Ill 



THE CIVIL ENGINEKR AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[April, 



Other examples, with all their excellence and even with the advantages 

 of the riclHTinclliDd of oil painting, are more or less unsatisfaclorv, from 

 causes inili'pcncli-nt of llif materials. Tlie »ii;ht scene of the IMartyrdoin 

 ofS. Lorenzo, by Titian, is heavy in its elfect. " Of Tiutoret's darker 

 works it would he unfair to speak, as the shadows have too often hecome 

 hiack, either Ijy time or by some mischievous technical process.'" The 

 celebraled Nij;hl"alch. as it is called, by Uembrandt, isgenerally acknow- 

 ledged to be overloaded with shade;'" and tlie Santa I'etronilla of 

 (Juercino is a mmiument of great, but in that iiislance, niijdirecled powers. 

 These a'e the n)o?t remarkable examples ot' dark pictuies on a colossal 

 scale. The La!.t Judgment, by Micliael .\ngelo, now obscured by time 

 and the smoke of candies, must always have had a solemn elfect from the 

 depth of the flefh colour (a treatment w hich may be traced to llie iuUuence 

 of Sebastiao del I'iombo), but there are no niahses of deep shade. As the 

 work is in fresco, mere blackness would have been the result had such been 

 iutroduced. 



The unfitness of masses of extreme shade in paintings of considerable 

 dimensions (wilhoul reference to the material) is explained by the fact that 

 the distance at wliicli the work requires to be viewed tends to obliterate 

 the fainter lights and relleclions in such masses, thus changing dc|)th to 

 flat obscurity. -° In subjects which require gloom, it is still essential that 

 the iniiislinctness should be felt to be intentional, and not to be the result 

 of such distance. The size of the work should admit of the spectator 

 being Si) placed as to see all that the artist intended to be seen. The 

 ' Notte' of f Jorreggio can be thus perfectly seen at the distance which its 

 size re{!uires ; but, in looking at the 'Night-watch' of Uembrandt, under 

 like conditicms, the spectator is presently compelled to draw uearer. The 

 conclusion is, that the amount of darkness in the latter is too great for its 

 size, and on the other hand, that moderate dimensions may render such a 

 treatment, if suitable on other accounls, not only unobjectionable, but desi- 

 rable. The finer gradations of low tones can be apprei-iated only on near 

 inspeclioM. Subjec's, the intended place of a work, or other circumstances, 

 independently of dimension-, 2» may interfere with this consideration, but 

 it is not the less true that the scarcity of light which would be inappro- 

 priate in a collossal picture is quite compatible witli the physical condi- 

 tions here referred to, in regard to works of smaller size. 



The A^enetian painters, as compared with those of the schools of Lom- 

 banly and the Netherlands, appear with few exceptions, to have systema- 

 tically avoided a preponderance of deep sliade.-'' This must be uuder- 

 htood as meaning no mure than that their treatment of light and shade was 

 calculated for works of large dimensions. From the lirst, the great Veue- 

 tian colo iri=ts were accustomed to execute frescoes in the open air, and 

 sometimes in siluatiuus where the distance at wiiicii the paintings could 

 be viewed was far greater than their size required. -^ The elements of 

 distinctness and breadib were thus familiar to ihem, and, it must be con- 

 fessed, were sometimes transferred to works whicli, admitting of near in- 

 spection, might have suggested a different treatment. 



"Venetian shade," which, notwithstanding t!ie occasional darings of 

 Tintoret in more capricious directions, is characteristic of the school, and 

 which the praise of Agostino Carracci has rendered proverbial, is the 

 worthy auxiliary of composition on an extensive scale, and is fitted, by 

 combining distinctness with breadth, to correct the uncertainly which arises 

 from distance or want of light ; it is calculated to give place and meaning 

 to form, lo fiisplay the remembered attributes tif colour, and, while it ren- 

 ders force (,f local hues indispensable, to combine solidity with clearness. 

 The view which the Venetian artists took of nature was consistent with the 

 ordinary destination of their works. 



They appear, in most cases, to have assumed that the objects to be repre- 

 sented were seen by the ditl'used liglit of the atmosphere, as opposed to the 

 case where the light is derived from a particular source. 'I'he practical 

 result of tliis is that intense shadtiw is smaller in quantity, and that the 

 picture is chiefly composed of gradations of half aud reflected light ; bright- 

 ness thus marking projections^ and obscurity, depth. It has often been 



Rafael von Urbino, Leipzig. 18:19, vol. i., pp. Iil2, 4;i4-5. Of Ritphael's fresco Wilkie ob- 

 serves, " the 8t. I'eter in Prison, tinely as it is airunged, is biacit tiiid c-olou ies3." Set* 

 ThoUBlits on the Uelative Value of fresco and Oil-painting, by B. 11. Haydon, I>onaon, 

 181'.', p. 31. 



