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CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT
FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY

HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE

 
ural painting
 

 

 

 

SOME PRESS OPINIONS OF
“INTARSIA AND MARQUETRY’”

THE FIRST BOOK OF THE SERIES

“There is a grandeur of design, beauty of detail, and everywhere sympathy
with the material.”"—Spectator.

‘*By the compilation of this work Mr. F. Hamilton Jackson has laid the
student and the craftsman under some obligation. Both have long felt the
want of a handbook which would outline the history and describe the processes
and technicalities of the craft... . Interesting and valuable information may
be gained by the connoisseur, the student, and the craftsman.”

Journal of Royal Institute of British Architects.

‘*We can recommend Mr. Hamilton Jackson’s book to all artists and workers
in these arts, and to all admirers and collectors.”— Yorkshire Post,

‘The book is, we should say, the best on the subject yet published in this
country, and no student of the kindred crafts of intarsia and marquetry should
fail to obtain a copy.”—Birmingham Post.

“The fashion of the moment is for the merest beginner to trust to his own at
best problematical invention. This can only end in the débdcle of design.
When the rude awakening comes the designer will turn with eagerness to books
like this in which he may learn what is known of the history of a craft, the
scope and limitations of the material employed, and the methods of treating it.”

Manchester Guardian,

‘‘A most attractive and useful volume on a decorative art that is much less
studied in England than it deserves to be. Fully and most effectively illus-
trated as it is, the book ought to prove of great value to students. .. .
Example and teaching abound in Mr. Jackson's excellent manual.”

Westminster Gazette.

“The Author performs a useful task in directing attention to the proper
function of inlaying within its own limitations. Many brilliant workers who
have been engaged in this form of decoration are recalled.... The art is
one that has great fascination, so that there must be many amateurs as well as
professional designers who will be glad of the practical guidance that the book
provides.”—Morning Post.

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

PRESS OPINIONS—continued.

“A very complete history of the art from the very earliest times down to the
present day. ... The illustrations are excellent.”—Scotsman.

“The illustrations, which are particularly numerous, and, as a rule, well
produced, afford additional illumination to a subject of much interest.”
Publishers’ Circular.
“A complete and comprehensive study of a fascinating handicraft at various
stages of its history. The historic part is excellently treated, and practical
hints are not lacking. Many and excellent illustrations.”
St. James's Gazette.
“, .. Will appeal to a wider circle than the actual worker, for it gives an
interesting glimpse of a certain phase of Italian life at the Renaissance. . . .
Well written, and admirably illustrated.”—Guardian.

“It is a highly valuable series."—School Government Chronicle.

“The work is a most complete one, and deals with the subject from every
point of view; while the illustrations and workshop receipts add immensely to
its value.”—Jvish Times.

“(We have already referred to the wealth of historical matter of vast interest
to those not only fond of the craft itself, but of the memory of the great
masters in it which Mr. Jackson has got together in this small compass.”

The Builder.

“An admirable and exhaustive work... . Stands unique as an authority
upon the subject with which it deals."—The House.

“No more practical volume of the ‘ Designer’s and Craftsman’s Handbooks’
than the unit contributed by Mr. F. H. Jackson. It may help to revive and
inform a branch of art decoration which has always languished in this country,
besides affording numerous designs from the best period, the ‘idea’ of which
can be extended, varied, and applied almost indefinitely in any material and on
any surface.”—The Bookseller.

SANDS & CO.
LONDON AND EDINBURGH

 

 

 

 
MURAL PAINTING
 

 

OTHER VOLUMES OF THE SERIES
By the same Author

Intarsia and Marquetry

Mosaic and Marble Inlay for Floor, Wall, and
Vault

 

 
HANDBOOK FOR THE DESIGNER AND CRAFTSMAN

 

MURAL PAINTING

BY

F. HAMILTON JACKSON

EXAMINER TO THE BOARD OF EDUCATION IN PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENT
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY OF DESIGNERS

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

London
SANDS AND COMPANY

1904
GENERAL PREFACE TO THE SERIES

Ir there is one quality which more than another
marks the demand of the present day it is the re-
quirement of novelty. In every direction the question
which is asked is not “Is this fresh thing good? Is
it appropriate to, and well-fitted for, its intended
uses?” but “Is it novel?” And the constant change
of fashion sets a premium upon the satisfaction of
this demand and enlists the commercial instinct on
the side of perpetual change. While there are direc-
tions in which this desire is not altogether harmful,
since at least many monstrosities offend our eyes but
for a short time, a full compliance with it by the
designer is likely to prove disastrous to his reputation,
and recent phases in which an attempt has been made
to throw aside as effete and outworn the forms which
have gradually grown with the centuries, and to
produce something entirely fresh and individual, have
shown how impossible it is at this period of the
world’s history to dispense with tradition, and, escap-
ing from the accumulated experience of the race, set
vi MURAL PAINTING

forth with childlike natveté. Careful study of these
experiments discloses the fact that in as far as they
are successful in proportion and line they approach
the successes of previous generations, and that the
undigested use of natural moéé/s results not in nourish-
ment but in nightmare.

The object aimed at by this series of handbooks
is the recall of the designer and craftsman to a saner
view of what constitutes originality by setting before
them something of the experience of past times, when
craft tradition was still living and the designer had
a closer contact with the material in which his design
was carried out than is usual at present. Since both
design and craftsmanship, as known until the end of
the eighteenth century, were the outcome of centuries
of experience of the use of material and of the en-
deavour to meet daily requirements, it may be justly
called folly to cast all this aside as the fripperies
of bygone fashion which cramp the efforts of the
designer, and attempt to start afresh without a rag
of clothing, even if it were possible. At the same
time it is not intended to advocate the direct copyism
of any style, whether regarded as good, bad, or
indifferent. Some minds find inspiration in the
contemplation of natural objects, while others find
the same stimulus in the works of man. The fashion
of present opinion lays great stress upon the former
GENERAL PREFACE vii

source of inspiration, and considers the latter heretical,
while, with a strange inconsistency, acclaiming a form
of design based upon unnatural contortions of growth,
and a treatment which is often alien to the material.
It is the hope of the author to assist the second class
of mind to the rivalling of the ancient glories of
design and craftsmanship, and perhaps even to convert
some of those whose talents are at present wasted
in the chase of the will-o’-the-wisp of fancied novelty
and individuality. Much of what appears to the
uneducated and ill-informed talent as new is really
but the re-discovery of motifs which have been tried
and abandoned by bygone masters as unsuitable, and
a greater acquaintance with their triumphs is likely,
one would hope, to lead students, whether designers
or craftsmen, to view with disgust undigested designs
indifferently executed which have little but a fancied
novelty to recommend them.

It is intended that each volume shall contain an
historical sketch of the phase of design and craft
treated of, with examples of the successful overcoming
of the difficulties to be encountered in its practice,
workshop recipes, and the modes of producing the
effects required, with a chapter upon the limitations
imposed by the material and the various modes of
evading those limitations adopted by those who have
not frankly accepted them.

A2
PREFACE

Ir must be premised that this handbook does not con-
cern itself with the practice of the ordinary painter
and decorator, in the sense in which those words are
generally used, but only with those higher forms of
decoration for which the assistance of the artist is
required.

The modes of decorating a wall-surface by means of
paint divide themselves roughly into those in which
the colour is solely on the surface of the wall and those
in which the colour penetrates that surface; though
this is perhaps merely a question of the thickness of
the skin of colour and the thoroughness with which
the colour is attached to the surface.

Another mode of division is afforded by the differ-
ence of the medium employed to attach the colours,
and in which they are ground or with which they are
mixed, and both of these modes of classification and
differentiation will be made use of in this handbook.

The first process treated of is true fresco, “ buon
fresco,” which was for a long time considered the ideal
x MURAL PAINTING

mode of decorating a wall-surface, and which prescribes
certain conventions which are undoubtedly advantage-
ous to the work ; fresco secco and tempera come next,
as being closely connected with it, and the modern pro-
cesses of water-glass or soluble silicate follow, for
which absolute permanence is claimed. In all these
processes the medium in which the colours are ground
is pure water. Next the processes in which wax and
essential oils are used are described, and finally those
which are simply modifications of ordinary oil painting
applied to a wall. The preparation of the wall itself
is of the greatest importance to the permanence of any
painting which may be attached to it, or executed upon
it, and a few general remarks may be made which are
applicable to all grounds; but the mode of final treat-
ment differs so greatly in different processes that
details must be given of the preparation under each
head, necessitating a certain amount of repetition for
which the author hopes he may be forgiven.

