1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



30» 



usual range of subjects ; but in this instance, again, the criterion, as 

 such, may be admissible. Thus, assuming the representation to be 

 dilated to its full measure, details of costume, ilhision, and even the 

 more delicate varieties of colour are no longer fitted for the dimen- 

 sions. But in proportion as the subordinate excellences of imitation 

 are excluded by the nature of the existing technical conditions, the 

 display of the nobler qualities still attainable becomes more necessary. 

 As the resources of art become more circumscribed, the artist's aim 

 becomes elevated. In the highest style of painting, as in sculpture, 

 the representation of inanimate substances ceases to be satisfactory 

 when they no longer directly assist impressions of beauty or gran- 

 deur : and the styles of art in which the living form can be least dis- 

 pensed with, are precisely those which, by the abstract character of 

 their imitation, render it least objectionable. 



The foregoing considerations may warrant the conclusion that the 

 grandest style of art is best displayed in large dimensions. It will 

 also follow that the treatment of subjects fitted for such dimensions, 

 must tend to ennoble the style and taste of the artist. 



Works of such magnitude, cannot be often in demand for ordinary 

 dwelling-houses: hence, while pictures are excluded from churches, 

 the places in which it is possible and desirable to employ the higher 

 branches of art will be the national and municipal public buildings ; 

 all localities, in a word, where painting can be displayed to the public 

 in its highest and most didactic form. 



But will such opportunities and means of encouragement be suffi- 

 ciently numerous and enduring? The answer to this important ques- 

 tion can be best anticipated Ijy the exertions of the artists ; it may be 

 reasonably expected that the employment of native talent in a great 

 national building, will serve as an example throughout the country, 

 and that the style of art which will be thus recommended and pro- 

 moted, may he even adopted in fit situations for the decoration of the 

 mansions and villas of affluent individuals. 



In answer to the third question proposed, namely, whether the en- 

 couragement of historical painting, may tend to alter the direction of 

 the taste and practice of those artists pursuing a hitherto more thriv- 

 ing and popular branch afart? it may be allowable to observe that 

 even such a danger would be no just argument against the employment 

 of deserving candidates for fame in another department. But the 

 long neglected interests of the historical painters, can, it is believed, 

 be promoted without interfering in any degree with the prosperity of 

 the class in question. That school is already formed; and the cause 

 to which it chiefly owed its rise, — the possibility of its productions 

 being placed in apartments of ordinary dimensions, must ensure its 

 duration; added to which, the societies for the encouragement of art 

 by subscription and lottery, have solely in view the acquisition and 

 distribution of comparatively small pictures. The object now is to 

 find opportunities as til, (they cannot possibly be as numerous,) for the 

 development and dispUiv of historical painting on a large scale. 

 Whatever may be the influence of the proposed encouragement on the 

 rising generation of artists, it is at all events desirable that inclination 

 should be free ; that the inheritors of that enthusiasm which prompted 

 the best English artists of the last century, to ofter to decorate St. 

 Paul's Cathedral and other buildings at their own expense, may no 

 longer ask in vain even for space. 



The general tendency of the national talent, has been hitherto con- 

 sidered in a great measure apart from the question of the actual qua- 

 lification of the artists. It may be sufficient, in reference to this part 

 of the subject, to acknowledge that the difficulties of the style of art 

 which is now proposed, may be peculiarly great in England, owing to 

 the circumstances before adverted to, and that no common energy 

 may be necessary to surmount such difficulties. But while the artists 

 are expected to show themselves worthy of entering on that career 

 which is now opening to them, it is but just to remind the enlightened 

 judges of art who refer to the great works of other countries, that 

 those works were the result of repeated essays, and that considerable 

 time was necessary for the formution of the taste and practice of those 

 who produced them. In justice to the artists, the trial should be 

 as fairh' made in England. 



On ordinary occasions the imitative arts may be considered as ad- 

 ventitious embellishments, but in proposing to adorn an important 

 national edifice where it is essential that a characteristic unity of 

 design should be maintained thro\igliout, painting should appear as 

 the auxiliary of architectiue. It was thus that it wiis employed in the 

 best ages of Greece and Italy, and it was thus that its highest develop- 

 ment was ensured. In the present instance the chief decorations in 

 painting will be required to be on an extensive scale. The difficulty 

 of keeping large masses of c uivas well sti etched during all changes of 

 weather. h;is been cunsiderett an objection to the employment of that 

 material under such circumstances. The evil here alluded to may be 

 seeu in its worst form, in the ceiling of the chapel at Whitehall, owing 



to the surface of the paintings being highly varnished. The fittest 

 kindsof painting, for the decoration of architecture, are those which 

 can he applied, when required, to every surface, curved as well as 

 plain, and for such general decoration, fresco— recommended as it is 

 by the example of the great masters— appears to be better adapted 

 than anv other method. 



