1846. 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



115 



depth of their compositions and the place of each figure by means of chiaro- 

 scuro alone. Tintoret was in the habit of placing large paintings thus 

 studied, but before any colour was added, in the situation which they were 

 ultimately to occupy, in order to judge of their elTect and keeping =*- The 

 habits of the Venetian and other colourists in thus occasionally prepar- 

 ing their pictures may be adverted to hereafter in au inquiry into the early 

 methods of oil painting. 



Form. 

 The treatment of form^^ which is applicable to pictures intended to be 

 seen at some distance, has been already partly considered in reference to 

 certain works by the great Italian masters. It is further to be ohservrd 

 that the means employed to insure distinctness in this department of paint- 

 ing may, without due caution, tend to confound its style with that of 

 sculpture. It is obvious that forms are most intelligible when they are 

 freest from peculiarities; iherefore when in any extreme case it may be 

 necessary to counteract indisiinclness, it would appear that a generalized 

 treatment is indispensable. But in sculpture this intelligible appearance 

 can only be produced by means of form ; whereas in painting, colour 

 (which in like manner admits of a generalized treatment) can powerfully 

 contribute to such a result. The representation of figures of unusually 

 colossal dimensions need not be supposed '■'* 



The grandest examples of painted figures on a colossal scale — the Pro- 

 phets and Sibyls, by Michael Angelo, in the ceiling of tiie Sistine Cliapel 

 — do not exceed 15 feet. In such representations, as those celebrated 

 works prove, painting can still maintain its complete independence as 

 compared with the sister art. The figures in question though, strictly 

 speaking, abstract conceptions, have the force of cliaracter of real beings. 

 It is also to be observed that in the subjects by Kaphael in the Vatican, 

 the treatment of form does not approach the conditions of sculpture ; as a 

 proof of this it is to bt remarked that the portraits introduced in those 

 compositions do not appear incongruous. Thus, although it ma) be ad 

 mitted that the most intelligible forms are those which are freest from 

 accident, and that such forms must be best calculated fur works intended 

 to be viewed at some distance, yet it appears that, even in the most limited 

 styles of painting, the degree of generalization which is necessary, with a 

 view merely to distinctness, need nut be confounded witli the more abstract 

 beauty of sculpture. If, again, the subject should require an approxima 

 tion to the latter, the full display of the proper attributes of painiing, 

 which may be compatible with the existing extermd conditions, is indi- 

 spensable. Thus colour enables painiing to vary its forms and characters 

 consistently with the intelligible ell'ect at present assumed to be requi.-.ile, 

 and is, therefore, the department of this art in which au abstract treatment 

 can be best adopted consistently with its independence of sculpture. In 

 general, the region of the 'ideal' (the largest view of nature) is more 

 safely approached by means of artributes which are exclusively character- 

 istic of the art; the poetic impressions of each mode of representation are 

 then of a distinct order. 



But to whatever extent characteristic details in living forms would be 

 admissible in the higher styles of painting, the causes referred to wouhl 

 unquestionably operate to limit the introduction of in.iuiinate objects and 

 accessories, and would influence their treatment. 



It is unnecessary to repeat what has been before observed on this sub- 

 ject ; a consideration in connection with it is how ever not to be overlooked. 

 Next to the great requisite that each mode of representation should rest 

 chiefly on its own resources, the works of great artists teach the principle 

 that the notilest object of imitation should always be the nearest to nature. 