While a certain amount of historical detail is in-
separable from the treatment of such a subject as
mural painting, it is evident that anything like a com-
plete summary of styles and schools, giving their dis-
tinguishing marks and characteristics, cannot be
attempted in handbooks of the nature of those in this
series without making them overbulky and unwieldy ;
and there has, therefore, been no attempt to give
PREFACE xi

anything but the merest suggestion in the present
case.

The following books have been consulted: Vitruvius,
and Pliny’s Natural History ; Didron’s translation of
the Mount Athos Manual, Hendrie’s Theophilus, Mrs.
Herringham’s Cennini and Mrs. Merrifield’s transla-
tion of the same book, Sir Charles Eastlake’s Materials
for a History of Oil Painting, Hittorff's Restitution du
temple d’Empédocle a Selinonte, Cros and Henry’s
LP’ Encaustique et les autres procédés de peinture chez les
anciens, Paillot de Montabert’s T'raité complet de la pein-
ture, Taylor’s Manual of Fresco and Encaustic Painting,
Latilla’s Treatise on Fresco, Encaustic, and Tempera
Painting, Catalani’s La Chiesa di 8. Angelo in Formis,
Schulz’s Denkmdler der Kunst Unter Italiens, Helbig’s
Wandgemiilde der vom Vesuv verschiitteten Stédte Cam-
paniens and other papers, Burckhardt’s Le Cicerone,
Forni’s Manuale del pittore restauratore, Armenini’s Det
Vert Precetti della Pittura, Lopez’ J1 battistero de
Parma, Tommaselli’s Della Cerografia, Selvatico on Oil
Painting and Tempera, The chronicle of Fra Salim-
bene, Eméric-David’s Histoire de la wpeinture au
moyen dge, Mérimée’s Handbook of Oil Painting,
Gambier Parry’s account of his process of Spirit
Fresco, Armitage’s Lectures on Painting, Professor
Church’s Chemistry of Paints and Painting, Professor
Baldwin Brown's Lectures on Art, The Journal of the
xl MURAL PAINTING

Franklin Institute, The Journal of the Society of Arts,
The Art Journal and the Quarterly Review and several
Encyclopedias, the Zeitschrift fiir Bildende Kunst, and
many articles in the publications of the various Italian
historical societies known as the Reali Deputaziont
per Storia Patria, published in the different districts of
Italy. The object has been to focus, as far as may be,
the information scattered through many publications.
Those interested in encaustic painting will find ex-
cellent practical notes in Carpentier’s Notes sur la pein-
ture & la cire cauterisée.
CONTENTS

HistoricaL SKETCH

Tue PREPARATION OF THE WALL
Fresco Painting

TEMPERA

Kerm’s Procrss FoR WALL-PAINTING
Encaustic Painting

Spirit FREsSco

O1n PROcEssES

LimITaTIoNs AND CAPABILITIES

REcEIPTS

PAGE

36
47
69
86
101
130
137
143
166
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Pompeian wall-painting. House of the Vettii .

Showing the combination of architectural arabesques,
flat coloured ground, and figure subjects.

Interior of the church of 8, Piero in Grado, near Pisa

Showing the continuance of the classical tradition and
the combination of painted architectural forms and figure
subjects,

Interior of the church of S. Angelo in Formis, Capua

The style of the decoration of this church is quite
Byzantine ; the painted architecture has disappeared.

Wall-painting at Subiaco, early thirteenth nenbLay:
Pope Gregory IX. consecrating the church .

The Ascension. Wall-painting by Cimabue in the
Upper Church of 8. Francesco, Assisi . ‘3 é

Painting by Cimabue on the vault of the Vane
Church of 8. Francesco, Assisi. F

These show how strong the decorative feeling was in
Cimabue’s work, the spacing and arrangement being always
excellent ; the ornamental details, too, form a harmonious
framing which is part of the whole composition.

The Infant Christ re in S. Francis’s arms as he

is constructing a ‘‘ Presepe” for the Christmas
festival. Wall-painting by Giotto in the ene
Church of S. Francesco, Assisi.

This is very interesting as showing the back ‘of the
screen, the ambo and great crucifix, and the ciborium
or canopy over the high altar. The masses are not so
well balanced and arranged as in Cimabue’s work, but
there is greater directness and truth of dramatic gesture.

Wall-painting by Taddeo Gaddi. Lower Church of
S. Francesco, Assisi. : x - ; "

In this the combination of flat painting and raised and
stamped plaster-work, once gilded, is well seen, which
produced a very decorative effect.

. Facing page

”

2

10

14

18

22

26

30
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Wall-painting of the fourteenth century in S. Maria
Novella, Florence : - 7 5 7 7
Here the object of the framing appears to be to copy
details of marble inlays such as were common in the

decorative architecture of some years earlier. The picture
and framing still form one whole.

Christ bearing the Cross. By Nicold di Pietro Gerini.
In the Sacristy, Santa Croce, Florence . ‘i ‘

The same feeling pervades this picture, but the details o
the framing are becoming freer and more naturalistic.

The Death of the Virgin. Fresco by Taddeo Bartoli
in the chapel of the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Portion of the Great Crucifixion by Fra Angelico in
the chapter-house of S. Marco, Florence. ,
The figures are now drawn with great naturalness and

character, especially in the heads, but the arrangement is
still architectonic.

Adoring Angels. Fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli in the
chapel of the Palazzo Riccardi, Florence. 7
Coronation of the Virgin. In the apse of the
cathedral, Spoleto. ra Filippo Lippi’s last work

Fresco by Filippino Lippi in the Brancacci chapel of
the church of the Carmine, Florence. The de-
liverance of 8. Peter from prison : . :

The dark head against the column, the commencement
of the next subject, is said to be the painter’s portrait.
Filippino Lippi completed the painting of the chapel after
the death of Masaccio and his master Masolino.

Portion of fresco by Botticelli in the Sistine chapel,
Rome. The history of Moses . ‘ . :
Detail from the same fresco’. : .

The composition is very fine, with many graceful figures,
and the mastery over material almost absolute. The
heads are many of them fine in type, and well drawn and
modelled, as the detail shows.

The Birth of the Virgin. Fresco by Domenico Ghir-
landajo, in the church of S. Maria Novella,
Florence. : , 2 . : ‘

Detail from thesame. Portrait of Lucrezia Tornabuoni

xv

Facing page 34

”

”

40

44

50

54

58

62

66
70

74
78
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

S. Jerome in his Study. By Domenico Ghirlandajo,
in the church of Ognissanti, Florence . fs . Facing page 82

These show the work of a most excellent craftsman,
who rarely rose to an imaginative grasp of his subject.
The figure of Lucrezia Tornabuoni is most beautifully and
perfectly executed ; but she and most of the other figures
lend no assistance to the realisation of the subject. The
8. Jerome is almost photographically accurate in all its
details, and is a miracle of workmanship in fresco; but
the details attract too much attention, and architectonic
arrangement has disappeared, much to the disadvantage of
the work from the point of view of decoration.

The Resurrection. Fresco by Luca Signorelli, in the
Cappella Nuova, Orvieto cathedral < , i 33 86

The ceiling of this chapel was commenced by Fra
Angelico, who was called to Rome to paint the chapel
of 8. Nicholas, in the Vatican, before he had completed it.
Signorelli succeeded him, and painted the series of frescoes
from the Book of Revelation which are on the walls, cover-
ing the lower parts with arabesques and medallions of
poets. In the corner of the fresco of the preaching of the
false prophet he has introduced the portraits of himself
and Fra Angelico.

Detail from the same : ‘i . - 3 ‘ 55 90

This detail shows the enormous advance made by Sig-
norelli in the representation of the nude, prophetic of the
triumphs of Michel Angelo. It is particularly interesting
as showing the possibility of improvement in a mature
artist, for Signorelli was over sixty at the time these
frescoes were painted, and they are by far the best things
which he produced.

Roundels from the ceiling of the Collegio del Cambio,
Perngia. By Perugino : : c Z : », 94and 96

These roundels of the planets are set among arabesques,
and show great inventiveness in composition and dexterity
in filling the space.