The objections to the employment of fresco in London, on ;iccount 

 of the smoke, have not been overlooked, and various information re- 

 specting the mode of cleaning such paintings has been collected. The 

 opinions of Director Cornelius on the subject will be found in his 

 statements. Professor Hess, on being consulted on this point,* re- 

 marked that "if frescos were painted in the open air in London, the 

 rain would be the best picture cleaner." The observation is so far 

 important, that it assumes the possibility of washing frescos freely 

 without injury to the colours. Mr. Thomas Barker, of Bath, who 

 painted a fresco of considerable extent in that city some years since, 

 ^fites ;•(•—" To clean fresco from smoke, I know of no mode so 

 simple and efficacious as washing the surface with pure water, using 

 a soft sponge in the operation." Mr. Barker elsewhere observes :— 

 " it is now seventeen years since the completion of that work;" (the 

 fresco he painted)— "if anv change has taken place, it is in the colour- 

 ing having become much more eft'ective than when first completed." 

 Mr. Andrew Wilson writes from CTenoaX that frescos there are cleaned 

 w ith vinegar, so as to look as fresh as when first painted. Carlo Ma- 

 ratti used wine in washing the Vatican frescos, and succeeded in 

 restoring the principal paintings notwithstanding the injuries and 

 neglect of nearly two centnries.i> There seems, therefore, to be no 

 reasonable ground of apprehension on this account. With regard to 

 the effect of the English climate, no very accurate conclusions can be 

 arrived at, as the examples of older frescos in this country are not 

 numerous. About the middle of the last century some frescos were 

 executed at West Wvcorabe Park, by Guiseppe Borgnis, a Milanese, 

 under the auspices of Francis Lord Le Despenser. The paintings are 

 exposed to the open air, yet those in the east portico and south colon- 

 nade and loggia, are iii general remarkably well preserved. The 

 paintings in the west portico, from whatever cause, have suffered con- 

 siderably. The east portico is an agreeable example of the union of 

 fresco-painting with architecture; in the soffit is a copy of Guido's 

 Aurora. Some ceilings in the interior appear to be painted in oil. 



As Ion" as any doubt is expressed as to the mode in which the an- 

 tique paintings which have been preserved were executed, II it may 

 not be allowed to quote those works as examples of the durability of 

 fresco painting in particular ; but they afford strong evidence of the 

 durability of painting on well prepared walls. Sufficient examples, 

 however, of frescos, properly so called, that have stood for many cen- 

 turies, exist in Italv. Among them may be mentioned : at Padua the 

 works of Avanzo, though injured in lately removing the whitewash 

 with which thev were covered ; in Florence those of Benozzo Gozzoli 

 in the Palazzo Ricardi, of Angelico da Fiesole, Masaccio, and others; 

 in Perugia those of Perugino ; in Assisi those of Giotti, (the vows of 

 St. Francis) ;1I these works belong to the 14th and 15th centuries. 

 In S. Giacomo, Spello, Orvieto, Pisa, Siena, and Rome, various ex- 

 amples by the earlier masters are in good preservation, when unhurt 

 by violence. The works of Luini, at Saronno and Lugano, may be 

 mentioned as remarkable instances of frescos in perfect preservation 

 after three centuries.** It has been supposed thst the sea air at 

 Venice may have affected the few frescos painted in that city ; but in 

 Genoa, where the influence of the sea air is more immediate, and the 

 effect of storms more severely felt, frescos have lasted on the external 

 walls of houses for some centuries.'l"!' 



The practice of fresco painting, as far as description can explain 

 it, is sufficiently detailed in the papers of the Appendix which follow, 

 but it may be desirable briefly to examine its general qualities as a 

 means of representation. 



Its difficulties are not to be dissembled; they are, however, not the 

 difficulties of the mere method, but arise from the necessity of an 

 especial attention to those qualities which rank highest in art; qual- 



*■ By Mr. Wdliam Thomas, r February 10, 1842, 



:, February 28, 1842, c , at 



i Memoir in the secoml eilitiou of Bellori's Life of t, Maratti, 

 I! According to .Sir Humphrey Davy's experimenis, the anlKiue pauitmg 

 called the AkloljramliLii Marriage was umiuestionaLily executed m,fresco; no 

 colours were found in it but such as stand in Iresco, and the w nte pigment 

 was lime. Other paintings appear, from his description ot the materials, 

 to have been e.Kecuted in trmpna, though he calls them Iresco ; l)Ut no wax 

 (tisedin tl>efHca«,rf;c metlKKl)Has ioun.l in ;iny ol the 5|;ecimtus exainmed 

 bv this great chemist in Komc, (.Sec'lhe Philosophical liansaciions, Iblj, 

 p. 97), In Pompeii specimens ul encaustic are s.tid to be tiequent, 

 1i Letter from Professor i'lrnst Deger of Diisseldorf, kh March, 1842, 

 -* Communication from Mr, Liulnig Giuner, 

 rr Letter from Mr. Andrew Wilson, Genoa, 28th February, 1842, 