17 Compare Burnet, Practical Hints on Light and Shade in Painting, London, 133S, 

 p. 4 



1 8 This is the case even with some of the fine worlds in the Scuola di 5. Rocco, io 

 Venice. 



lu See Reyno'ds, Journey to Fl.inders and Holland; and Kugler, Handbuch der 

 Geicii chte der Malerei, vol. ii., p. 17H 



^*> It has been before observed tiiut although an object may he increased in magnitude 

 to any extent, in proportion to its distance, and in order to accomniorlate the spectator, 

 yet itsforce ot light and shade cannot be increaseri lieyund a cert.tin |)oiat, and Ihat point 

 is B'ippo3«d to be already attained in pictures requiring to be seen near. Not only is force 

 not to be increased in proporri-m as distance increases, it is unavoidably diminished by 

 it, in coiisei)ueiice of interposed air. 



a» lu modern exlitljitions where no space is lost, and where, conseqnently, the eye is 

 influenced by the elfect of the mass, an entire wall approaches tlie conditions of a large 

 picture. Hence the amount of light in the component p;*rts of tins decoration is required 

 to be great. A subdued window light may also liave its influence. 



22 The relative amount of light, shade, and hail-iight, in tlie worlis of the colourists, 

 as given by Iteynolds, is well linown, and it will lie remembered that lie made his obser- 

 vations chiefly from large pictures. See notes to ilu Fresnny. 



2a Tile circumstance of Titian and (iiurgione painting on the farade of the Fondnco 

 de' Tedeschi is well ki:own. (The remains of some of the figures there painted by them, 

 now quite obliterated, were etched l)y Zaneli in the last century : two were engraved by 

 Giacomo Piccino at an earlier period.) Kxampies of a similar bind by Pordenoue anil 

 other artists still exist in Venice and in various towns of Friuli. 



24 The "central liglit of n globe" fKiiseii, Second Lecture) would not be the most fa- 

 vourable, with reference to the spectator, foi displaying the object, or for eusuriug a 



said that in Venetian pictures (more constantly than in those of other 

 school-) the foreground objects are, relalively to their hues, the lightest; 

 the retiring ones being lower in tone. The diminiiiion of the force of shade 

 in remoter masses, the iulroduction of accidental cast shadows, of dark 

 hues near, and bright objects, buildings, or sky in the background and dis- 

 tance, may conceal without allering the arlilice. This system of eflect in 

 Venetian pictures corresponds with that of general nature, and, like that, 

 is too familiar to be remarked ;"* but its apparent sim|ilicily conceals a 

 scale of grailation the fulness of which may be more difficult to compass 

 than the pronounced ellects of confined light. Hence the unaflVcted cha- 

 racter of " Venetian shade ; and hence, at the same time, its powers in 

 marking the essentials of form, while it leaves the general idea of colour 

 unimpaired.-' 



If the artists of the northern schools may be accused of sometimes em- 

 ploying the ellects of a confined light for scenes supposed to take place 

 umler llie broad atmosphere, the Italian painters (for the practice was not 

 confined to llie Venetians) must be acknowledged to have as often adopted 

 the opposite course ; viz., that of representing scenes in interiors as if seen 

 under a diffused light. They appear to have thought that objects so illu- 

 mined are more intelligible in pictures requiring tube seen at a distance 

 (as was the case with altar-pieces), and that such effects are in themselves 

 more large and beautiful. 



The ellects themsehei, though derived from the observation of nature in 

 the open air, were produced by various artitices in Italian painting-rooms. 