Cele venitey by Perugino, in the Stanza dell’
Incendio del Borgo, in the Vatican. : : as 98

This ceiling shows the same excellences in even greater
measure, and, I think, is one of the most perfectly suc-
cessful ceilings in existence, the colour and arrangement
being excellent, and the figures filling the spaces perfectly
without distortion. It is to be noted also that arabesques
and subjects fit each other, and make a whole without
either striving for the mastery, and that Raflaelle, when he
painted the walls of this room, refrained from touching the
ceiling, feeling no doubt that he could do nothing better.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fresco by Pinturricchio, in the library of Siena
Cathedral. The Betrothal of Frederick III. to
Eleanora of Portugal . ‘ 5 a : 5

The series of frescoes of which this is one represent
events in the life of Mneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who
became pope as Pius II. They were all painted in fresco
and completed in tempera, by which means they gained
great brilliancy and clearness, and are so well preserved
that they might have been painted but a few years ago.
The artist shows absolute command over his material.

Fresco by Andrea Mantegna, in the Camera degli
Sposi, in the Castle, Mantua ‘ 7 . ‘
These charming little ‘‘putti” are above the door of
entrance. The subjects show Lodovico Gonzaga, his son
Francesco, and his wife Barbara, with their court. A good
deal of gold is used in the curtains, etc., and in the centre
of the ceiling is a perspective of a balustraded opening,
through which figures look down—the first example of a
practice so much abused at a later period,

Portion of the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, Rome.
The Prophet Isaiah. By Michel Angelo. 5

Another portion of thesame, The Fall, and Sacrifice
of Noah. . . 7 ‘i 6 é <

Creation subject from the same a 5 ‘ 7
The first of these shows the arrangement of the lower
part of the barrel vault, and the other two subjects from
the central portion of the ceiling. Attention may be
drawn to the alteration in the scale of the figures and the
simplification of the composition between the Sacrifice of
Noah and the Creation subject.

The “‘ Disputa del Sacramento.” Fresco by Raffaelle,
in the Camera della Segnatura, in the Vatican .
This was the first fresco painted by Raffaelle after his
arrival in Rome, and one which he never surpassed in

colour and arrangement, although his technique became
more masterly.

Fresco by Raffaelle, from the Sala di Costantino, in
the Vatican . x ‘ é

The breadth of treatment and charm of this little figure
are beyond all praise,

The Ecstasy of 8, Catherine of Siena. Fresco by
Sodoma, in her chapel, S, Domenico, Siena . <

This is a clever composition, and a fair example of
Sodoma’s work, though not so celebrated as the series
from the life of 8. Benedict at Monte Oliveto. The com-
bination of actual and painted architecture is an ingenious
mode of removing the wall and substituting space—an
esthetic mistake,

xvii

Facing page 102

106

110

112
114

118

120

124
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Burial of S. Catherine of Alexandria. Fresco
by Luini, now in the gallery of the Brera, Milan .
A small but charming work by the artist, more really

pleasing than the enormous fresco in S. Maria degli
Angioli, Lugano, or the pretentious works at Saronno,

Spirit fresco at Lyndhurst church. By Lord Leigh-
ton, P.R.A. The Parable of the Ten Virgins :

The King’s Robing-Room, Houses of Parliament.
Frescoes by W. Dyce, R.A. . 3 : c .

Fresco of “Hospitality.” By W. Dyce, R.a, From
the King’s Robing-Room .. 3 % . ‘
These are described in the text, The knightly virtue

of Hospitality is expressed by the reception of Sir
Tristram at the Round Table.

The ‘‘Goldenes Dachl,” Innsbruck. A portion of
the Castle of Frederick of the Empty Pockets .

External wall-painting at Hallstadt. Scenes from
the Passion . a é . . : ;

These two illustrations show combinations of decorative
paintings and architectural carved forms, giving an idea of
the richness which often characterised the buildings of the
Medieval and Early Renaissance periods.

Facing page 128

”

132

136

140

146

152

The originals of these illustrations are photographs collected here and there in
Italy, some of them many years ago. There are among them photographs made
by Naya of Venice, by Alinari of Florence and Lombardi of Siena, and by
Moscionni of Rome. The negatives of Dyce’s frescoes have been made for me
(by the kind permission of H.M. Office of Works) by my friend, Mr. J. Cooper
Ashton, the companion of many delightful Italian journeys, to whom the in-

terior of 8. Piero in Grado is also due,
MURAL PAINTING

HISTORICAL SKETCH

IF the paintings in the porch and the corridor of the
Minoan palace at Cnossos, of which very interesting
drawings were exhibited at the Winter Exhibition of
the Royal Academy of Arts in 1903, are executed in
true fresco, as was stated by Dr. Evans in his paper
read before the Royal Institute of British Architects,
the process must be held to be of extreme antiquity,
since the date assigned to them is the eighteenth
century B.c.; but judging from the drawings one would
say that they were some form of tempera or “ secco,”
the mode in which the surface is shown to have peeled
off in places and the elaborate patterns painted upon
the ground-colour in contrasting colours being unlike
the technique of true fresco. The discovery of large
quantities of gypsum (sulphate of lime) in the process
of excavation makes it almost certain that the medium
used was a tempera medium, as true fresco is a pro-
cess in which carbonate of lime is formed and en-
closes the colours applied to the wet wall, while
sulphate of lime sets so quickly that even if it pro-

B
2 MURAL PAINTING

duced a similar enclosing crystallic film it would be
impossible to execute any elaborate painting upon the
surface between the laying of the plaster and its drying.
The Egyptian wall-paintings are all executed in some
form of tempera, as far as one can judge from the
analysis made of fragments of coloured plasters, which
always show some form of gum or glue, as are those
which have been found in the Etruscan tombs.

Sig. Conestabile, in describing the interesting tombs
near Orvieto discovered by Sig. Golini, speaks of the
wall-paintings as “frescoes,” and M. Des Vergers uses
the same word in speaking of other Etruscan tombs at
Ceere and Chiusi; but I think the word is only used
loosely, since the latter describes one tomb in which
armour and other objects are carved in stone and then
coloured, in the same manner.

Pliny gives details which suggest that something
called fresco was not unknown to the Greeks. He
says that Murena and Varro in their edileship had
a fine painting on the plaster of a wall at Lace-
demon cut away from the bricks and transported in
wooden frames to Rome for the purpose of adorning
the Comitium. The extract now given probably refers
to tempera. “ Ludius, who lived in the time of the late
Emperor Augustus, was the first to introduce the
fashion of covering the walls of our houses with most
pleasing landscapes, representing villas, porticoes, orna-
 

aya, ayy fo asnozy  “Buajurnd-qyon wnradog

 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 3

mental gardening, woods, groves, hills, fishponds, canals,
rivers, sea shores, and anything else one could desire :
varied with figures of persons walking, sailing, or pro-
ceeding to their villas on asses or in carriages. Then,
too, there are others to be seen fishing, fowling, or
gathering in the vintage. In some of his decorations
there are fine villas to be seen, and roads to them
across the marshes, with women making bargains to be
carried across on men’s shoulders, who move along
slipping at every step and tottering beneath their
load; with numberless other subjects of a similar
nature, redolent of mirth and of the most amusing
ingenuity. It was this artist, too, who first decorated
our uncovered edifices with representations of mari-
time cities, a subject which produces a most pleasing
effect, and at a very trifling expense.” THe also says
that in a temple at Lanuvium, which was in ruins,
were to be seen nude figures of Atalanta and of Helen,
which were of the greatest beauty, painted on the wall
and in perfect preservation. Also that the Emperor
Caligula wished to remove them, but that the plaster
would not allow of the operation being carried out
successfully. At Pompeii lime is found in all the
colours and in most of the walls only two horizontal
joinings in the plaster are to be detected, though the
figure subjects sometimes seem to have been inserted
Probably, therefore, they used some traditional method
4 MURAL PAINTING

of colouring plain surfaces in fresco handed down from
antiquity. Otto Donner says that many of these wall-
paintings are true fresco, and gives as one reason that
in some places they had been subjected to a sufficient
heat to change yellow ochre into red, which would
have destroyed any tempera medium, but the colours
still remained on the walls. He goes on to say that it
would have given him great pleasure to find a real
tempera picture, but that in his opinion all are true
fresco—that analysis found no wax in any painted
plaster except in the vermilion grounds, nor signs of
animal nor vegetable colours except the rosy colour,
which is probably “ purpurissimum,” added “a
tempera.” Tempera was only used for retouching and
to assist the manipulation of certain colours, and the
wax varnish to protect those which were likely to
prove fugitive. Requeno says, however, that Winckel-
mann and the academicians found that when the
paintings were washed with water the subject came
away, leaving the coloured ground beneath.