 In sculpture, and in painiing when employed to represent human actors, 

 this noblest object is life, with its attributes of action and thought. VV hen 

 the field fur displaying this quality is even confined to a head, it is still 

 required that no circumstance represented should surpass it in complete- 

 ness of imitation. Rarely in the works of the best Greek sculptors or in 

 those of the excellent modern painters does an inanimate object exceed in 

 truth the representation of the living surface. The contrivances with a 

 view to insure this insubordination are, necessarily, most daring in sculp- 

 ture, in which certain qualities are in danger of being confounded with 

 reality. It will generally be found that tlie en ployment of cunventionul 

 methods (as opposed to the more direct truth of lepresentation) increases 

 in proportion as objects are easily imitable, and, consequently, in danger of 

 interfering with the higher aim. Thus, to take an extreme case, rocks, 



3 2 Seethe introductory "Breve Instruzione" in Boschini's Ricche Minere delta Pit- 

 tura Veneziana. Van. 1674. Tintoret and Bassan, ttie darkest of the Venetian painters, 

 are still examples, in their main aim, of llie principles ol the school, 'their study of 

 chiaro-scuro was, however, more derived from interior and evrn from nocturnal effects. 

 Both were in the habit of using Lmall modyU illumined arUhcially ; less (in Hassan's cast) 

 for the sake of noting accidents of light than for the purpose of observing its gradrttion on 

 objects more or less removed from its SLturce. Boschiui remarks tliat, with the Venetian 

 painters, "every room answered the purpose of the open air;" meaning that they could 

 give the eflfects of open light, either from contrivances like those above mentioned, or 

 from observation and practice, wherever they might be placed while painniip. See La 

 Carta del Navegar, &c., pp. 72, l;i7, &c. ; and Ridoifi, Delle fltaraviglie dell* Arte. Ven. 

 16-IS. vol.2, p. 5-5. 



8 3 The 'differences of form' (almost another word for the visible world) can only be 

 classed in their abstract elements, viz., as mere lines. These may vary in position, direc- 

 tion, and eiLtent. Lines are said to be massed by extension ; they may be contrasted in 

 their direction, and are repeated by parallelism. 



3 4 It is reuiarkable that the only ancient example on record of painting thus employed 

 (bycommnud of Nero) was a portrait. The figure, painted on cloth, measured more llian 

 101) feet. The extreme modern instance, a consequence of the folly of the artist rather 

 than of his employers, is the cupola of the cathedral at Florence, begun by Vasari, and 

 finished by Zuccaro. One of the fig\'.res, if erect, would be about 50 feet. See Puny, 1. 

 35, c. 7, and Kugler, ib., p, 385. 



which in marble are sometimes made identical with nature (thereby be- 

 traying the incompleteness of the art), are generally conventional in fine 

 sculpture. Witness the basso-rilievo of Perseus and Andromeda, anil 

 various examples in statues where rocks form the support of the figure. 

 In order to reduce what would easily amount to literal reality to the con- 

 ditions of art, the substance in this instance is, so to spenk, uncharacter- 

 ized.^-'* 



In painting, the instances are rare in which such absolute identity with 

 nature is possible's The represenlation of a flat surface, of coloured 

 patterns, and painted objects, are almost the only cases ; and fjir less arti- 

 fice is sufficient to reduce them lo the conditions of imitation. But as 

 regards the necessity of superior truth in the living surface, compared with 

 all other objects, the principle is the same as in sculpture. The contriv- 

 ances to insure this superiority, without violaling nature or betraying the 

 artifice, are among the distinguishing merits of fine pictures. Inanimate 

 objects may often form a considerable part of a composition, and therefore 

 cannot be neglected; the colourists, as has been often observed, have contrived 

 to give interest to such subordinate materials, by dwelling on a portion only 

 of ihe qualities of the substance, and selecting such qualities, willi a view 

 to give value to the flesh, as if they were merely forced into notice by the 

 existing comparison. In the instances in sculpture where absolute identity 

 with nature is to be guarded against, it appears that the substance requires 

 to be in a great measure uncharacterized ; in the cases now referred to, 

 the objects are only partially characterized. The principle is, however, 

 the same in both methods ; art is permi ted, or rather required, to be ap- 

 parent, in proporiiou as nature is in danger of being too nearly ap- 

 proached. 



Colour. 



The general treatment of colour which is calculated to assist distinct- 

 ness, cannot be better exemplified than by the practice of the Venetiaa 

 school. It may be first necessary lo recur to the elementary facts before 

 noticed. 