 The mobt common (still in use) was that of employing oiled paper iubtead 

 of, or before, the glass of the window. A Mationna of Uaphael's takes its 

 name (dell' Impannata) from the oiled paper window, probably that of the 

 painter's studio, in the background. Leonardo da A'lnci, who is careful to 

 distinguish between ombrii, " the diminution of light," aud tencbre, "the 

 privation of light,"-' frequenily recommends attention to the effects above 

 described, and speaks of the modes (probably then coiumoii) of producing 

 them. He remarks that objects seen in a diffused light are more beautiful 

 than when lighted from a confined source, and that when represented in 

 pictures they are more intelligible at a distance.^® He recommends 

 the mitigated light of evening, or of cloudy weather, in preference to 

 the direct light of the sun, in order that shadows may have due grada- 

 tion. ^^ He observes, that not only the equal force but the hardness of the 

 boundaries of such shadows, if imitated in pictures, tends to render objects 

 confused when seen at a distance. ^o The latter appearances (hard-edged 

 shadows), he adds, "are especially condemned by painters." His contri- 

 vance for securing the larger effects which he recommends, is to stretch a 

 linen awning across an open court. In one instance he suggests that the 

 walls should be blackened ; in another, that they should be painted flesh 

 colour, and be altogether open to the sky. Elsewhere he mentions the 

 "Impannata" (forordiuary lights);^' aud again proposes an expedient, 

 similar in its resulls, for softeuiug the edges and varying the strength of 

 shadows liy lamp light. 



Neither Leonardo nor the Venetians were ever deficient in force ; but the 

 latter in making the fullest use of the principle thus dwelt on by the Flo- 

 rentine compensated for their comparatively small amount of ' tenebre,' 

 as nature compensates for it, viz., by intense local colours. This resource 

 never led them lu ueglect the study of chiaro-sciiro on their own large, aud, 

 it may be added, difficult principles, but only served to conceal its artifice. 

 So inlent were they on securing relief, as well as breadth of general effect 

 by means of light and shade, that they frequently defined the perspective 



balance of light and shade. The expression is, however, usual and allowable, and the 

 Venetians themselves w ere not more accurate ; their technical term tor ' lighting up' with 

 the brush, was • coimiiare,' from colmo, summit, most prominent point. See Uoschini, 

 la Carta del Navegar Pitoresco. Ven. 1660, p. 2t^8.— Light in hnllows, or rather slight 

 concavities (called by the French artists 'aillons luminenx'), is hardly an Jexception. In 

 some cases, for exam[)le in plai^ter casts, the appearance is assisted by a difference of tint. 



25 Tiuis in some of the vast compositions of Paul Veronese, although every figure 

 keeps its place, the artifice of the gradations of light escapes observation, as it does in na. 

 tnre. The Venetians seem to have considered that the oflice of light is ratiier to exhiliit 

 tile qualities of material objects than to display itself. EtTects of light are generally con- 

 fiiiefi in tiieir worlis to the distance, where, as regards figures, form and colour are no 

 longer important. 



26 Zanetti (Delia Pittura Veneziana. Ven. 1771, p. 1*9) justly observes, that in the 

 hendsof 'litian tile broader siiades do not approach the lorce of the shadows under the 

 features. Compare IJarry, Worlis, vol. ii., pp. 4.'i, 411, 51. 



2 7 I'rattato della Fittura. Roma. 1817, p. 274. 



2 8 Ih., p. '6b7. " Distinctness of local colour and precision of outline, are the peculiar 

 character of objects placed out of the eH'ect of strong (sun) light." Burnet, Practical 

 Hints on Colour in Painting, London, 184a, p. 18. 



2 9 I [J., p. SM>. When Reynolds, speaking of Vandyck's St. Sebastian, now at Munich, 

 ohseives. Hint it is painted in ills first manlier (when lie imitated Rubens and Titian;, 

 wliicb "supposes tlie sun in tile room," lie can only mean the reilected or diifused rays, 

 not the direct light, of the sun. 'Ihe picture which he describes, sufficiently proves that 

 the latter eflect is not imilaled. In some of Rubens's works, however, the elfect ap- 

 proaches tliat of the direct sun-iipht. 



3o lb., p. 71. He elsewhere observes that objects represented with masses of intense 

 shade, instead of appearing distinct at a distance, appear 'tinted.' Dark shades undtr 

 such iircuuistances, ^ilaving no longer the quality of depth,) assume the elfect of neutral 

 colours. lb. 248. — 1 he eiiual lorce of shade in many of tiuercino's pictures might exem- 

 plify tiie ju-stness of Leonardo's remarks on that poiut, but the works of Paul Veronese 

 olten cxhiliit a modiiied an'l agreeable use of cast shadows. In preserving their com- 

 parative sharpness he reduces their force, so as to give the impression of a mitigated sun- 

 light. 



3, lb, p. 711. The impannata mny mean cloth as well as oiled paper, fifost of these 

 contrivances, although not without interest as connected wiih the Italian practice of ait, 

 are obviously fit only for a brigiit climate; but the observation of nature and the technical 

 expedients which were then habitual to the artists had also relation to the due effect of 

 works in vast localities. It was tlie more essential to preserve the general appearances of 

 natnru in colour and light aud shade, because the forms in votive altar-pieces were often 

 individual. 