Among the Greek painters Agatharcus and Demo-
critus studied and used perspective, at the time of
Alcibiades, who commissioned the former to paint his
house, and when he refused, pleading overwork, locked
him up till he consented. Apollodorus, who was a
little later, was the first real artist, according to Pliny,
though Agatharcus had already introduced back-
HISTORICAL SKETCH 5

grounds of landscape, etc., and thus enabled figures to
be combined in a pictorial composition. His celebrated
contemporaries were Zeuxis and Parrhasius in Ionia,
Eupompus in Sicyon, and Timanthes in Cynthos.
Pamphilus of Amphipolis developed the principles of
Eupompus and established the school of Sicyon; he
was the master of Apelles, Melanthus, and Pausius.
By his influence the art of drawing was made of
primary importance in Greek education. His pupils
went through a ten years’ course, with corresponding
fees, a talent each year. The course comprehended
outline - drawing, painting in fresco, encaustic, etc.,
anatomy, arithmetic, and geometry. Pliny cites
Varro as saying that under the Roman kings the
Etruscans decorated the temples before Greeks were
employed there.

The most ancient Christian paintings are in the
catacombs of 8. Domitilla (SS. Nereus and Achilleus),
on the Via Ardeatina, and 8S. Priscilla, on the Via
Salara, Rome. Many interesting paintings occur also
in the catacombs of SS. Pietro and Marcellino, 8S. Pra-
textatus, and SS. Trasone e Marcellino, ete. The best
period is the latter part of the second century
and the beginning of the third. Paintings of a later
date are for the most part weaker copies of the
subjects treated at this period. Biblical subjects are
rare. Those most frequently occurring are “The Good
6 MURAL PAINTING

Shepherd,” with a pendant called “L’orante,” the soul
separated from the body. The Baptism of Christ,
Noah in the Ark, the Resurrection of Lazarus, the
Feeding of the Five Thousand, and the History of
Jonah sometimes appear, generally with a symbolic
meaning. Towards the fifth century an attempt at
portraiture becomes visible in the “ Orantes.” As long
as the catacombs were used for burial (till the com-
mencement of the fifth century) saints have no
attributes, and no nimbi appear, not even for Christ
and the Apostles. The figure of the Virgin only
appears in rare paintings of the Adoration of the
Magi, a curious difference from the practice of later
periods. The “Concilio Jlliberitano,” held in 305,
forbad paintings of God or the Trinity, “picturas in
ecclesiis esse non debere ne quod colitur et adoratur
in parietibus depingatur.” At this period the cultus
of saints had not commenced. A few figures of saints
with attributes appear from the fifth to the eighth
centuries, and after this period painting was dethroned
by mosaic for a time and composition became tra-
ditional. In the eleventh century paintings appear
again, examples of which may be seen at S. Urbano
alla Caffarella near Rome, legendary subjects, probably
painted about 1011, by some local artist, with an
attempt at expression and action; and similar frag-
ments are at S. Agnese.
9 aSed aovy Of,

‘psig wna ‘opnig Ut owarg “Sf fo Yoana ay) fo t014aguyT

 
HISTORICAL SKETCH <

There is no doubt that mural painting never ceased,
even during the darkest portion of the Middle Ages,
though no doubt the works then executed had small
value as works of art. When Attila descended into
Italy in 452, destroying and devastating, he saw on
the wall of the emperor’s palace at Milan a picture
of the two Augusti, Theodosius II, the Illuminator,
and Valentinian, on golden thrones, with Scythians
crouching before them: he therefore commissioned
an artist to paint on the opposite wall himself on
his throne and the two emperors before him, one
with a miller’s sack on his shoulder filled with
gold, while the other was pouring the contents of a
similar sack at his feet. The palace of Theodolinda
was decorated with wall-paintings (591), and several
of the Lombard churches bear signs of having been
painted. In the sixth century Venantius Fortu-
natus says that the walls of S. Giustina, Padua,
were painted with the deeds of S. Martin. In 731
Gregory III. reconstructed 8. Crisogono in Trastevere,
and ornamented it with paintings. At the time of
Charlemagne (800) it was held, both in Italy and
France, that a church ought to be covered with
paintings inside, and it was not thought to be finished
until they had been executed. The names of a few
painters of this period have come down to us, such
as Aribert or Auripert da Lucca, of the eighth century,
8 MURAL PAINTING

and Eribert da Verona, of the ninth century, but most
of those mentioned were miniaturists. Many paintings
on wall and roof were executed in France in the tenth
century, and also at Milan, Monte Cassino, Salerno,
and the celebrated abbey of Farfa. Hugues, of the
convent of Moutier-en-Der, executed in 999 new
paintings in the church of Chalons-sur-Marne to
replace those of more ancient date decayed by efflux
of time. Several painters are named also as living in
the monastery of 8. Gall. The church of the ancient
port of Pisa, 8. Piero in Grado, said to be the place
where S. Peter first set foot in Italy, built between
600 and 800, is decorated with wall-paintings which
are believed by Pisan archeologists to have been
executed before 1000 a.D., though Burckhardt sets
them down as of the thirteenth century, and thinks
that the artist also worked at Assisi in the upper
church of §, Francis. It has arches coloured red and
white, and between the arches are coloured decora-
tions. Above the lines of the arches are little
tabernacles in incipient perspective, within which
are polychrome figures of all the popes up to Leo III.
(795). Above this is another little decoration in
relief, painted also, and above again a large decoration
in compartments, with the history of the martyrdom
of 8. Peter, after which there is a row of windows
with painted arches between, and in the false windows,
HISTORICAL SKETCH 9

which have pilasters and polychrome arches, are
accurately painted wooden shutters, now open and
now half closed, and angels peeping through the
latter looking into the sanctuary, The painting, that
is to say, forms the principal part of the architectural
design. The church of S. Angelo in Formis (ad
Formas), so called because of the numerous aqueducts
which led from the mountain down to Capua, about
four and a half miles from Capua, is a very interesting
church from the early frescoes which it contains,
apart from the remains of the temple of Diana
Tifaitina, worked up into its structure and fittings,
on the site of which it stands. It replaces a more
ancient church, which was also painted, and the paint-
ings are mentioned as being there in the seventh
century by Giovanni Diacono. It belonged at that
time to Monte Cassino, but was taken from it by the
Capuan archbishop, and in the time of Desiderius,
Riccardo, prince of Capua, obtained it by exchange
from Archbishop Hildebrand, and gave it again to
Monte Cassino. This was in 1065. Desiderius wished
to build a monastery there for forty monks, and
rebuilt the church also, which had become ruinous,
It was then made so fine, the artists employed being
no doubt some of the Greeks who were working for
him at Monte Cassino, that the Capuan clergy had
recourse to Gregory VII. to get it back, but vainly.
10 MURAL PAINTING

The walls are covered with frescoes, some of which

have suffered very much, but the subjects on the nave

walls and in the apse are tolerably preserved. The

Last Judgement, which occupies the west wall, is a

good deal damaged, but is the strongest of the com-

positions, The others are subjects from Old and New

Testament history, figures of prophets, etc, and in

the semi-dome of the apse is a colossal figure of Christ,

seated, and blessing the people, with the Holy Ghost

above and the symbols of the Evangelists round, while

below are the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael

with circular nimbi, and two other figures with

square nimbi (which shows that they were living

at the time), Desiderius or Pope Victor III. with a»
church in his hand, and 8, Benedict holding a book

with the beginning of the Benedictine rule, though »
why 8S. Benedict should have a square nimbus one

does not understand. On the summit of the hill is

another little church which is also decorated with

ancient frescoes.

Several French and German painters of the eleventh
century were greatly celebrated, and attained high
ecclesiastical positions, for most of them were clois-
tered artists. S. Bernward became bishop of Hil-
desheim; he died in 1023. Adelard II. of Louvain,
was elected abbot of S. Tron in 1055. Herbert and
Roger of Rheims remained simple artists, but Thiemon, ‘
‘OL ated avy OF,

up sy fo younyy ayy fo Lorwaquy

 

Wath ‘
pndng ‘srusog ur of

7

 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 11

painter, sculptor, and professor of literature, was made
archbishop of Salzburg in 1090. There were numbers
of less celebrated painters also.