It was observed, that an object in nature can only be apparent by dif- 

 fering in its visible attributes from what surrounds it ; its distinctness iu a 

 word, supposes the presence of some or more qualities which are wanting 

 elsewhere. Thus, the imitation of the appearances of nature is especially 

 conversant wilb diHereu'^es ; it is opposed lo (absolute) equality, and is 

 founded on Gradation and Contrast. 



The Ursi, a dilleieuce of degree, comprehends Magnitude and Light- 

 and-sliade. By means of their varieties, — peispective, depth, relief, and 

 roundness, in other words, substance and space ate represeuled.3 ' 



The second, a difterence of kind, comprehends Form and Colour; by 

 means of which physical and even moral characteristics are expressed. 

 Position, as an incommunicable attribute, belongs to the same category. 



The possible inlerchaiige of these two sources of variety (as regards 

 their effects), is constantly exemplified in nature and iu art. An abrupt 

 difference of degree amounts, practically, to contrast; the full scale of 

 diH'ereucesof kind involves gradation. Contrast itself is imperfect with- 

 out the auxiliary element, by means of which equality even of antagonism 

 is prevented and one impression predominates. 



The great oflice of colour is then to distinguish. Each object in nature 

 has its own hue as well as ils own form, and hence the origin of the 

 painters' term 'local colour.' This characleristic diflerence becomes more 

 strikingly conspicuous at a moderate distance, when objects are seen as 

 wholes, and in their largest relations and oppositions ; for in a nearer 

 view, the eye is necessarily more confined to their component varieties. 



On the contrary, light and shade, being common to all substances, and 

 presenting differences of degree only, is less powerful at a distance as a 

 means of distinguishing objects from each other; but in a nearer view, 

 when its infinite gradations are appreciable, it is sufficient, without the 

 addition of colour, to express the relative position even of contiguous 

 objects, as well as of their component parts. 



Accordingly, while chiaro-scuro in all its richness and delicacy is in- 

 dispensable in pictures that are to be viewed near, colour is no less 

 desirable in colossal works, or in such as can only be seen at a distance. 



When emplojed under such circumstances by the Venetians, its larger 

 app arance, above described, was selected in preference. The ' local hue,' 

 displayed and influenced as it must be by what surrounds it, was espe- 

 cially dwelt on by them as a means of insuring distinctness. The union 

 of due variety (a union which, in all cases, taste alone can define), with 

 this integrity of local tint, has been considered to be one of the great 

 excellencies of Titian, who, uevertlieless, changed his style — accordingly 

 as his works were to be seen in vast balls and churches, or in ordinary 

 apartments — from the most daring force of local colour to the fuller har- 

 as The same liberty is obseivable in sculptured armour as treated by the antienlj • 

 sharpness is avoided, and the polish does not surpass, sometimes does not eijual, that tf 

 the flesh. In like nicnner steps, or any purtions of architecture, arc irregular. On a 

 similar principle, p-obably, the iiiscriptious on the finest antique medals are rudely form- 

 ed ; for it cannot be supposed that the artists who could treat the figures aud heads so 

 exquisitely could have been at a loss to execute mechanical details with precision. 



3« fliere form is, or may be such an iusi-ance ; but as, in painting, the imitation ol sub- 

 stance and space is more or less incomplete, the literal truth of the mere outline, whea 

 present, is in no danger of confounding the work with nature. 



3' The diherences of degree which all visible qualities and their 'forms' may exhibit 

 arc perhaps to be resolved into modifications or abstractions of Magniiude and Light, the 

 representatives of mere gradation. Position comprehends augmenting or diminishing in- 

 tervals. Colour, degrees of warmth and coldness, transparency aud opacity, purity and 

 commixture, intensity ami lightness. The boundaries of substance, degrees of sharpness 

 and softness in their relief. Mere lines, degrees of extent. 



15* 



