122 ; THE FINE ARTS. 
of years has not yet been discovered (see Architecture, p. 10). On the 
other hand, modern art has gained great triumphs over the ancients in the 
composition and design of these wall-paintings, succeeding, as it has done, 
in spite of the necessarily hurried execution of fresco-paintings, in imparting 
to them the same ease of motion and drapery and the same delicate effects 
of light and shade that characterize the most elaborate easel-painting. It 
is with regard to this great accomplishment that modern fresco-painting 
may lay claim to the highest appreciation, being in fact an entirely new 
art. From the architectonic point of view it is as yet far behind the 
technical perfection of the Egyptian art, and it is therefore unjustifiable to 
employ it in the exterior decoration of buildings, as has been freely done in 
recent times; for, as it cannot resist the influence of the weather for any 
considerable length of time, it tends,after a short period of splendor, in its 
decay to destroy the beauty of the edifices which it was intended to 
enhance. 7 
We now come to the easel-paintings; and in this department the works of 
the 13th down to the close of the 14th century have already something 
grandly religious to show. The figures are simple, and the features are 
typical, ideal, and dignified. The draperies have large round folds simply 
arranged, and the colors are bright. The general mode of painting is in 
distemper, with the white of eggs for an agglutinant, on a chalk ground 
and on panels of wood, which were sometimes covered with canvas. The 
entire ground was gilded or ornamented with gold, and many parts of 
the pictures were adorned in like manner. Paintings were also executed 
on slate; indeed the oldest picture, which bears the date of 1224 and is 
preserved in the church of St. Ursula at Cologne, is painted on that 
substance. The first master of eminence is Hans of Cologne, who settled 
at Chemnitz in 1307; he there adorned the high altar of St. James’s church 
with a large altar-piece, and in the church of Ehrenfriedersdorf he decorated 
the altar with the side wings and many gilded figures. We have panel 
pictures too of the date of 1310 by the above mentioned fresco-painters 
Wurmser and Theodoric in Prague and on the Karlstein; and here these 
masters founded a school of their own. There is likewise a Crucifiaion 
by Wurmser in Vienna; but the works of Theodoric are the better of the 
two. Oil-painting was brought into use at the close of the 14th century by 
the brothers Van Eyck. Of much more importance than the Prague 
school was that founded in 1380 by Master Wilhelm at Cologne, the art of 
which at the opening of the following century had attained a singular 
state of perfection. Master Wilhelm’s pieces display a mild and gentle 
character; the forms of the heads are roundish, the draperies full and 
majestic; the colors are bright, well blended, and light, and are soft and 
airy in their texture. Of Master Wilhelm’s works the following should be 
mentioned: the altar of the chapel of St. John in the cathedral of Cologne, 
the altar in the city museum of Cologne, the Veronica in the Munich 
Pinakothek, and a couple of panels in Boisserée’s collection. Somewhat 
younger is Master Stephan of Cologne, the chief painter of the cathedral. 
From him we have the famous picture of the Adoration of the Kings, which 
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