To return to Italy. Giunta Pisano was a friend of
Frate Elia, the builder of S. Francesco at Assisi, and
certainly painted in that building; he was, perhaps,
the teacher of Cimabue. Vasari’s patriotic assertion
that Italian painting commenced in Florence with the
latter has often been disproved, but it may be worth
while to give here some further details, which show
that other parts of Italy had priority over Florence
in this matter, though one must acknowledge that the
Florentines showed greater aptitude for progress in
the art than their neighbours, who started before
them in the race. At Reggio, in the Emilia, there
were painters living in 1096 and 1103, and a “Maestro
Ardimento” is mentioned as working there in 1100;
on the upper portion of the fagade of the cathedral,
which dates from the twelfth century, there are
still remains of early paintings. The facade of the
cathedal at Parma (finished in 1106) was also painted,
and Fra Salimbene records that Guidolino da Enzola
was much put out by the boys throwing stones at
the paintings and sculptures of the cathedral and
baptistery. He used to run after them and beat them
“as if he had been appointed custodian, though he
only did it from zeal to God and divine love.” The
12 MURAL PAINTING

paintings in the baptistery are rather later—of the first
half of the thirteenth century—and are signed Nicola
of Reggio. The figures have movement and attitudes
of passion, the difficulty of rendering the expression of
the face being got over by giving the bodily gestures
which express emotion almost as fully. A document
of 1068 mentions Fr. Everard, priest and painter, and
Fra Salimbene says that in 1233 every parish had a
standard with its patron saint painted on it, that on
the standard of the Parmese taken in 1248 to the
siege of Vittoria, Frederick the Second’s new town,
was the effigy of the Madonna crowned by Jesus,
and that above the covering of a lamp of the con-
fraternity of S. Francesco were to be seen the Apostles
coloured. At Bologna a painter, Gundulfus, signs as
witness to a public contract as early as 1090, and
the anonymous “p. f.,” whose pictures are now in the
Crucifixion Church of 8. Stefano, dated them 1113 and
1115, according to the historians who saw them in
their original position; and in the time of Malvasia
(1686) many paintings existed dated from 1173 to
1217. He asserts that at Bologna they no longer
followed the Greek tradition long before it was
abandoned in Florence, perhaps owing to the law
schools, where at the end of the twelfth century
14,000 students attended Azzone’s lectures on Roman
law, and where in consequence there was a large
HISTORICAL SKETCH 13

school of writers and miniaturists, for it was com-
paratively easy to repeat on a large scale what had
been painted small in the books. Odofredus, writing
in the middle of the thirteenth century, says “our
writers nowadays have become painters, our painters
writers,” referring to the school of miniature painters.
There is a notice of 1250 regarding certain paintings
which were perishing in the Communal palace, re-
presenting the taking of the castle of Roffeno (which
happened in 1243). They were to be removed and the
surface covered with marble instead, but the order
was cancelled shortly after and their restoration
commanded. In 8. Stefano are a few remains of
Romanesque paintings of the twelfth century, and
there are some of the next century in other places,
especially above the sarcophagi outside S. Giacomo,
Names of painters of the thirteenth century are
recorded at Ravenna and Rimini, and at Padua in
1271 the podesta, Tommaso Giustiniani, ordered the
pictures already existing in the Palazzo del Ragione
to be whitened over and other figures painted above
the secretaries’ seat. In 1286 Vincenzo quondam
Bartoloto, of the town of Cambroso, in his will orders
payment to be made to the painters who, in the
churches of Rosara and Cambroso, had painted
S. Benedict and S. Daniel. An amusing and a
terrible incident which occurred in Bologna show
14 MURAL PAINTING

that painters were common enough a little later. In
1293 the podesta proclaimed the prohibition of arms,
and engaged a painter to paint the prohibited objects
on the wall of the Palazzo Pubblico. At night, after
the “terza suono,” the third ringing of the bell, had
emptied the streets of people (for they had to go home
then as they did at Viterbo), the painter made a little.
scaffold and commenced painting, with a boy holding
a lantern to light him at his work. All at once a
certain Giovanni di Geminiano ran up, took a brush,
scrabbled over what was done, snatched the lantern
from the boy, broke it, and ran away. He was taken
subsequently and condemned to prison and a fine of
twenty-five lire. In 1305 Giacomo di Calusco killed
his son for marrying a woman with whom he was
in love. He was taken and tortured horribly, and
the podest& had the execution painted to add to ms
gallery of such things “ad perpetuam rei memoriam,” -
At Subiaco, in the Sacro Speco, are some early
frescoes, some of which, signed “Mag: Conxolus,” are
more Italian than Greek in type; while others, by
Fr. Oddo, not equally good, but with a foretaste of
Giotto, include a portrait of S. Francis of Assisi, with
the square nimbus, indicating that he was then alive (it
has been repainted). There is a figure of Innocent III.
and the text of the diploma given by him to the abbey |
on June 24th, 1213. Since S. Francis was canonised
 

Wall-painting at Subiaco, early thirteenth century.
POPE GREGORY IX, CONSECRATING THE CHURCH.

To face page 14.
HISTORICAL SKETCH 15

in 1229 by Gregory IX., who is shown consecrating
the church in another painting, it is probable that
some of these date from about 1215, twenty years
before the birth of Cimabue and forty before that
of Giotto. There are also paintings of the eleventh
century in an abbey near Majori, between Salerno and
Amalfi, and in other places near, as well as at S. Agnese,
8. Lorenzo fuori, and the lower church of S. Clemente
at Rome, and at 8S. Zeno, Verona, of a somewhat later
date. In the Emilia the art of this period endeavours
to get away from asceticism and make its figures
young. It has abandoned the Byzantine types both
in attitude and drapery, and tries to put freedom and
life into the figures. The number of colours used
is limited. At Subiaco there is also an endeavour
after naturalism, but with a stronger feeling for the
decorative effect of the painting. At S. Angelo in
formis the design is Byzantine. The death of this
style in Italy may be reckoned from the time when
painting was preferred to mosaic. In Tuscany at the
beginning of the thirteenth century it was certainly
still master, and from it Italian painting was developed
by the addition of life, beauty, and freedom, little by
little. I have gone into these details because many
people still suppose that there was no art in Italy
before the time of Cimabue and Giotto.

Cimabue’s finest paintings are in the two churches of
16 MURAL PAINTING

S. Francesco at Assisi, and from the point of view of
decoration it is difficult to see that Giotto made any
step forward, though he did so no doubt in dramatic
conception and natural gesture. The paintings which
modern criticism allows to be Cimabue’s are: the
Madonna with four angels on the west wall of the
transept in the lower church, the paintings on the roof
in the upper church representing the four Fathers of
the Church, the Evangelists with angels (in the
transept), medallions of Christ, the Virgin and two
saints resting on angels like Victories and surrounded
with festoons issuing from vases held by naked genii
(very remarkable from the point of view of decoration),
and perhaps the two upper series of the nave with
sixteen scenes from the Old and sixteen from the New
Testament, and the Ascension and Descent of the.
Holy Ghost, with medallions of SS. Peter and Paul
above on the wall of entry. The lives of Christ and
of S. Francis in the lower church, attributed to him
by Vasari, are not his. Burckhardt ascribes them to
the artist who painted in S. Piero in Grado near
Pisa, which he thinks is of this period. The life of
S. Francis in the upper church is principally by his
pupils, and shows the transition to Giotto. Giotto
(1267-1337) marks a great step forward, but his facial
types were not as beautiful as those of Duccio of Siena,
whose work, if individual beauty were the supreme end
HISTORICAL SKETCH 17

of painting, would be supreme among all produced in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, without ex-
cepting Orcagna even. His technique was Byzantine,
and he may almost have been said to have looked at
nature through Byzantine glasses, so great is the influ-
ence of that style upon his imagination. Giotto did
not push naturalism to extremes, but regarded his
work still from the decorative standpoint, thinking of
general effect and the scheme of colour first. He had
the gift of seizing the central fact of his subject and
making the most of it, an excellence which did not
descend in equal measure to all his pupils. Undoubted
works of his may be seen in the Arena chapel, Padua ;
the vault over the high altar in the lower church of
Francis at Assisi, illustrating the vows of the Francis-
can order, Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, and the
apotheosis of 8. Francis, which are perhaps his most
celebrated works; at Florence in the Peruzzi and Bardi
chapels in S, Croce, and in the Incoronata at Naples ;
and in other places where the assistance of his pupils
is more evident. Among them the most important
were: Taddeo Gaddi (died 1366), Giotto di Maestro
Stefano called Giottino, and Maso di Banco; Giovanni
da Milano, Andrea di Cione called Orcagna (1308-
1368), and Nardo his brother (died 1365); Agnolo
Gaddi (died 1396), Antonio Veneziano, Francesco da
Volterra (both of these worked in the Campo Santo at

Cc
18 MURAL PAINTING

Pisa in the last years of the fourteenth century), and
Spinello Aretino (died 1410). Spinello’s work may be
seen at Arezzo plentifully. At Florence paintings by
the Gaddis, Giovanni da Milano, and others are in
S. Croce; at 8. Maria Novella by Orcagna, Simone di
Martino of Siena, and others ; at S. Miniato by Spinello
Aretino; at Or San Michele, the Bargello and other
churches by other members of the school. In the
Campo Santo at Pisa are paintings by Pietro di Puccio,
Buffalmacco (according to Vasari), Andrea da Firenze,
Antonio Veneziano, and Francesco da Volterra, and at
S. Francesco in the same city are fine works by Taddeo
Gaddi. At Prato and Pistoia, also, as well as at Rome
in 8. Peter’s and 8. John Lateran, are compositions for
which Giotto and his scholars are answerable. In
most of these places one sees repetitions of the same
subjects because they were required according to a
certain pattern, and the painters supplied the demand,
putting in as much beauty and dexterity as they could,
and even rendering the emotions and aspirations of the
soul with considerable success when the subject lent
itself to such expression. They made the mistake of
trying to translate metaphors into concrete images, of
which Giotto’s marriage of S. Francis with Poverty is
perhaps the best instance, because he was the most
powerful artist of the school.

