brethren have fallen in the actual painting of their frescos, we must look to 

 the works of the old masters as examples; in these we shall find painting in 

 fresco, in as many styles, and exhibiting as much diversity of touch and 

 handling, as may be observed in the works of the same artists in oil. There 

 is the same liberty of thought in the treatment of both methods, and ge- 

 nius exhibits its powers with as endless a diversity in the one art as in the 

 other. 



We find in the frescos of the old masters every quality of execution that 

 has a name in oil-painting, although those qualities are necessarily exempli- 

 fied in different degrees; we have transparency, opacity, richness; we have, 

 thin and thick painting, nay loading, and that to an extent that cannot be 

 contemplated in oil. We have the calm transparent elegant painting of the 

 Florentines and Romans, the rich variety of the Venetians, and there are 

 eases in which the well-nourished brush of Rembrandt seems represented in 

 the works of the fresco-painters of old Italian times. 



The distemper paintings of the elder masters have already been alluded 

 to ; it was their practice in laying in the preparatory tints in fresco, to make 

 some of these totally different from the colour to be used in finishing in 

 distemper: thus, a dark red colour was almost invariably laid in as a prepa- 

 ration for blue, and this practice was generally adhered to with very few 

 exceptions till after the time of Raphael. In the works of Giotto, in the 

 Campo Santo, at Pisa, the plaster seems to have been painted black in the 

 first instance. Time did not permit a satisfactory examination of these 