Simone di Martino was Giotto’s great_ contemporary
 

Wall-painting by Cimabue in the Upper Church of S. Francesco, Assist.

THE ASCENSION,

To face page 18.
HISTORICAL SKETCH 19

at Siena (1265-1344). His largest work is in the
Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, a symmetrical composition
of the Madonna surrounded by saints, with a beauty
in the form which the Florentines did not reach, an
arrangement which was practically repeated some years
later by Lippo Memmi in the Palazzo Pubblico at S.
' Gemignano. He worked from 1339 onwards at Avignon,
and many of his frescoes are to be seen in the papal
palace there and in the castle of Villeneuve-les-Avignon
on the other side of the Rhone. At San Gemignano
is a cycle of pictures by Barna da Siena, who was a
pupil of Simone di Martino, as were the brothers
Lorenzetiti (1309-1348), The influence of these latter
on Sienese art was so great that in the fifteenth
century painters still reproduced some of their com-
positions. The cycle of frescoes in the Sala della Pace
in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, representing Good
and Bad Government and their results, is said by
Burckhardt to be the work of Pietro, but is more
usually ascribed to Ambrogio Lorenzetti. In the
chapel are paintings by Taddeo di Bartolo, who also
painted in 8. Francesco at Pisa, and the chapel of
the Corporal at Orvieto was painted by a Sienese,
Ugolino di Prete Ilario, who also helped to decorate
the choir in conjunction with Pietro di Puccio about
1360, but the pictures have been a good deal restored
and repainted.
20 MURAL PAINTING

At Padua the chapel of S. Felice in 8. Antonio was
painted by Altichieri da Zevio and Jacopo d’Avanzo
in 1376, and the chapel of 8. George was decorated
by the same artists in the next year. They are well
painted, with considerable beauty in the figures and
strength of colour, and a suggestion of aérial per-
spective appears, which gives a curiously modern
feeling to the compositions. At S. Anastasia, Verona,
are other paintings of the fourteenth century, some
of which are ascribed with some probability to
Altichieri.

With the beginning of the fifteenth century a new
spirit began to spread over painting. The individual
succeeded to the abstract type, and clearness of ex-
pression was sought above everything. The study
of nature was pursued with enthusiasm, each approach
to perfect success in the representation of the human
form was regarded as a triumph, and the craftsman
began to neglect the total decorative effect of his
work in favour of the more complete realisation of
the details of which it was composed. Fresco was
so much practised by the Tuscans, and their works
in this manner so much surpass those of other schools,
that it may almost be called their peculiar property.
Masaccio’s name may be placed at the head of the
revolution, though his master Masolino (1383-1440)
showed almost as great a feeling for nature in his
HISTORICAL SKETCH 21

frescoes at: Castiglione d’Olona near Varese. His best
known works are in the Brancacci chapel of the
Carmine at Florence, and from them Raffaelle did
not disdain to borrow figures; but at S. Clemente in
Rome there is a chapel with scenes from the life of
S. Catherine, believed to be an early work of his,
but by some ascribed to his master Masolino. He
died early, at the age of twenty-seven, in 1428. The
last exponent of Giotto’s technique was the accom-
plished Dominican painter Fra Angelico (1387-1455).
He began his work at 8. Marco, Florence, after 1436,
and worked there for ten years. In 1447 he was at
Orvieto, where he began the vault of the Cappella
Nuova, from which he was summoned to Rome to
paint the chapel of 8S. Nicholas in the Vatican, which
occupied him between 1450 and his death. He had
the rare good fortune to go on improving to the very
end of his life, and this chapel is his finest and most
mature work, His pupil Benozzo Gozzoli carried his
beautiful and detailed technique even farther, and
became one of the most accomplished painters of the
Renaissance. He was born in 1420 and died after
1497, filling his long life with the production of the
most charming wall-paintings, which, if he had had
what is often called “soul,” would have placed him
very near the summit of the Palace of Art. Subject
was of little importance to him; he rarely endeavoured
22 MURAL PAINTING

to get at the heart of it, but contented himself with
inventing all kinds of ingenious and beautiful sur-
roundings, which make his pictures most interesting
from the multiplicity of details of costume and
incident of the period in which he lived. He helped
Fra Angelico in the ceiling at Orvieto, from 1449 to
1452 or later was painting in the Franciscan church
at Montefalco, painted the chapel in the Palazzo
Riccardi for Lorenzo de Medici between 1457 and
1463, was at San Gemignano between 1463 and 1467,
where he painted a series of subjects from the life
of S. Augustine, and from 1469 to 1485 worked in
the Campo Santo at Pisa.

Another artist of very definite personality was
Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469). His best known
wall-paintings are the frescoes in the cathedral at
Prato, painted in 1456, and the apse of the cathedral
of Spoleto of ten years later, where he died, poisoned
by the relations of Lucrezia Buti, the nun whom he
had persuaded to leave her convent, as report goes.
Sandro Botticelli (1447-1510) was his pupil, and
carried the representation of inspired ugliness to its
height, occasionally retaining the inspiration and
letting the ugliness go. His most celebrated frescoes
are the fine subjects in the Sistine chapel in the
Vatican, subjects from Old and New Testament
history and figures of popes, painted between 1480
‘te a8ed advy OL,

“sissp ‘Soosaounig “g fo younyg addy oy, fo ynwa oyg uo anqnung fq burywng

 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 23

and 1483; but in the church of Ognissanti in Florence
is a very remarkable small fresco of S. Augustine.
Filippino Lippi, who finished the frescoes in the
Brancacci chapel left unfinished by Masaccio, was
more a painter of easel pictures than of frescoes.

The most celebrated painter of the school was
Domenico Ghirlandajo (1449-1494), whose fresco of
S. Jerome forms pendant to Botticelli’s S. Augustine
in Ognissanti, Florence, a marvellous piece of work
in which all the details of the writing materials and
surroundings are expressed with the precision of a
highly finished water-colour painting. This absolute
mastery over the process and the material is also
shown in his more important works, of which the
series in S. Trinita, Florence, and the fine series in
S. Maria Novella, finished in 1490, may be cited as
examples. He also painted at S. Gemignano and
in the Sistine chapel, where he was working between
1483 and 1485. His life was almost overfull of work,
and he may stand as an example of the capable crafts-
man who knew his art down to the minutest detail,
but whose compositions are not often informed with
the magic spirit which gives life to the dead paint.
Another Florentine painter of this period, who painted
in the Sistine chapel, was Cosimo Rosselli.

Piero dei Franceschi (1420-1492) is another of the
commanding figures of the time. He was a citizen
24 MURAL PAINTING

of Borgo San Sepolero, where the house of his family
still exists. His earliest fresco extant is the portrait
of Sigismond Malatesta kneeling before 8. Sigismond
his patron saint, in the church of S. Francesco at
Rimini, which although a good deal repainted retains
enough of the original design to show his feeling
for style and close study of nature. His most im-
portant work is the series in 8. Francesco at Arezzo,
describing the legend of the Holy Cross, where great
technical skill is displayed and fine drawing of the
figure, and in his native town is an admirable
Resurrection, preserved in the Palazzo del Comune.
Luca Signorelli (1441-1523) was his pupil and in-
herited his taste for and skill in drawing the figure.
His earliest frescoes are at Loreto, he painted in
the Sistine chapel in 1482 one of the sections of
the history of Moses, and at Monte Oliveto Maggiore,
where the first eight of the subjects from the life
of S. Benedict in the monastery court are from his
hand ; but his greatest triumph is the Cappella Nuova,
in the cathedral at Orvieto, painted between 1499
and 1505, representing scenes from the Apocalypse.
These foreshadowed the greater successes of Michel
Angelo in the Sistine chapel.

The Umbrian school takes its rise in Gubbio, where
a celebrated miniature painter named Oderisio, men-
tioned by Dante, lived at the end of the thirteenth
HISTORICAL SKETCH 25

century. Of the Gubbian painters the most celebrated
was Ottaviano Nelli, who died in 1444, and painted
the chapel in the palace of the Trinci in Foligno
about 1424, and other frescoes in his native town.
But to most people the Umbrian school means Perugino
and Pinturricchio, the former of whom (1446-1524)
gains added glory from having been the master of
Raffaelle in his boyhood. He was a very accom-
plished though mannered painter, and works of his
in fresco may be seen in the Sistine chapel, where
he was painting in 1482 (only one of his frescoes
remains, Christ giving the keys to 8. Peter, the three
which were on the altar wall having been destroyed
to make room for Michel Angelo’s Last Judgement)
in the refectory of the convent of S. Maria Maddalena
de’ Pazzi in Florence (a very fine Crucifixion in three
compartments), and the celebrated frescoes on wall
and ceiling in the Sala del Cambio, Perugia (1499).
Pinturricchio (1455-1513) may be also seen in the
Sistine chapel and in several of the churches at Rome,
such as Araceli and 8. Maria del Popolo. In 1501
he painted the chapel of the Sacrament in the
cathedral at Spello with three excellent frescoes,
and also decorated the vault, and in 1505 commenced
his most celebrated work, the frescoes in the Picco-
lomini library at Siena, finished in tempera, ten
subjects from the life of Aineas Sylvius Piccolomini,
26 MURAL PAINTING

who became pope as Pius II., which are in the most
extraordinary state of preservation and look almost
as if painted yesterday. They were finished in 1507,

At Bologna one sees the work of another group of
artists of this period—Lorenzo Costa (1460-1535),
Aspertini, and others who worked with Francesco
Francia (1450-1517). A chapel in §. Giacomo
Maggiore belonging to the Bentivogli family con-
tains some good paintings in tempera on canvas,
affixed to the wall, by Lorenzo Costa, and frescoes
above by unknown artists; but the more celebrated
oratory of S. Cecilia adjacent, erected in 1481, is a
little museum of frescoes by Francia, Costa, and their
pupils. The extraordinary talent of Andrea Mantegna
(1430-1506) is best seen in Padua and Mantua, his
most mature works in the Vatican having been
destroyed to make room for the Cortile del Belvedere.
His frescoes are almost like tempera pictures enlarged,
and his passion for the antique sometimes misled
him into taking archeology for art; but his great
power is indubitable, as is the influence which he
exerted upon many of the painters of the period.
The Eremitani church at Padua contains the histories
of S. James and S. Christopher, not entirely by his
hand, and in the ducal palace at. Mantua is the
Camera degli Sposi, decorated most delightfully with
subjects from the family history of the Gonzagas.
 

Wall-painting by Giotto in the Upper Church of S. Francese

THE INFANT CHRIST AWAKES IN S. FRANCI AS HE IS CONSTRUCTING
A **PRESEPE” FOR THE CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL.

To face page 26.

 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 27

Vincenzo Foppa of Brescia (1457-1492) occupied in
Milan the same position which Mantegna had at
Padua and Mantua. Frescoes of his are to be seen
in Michelozzo’s chapel of 8. Peter Martyr in 8. Eus-
torgio, where the coloured decoration is ascribed to
him though unsigned. Borgognone, who was paint-
ing between 1486 and 1523, is another distinguished
artist of the Lombard school. He executed excellent
frescoes at the Certosa at Pavia, and there are paint-
ings of his in several of the churches of Milan.
Boccaccio Boccacino’s beautiful and decorative frescoes
in the cathedral at Cremona must not be passed
over (about 1500), in which he was assisted by his
son Camillo and others. At Naples, in a court of
the convent of 8. Severino, is a series of twenty
frescoes, ascribed to Zingaro (whom the Neapolitans
consider to be the father of their school), representing
the life of S. Benedict, considered to be the best
series in existence except those at Monte Oliveto.
To return to Florence. Fra Bartolommeo (1475-
1517) painted frescoes in §. Maria Nuova and 8. Marco ;
from 1500 to 1506 he did no painting, having become
a monk in consequence of the death of his friend
Savonarola, and given up the practice of his art. He
was assisted generally by Mariotto Albertinelli, his
fellow-pupil under Cosimo Rosselli. Andrea del Sarto
(1486-1531), called the faultless painter, was assistant
28 MURAL PAINTING

to Piero di Cosimo for some years, but it is Fra Barto-
lommeo’s influence which is most strongly seen in his
frescoes. He is considered the finest colourist of his
school in the sixteenth century, but lacked the true fire
—his successes are always technical. The frescoes in
the Atrium of the Annunziata are all excellent as com-
positions, but the only one which rises to pure beauty
is the Birth of the Virgin. In the Last Supper in the
refectory of 8. Salvi he almost challenges comparison
with Leonardo, however, and ‘in the court of the Scalzo
his monochromes of the life of 8. John Baptist are of
great power.

The work of Michel Angelo (1475-1563) is too
well known to need description. It is the culminat-
ing point of Renaissance painting, and the super-human
ceiling of the Sistine chapel has been the admiration
of art lovers for centuries. The Last Judgement
in the same chapel was painted between 1534 and 1541,
and errs by lack of ideality and gradation of type.
With his followers decadence more than begins,.

Raffaelle (1483-1520) began painting in the Vati-
can in 1509, and between that time and 1511 decora-
ted the Camera della Segnatura, which contains the
Disputa del Sacramento, the School of Athens, the
Parnassus and Canon Law, Prudence, Temperance, and
Courage in the lunette, and on the vault, Poetry, the
Judgement of Solomon, Marsyas, and the Temptation
HISTORICAL SKETCH 29

of Eve. In 1512 he commenced the next room, called
the Stanza of Heliodorus from the fresco of the
chasing of Heliodorus from the temple. It also con-
tains the Mass of Bolsena, Attila and Leo the Great,
and the Deliverance of S. Peter, finished in 1514. The
room of the “ Incendio del Borgo” contains very little
if anything from Raffaelle’s own hand, and Perugino’s
beautiful circular subjects still remain on the ceiling.
In the Sala di Costantino the great fresco was designed
‘and the cartoons made by Raffaelle, as were several of
the single figures. Carlo Maratta did a great deal of
restoration here. The painting was principally done
by Giulio Romano. The loggie were executed by his
pupils from his designs. Other frescoes of his or from
his designs are in the churches of 8S. Maria della Pace,
and S. Maria del Popolo, and in the Villa Farnesina,
where is the beautiful fresco of Galatea and the story
of Psyche, the latter painted by Giulio Romano and
others from his designs. Giulio Romano (1492-1546)
was his most important pupil. He settled in Mantua,
where he designed the Palazzo del Té for Duke
Frederick Gonzaga, and painted in the ducal palace.
In a room of the former are some life-size portraits of
horses of a wonderfully modern appearance. The
other pupils of Raffaelle are of little importance except
Perino del Vaga, who did a good deal of external
painting on palaces at Rome and Genoa, and Andrea
30 MURAL PAINTING

Sabattini, who painted at Naples and preserved some-
thing of Raffaelle’s feeling.

Leonardo da Vinci’s: only wall-painting, the Last
Supper, is such # wreck, owing partly of its having
been painted in oil and partly to subsequent re-
paintings, that the influence he exercised over his
pupils and followers is perhaps a better way of judg-
ing his eminence than by reference to a work of which
only the excellent composition remains. The most
eminent of them were Bernardino Luini, Cesare da
Sesto, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Marco da Oggiono,
Andrea Salaino, Giovanni Pedrini, Sodoma and Gau-
denzio Ferrari. In S. Maurizio, Milan, called the
Monastero Maggiore, a church which is divided into
nuns’ choir and public church, the frescoes on the
dividing wall are by Luini, while in the nuns’ choir,
which is decorated in charming taste and pretty fully
‘painted, he was assisted by Boltraffio and Borgognone.
Other frescoes are in the picture-galleries of the Brera;
but his most important works are at Saronno (1525),
where Gaudenzio Ferrari, Lanini, and Cesare da Sesto
also worked, and at Lugano, where on the piers and in
the chapels of S. Maria degli Angeli, and on the high
wall above the chancel arch, are very celebrated
frescoes. The large fresco, which contains several
hundred figures, represents the Passion of Christ, and
is probably his masterpiece (1529), Gaudenzio Ferrari
 

hurch of 8.

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HISTORICAL SKETCH 31

(1484-1549) worked at Milan, Novara, the Sacro
Monte of Varallo, at Saronno as before mentioned, and
at Vercelli. His pictures show great power and
naturalism but little interest. Giovanni Antonio Bazzi,
called “Il Sodoma,” was born at Vercelli in 1477. He
was an unequal painter, but possessed of great talent
and sometimes succeeded so well as to challenge com-
parison with the greatest names. His beautiful
S. Sebastian in the Uffizi at Florence has never been
surpassed. This is in oil, but his frescoes at Monte
Oliveto are many of them of great excellence, and
other frescoes of his may be seen at 8. Domenico Siena
(in the chapel of S. Catherine), and in the Palazzo
Pubblico of that city, in which he established himself
in 1501. He died in 1549,

Antonio Allegri, called Correggio (1494-1534), was
the discoverer of the scenic light and shade which
finally destroyed the sense of style in Italian decora-
tion. From a technical point of view he may be said
to represent the final development of Italian oil paint-
ing. He aimed at absolute realism and the annihila-
tion of the surface upon which the painting was exe-
cuted, and often attained considerable success, the
arrangement of the composition being purely pictur-
esque and aérial perspective being used to assist the
illusion. He settled at Parma in 1518, and there may
be seen perhaps the most charming of his works in
32 MURAL PAINTING

fresco, the Camera di S. Paolo in the abolished Bene-
dictine convent, children peeping through oval openings
in a trellis of greenery, painted in that year. The
cupola of the cathedral was painted between 1526
and 1530, and there are several other frescoes of his
in the city executed between 1518 and 1530.

The earlier Venetians worked very little in fresco,
and though there are remains in Venice of Giorgione’s
work and some fragments ascribed to Titian, whose
frescoes in the Scuola del Santo and Scuola del Carmine
at Padua are much admired, the names of Venetian
fresco painters are most of them of later date.
Giovanni Antonio Pordenone (1483-1539) painted
at Castel Colalto, Villanuova, Treviso, and other places,
and there are some remains of his work in the cloister
of 8. Stefano, Venice. Girolamo Romanino of Brescia
(1485-1566) painted in the cathedral at Cremona and
in the bishop’s palace at Trent, and to him are ascribed
some of the frescoes in Colleoni’s castle of Malpaga.
But Paolo Veronese (1528-1586) in his frescoes at
Castelfranco, at Villa Fanzolo, and other places near,
and at the Villa Barbara at Maser especially, equals in
decorative effect the best masters. Here variety of
subject—mythological scenes on the ceiling alternating
with allegorical figures and mountain landscapes on
the walls, and balustrades arranged as friezes, on
which well-dressed Venetians of both sexes lean—
HISTORICAL SKETCH 33

makes a very pleasant decoration, and the excellent
preservation of the pictures enables one to gain a good
idea of the surroundings amid which the Venetian
patrician enjoyed his country life.

The masters of the decadence are scarcely worth
attention; their enormous works are generally un-
interesting, nor is there much to be learnt from their
mannered technique. The Caracci and their pupils
aimed at an eclecticism which should unite the merits
of all schools (even those contradictory to each other)
founded on naturalism, and Domenichino and Guido
Reni did sometimes produce works which were really
fine, such as the well-known Aurora by the latter
in the Rospigliosi palace at Rome; but dexterity of
manipulation and cleverness of drawing have sup-
planted the fine style and dignified treatment of the
best periods in most cases. Tiepolo the Venetian
(died 1770) is an instance of this great dexterity,
coupled with considerable feeling for picturesque
composition, but Luca Giordano, called “Fa presto”
because he was so rapid (1632-1705), surpassed him
in this direction. His compositions show consider-
able feeling for colour, and at Naples may be seen
frescoes which he finished in two or three days.
Armenino, in his True Precepts for Painting, gives
a curious account of the dexterity of Luca Cambiasi,
one of the later Genoese painters, who must have

D
34 MURAL PAINTING

surpassed even Luca Giordano in rapidity, one would
think: “A certain Luchetto of Genoa, who painted
in 8. Matteo some histories of the saint in competition
with another painter of Bergamo, a very worthy
man. ... I saw wonderful things of his; he painted
with both hands, holding a brushful of colour in
each, and he was very expert and determined and
did his work with incredible rapidity.” Modern
naturalism, in the strict sense of the word, took its
rise with Caravaggio (1569-1609), who was followed
by Ribera (1588-1656), but these men principally
painted in oil, and in their easel pictures the
exaggerated light and shade and black shadows are
not so unpleasing as they would be in fresco.

This rapid sketch concerns itself with wall-painting
only. Many of the names included are those of
painters who also painted many easel or panel
pictures, but with these we are not now concerned,
and I have not considered the great oil pictures which
one sees in Venice affixed to wall or ceiling, though
these were often painted for their place, because,
notwithstanding their frequent individual beauty, they
do not in general decorate the wall-surface, being either
too dark or too shiny, and, as is shown by those which
have been removed to picture-galleries, looking quite
as well among accidental surroundings. Still, it is
 

 

 

 

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Wall-painting of the fourteenth century in S. Maria Novella, Flor

To face page 34.

 
HISTORICAL SKETCH 35

with a certain remorse that one leaves out such
pictures as Carpaccio’s series in S. Giorgio degli
Schiavoni, Venice, and the Ursula series in the
Academy, while the ceilings of the ducal palace and
a few of the wall canvases are equally deserving of
admiration, though they were not wall-paintings in
the sense in which the word is used in this book.

The power of representing natural facts increased
with extraordinary rapidity together with the facility
with which materials were handled, and the aim of
representing nature contended with traditional treat-
ment and vanquished it. Giotto died in 1337. The
roof of the Sistine chapel was painted by Michel
Angelo between 1508 and 1512, and Raffaelle died
in 1520, by which time the decadence had set in.
In this two hundred years the art of fresco painting
burgeoned, culminated, and began to decay. The level
of attainment was, however, most varied in different
parts of the country, and when one remembers that
Fiorenzo di Lorenzo of Perugia died in the same
year as Raffaelle, who was also trained in Perugia,
and that Masaccio and Gentile da Fabriano were living
at the same time, it seems impossible to devise any
general arrangement which shall show continuous pro-
gression and elucidate the divergences and attractions
of the different schools between and for each other.
THE PREPARATION OF THE WALL

Some of the various processes of wall - painting lay
more stress upon the preparation of the wall than do
others. The most modern methods attach the greatest
possible importance to this matter, sometimes, indeed,
appearing to consider the permanence of the painting
more important than its quality; while others rely
upon interposing an impermeable layer between the
wall and the painting, and thus neutralising any
damage which might result from dampness or efflores-
cence; and there can be no doubt that, other things
being equal, it is better to have a perfectly constructed
wall upon which to apply decoration, especially in a
climate which has not the dryness of Egypt nor the
brilliant sun of other southern lands. But even in
Italy and Greece the greatest care was prescribed in
the construction of such walls, and was often taken,
with what excellent results recent discoveries at
Cnossus have shown us, where wall-paintings executed
some 3,600 years ago still showed bright and vivid
colouring when disinterred from the earth which had
shrouded them for many centuries.

36
THE PREPARATION OF THE WALL 37

The preparation of the wall according to the Greek
method as given by Vitruvius was as follows. The
first process was called ¢trullisatio (for they knew
nothing of damp courses), and consisted in coating the
wall with trowelled plaster composed of rough sand,
pounded brick and tile, and lime, in the proportion of
one part lime, two parts river sand, and one part
pounded brick or tile, which was left rough. The second
process was called arenatum or sand mortar. Not
less than three successive coats of this were laid over
the rough plaster, each laid while the preceding coat
was damp. The more substantial the mortar was, the
more durable and solid the stucco turned out. The
proportions were: one part lime and two parts river
sand, The third process was called marmoratum
or marble mortar. This consisted of lime and marble
dust of different degrees of fineness, laid on in three
successive coats, using the coarsest first. It was so
tempered that when in the right condition it did not
adhere to the trowel in working, but left it clean.
The first and second coats were allowed to dry before
the third was put on. It consisted of one part lime
and two parts marble dust. It was sometimes done
with less expenditure of time and material (for there
were jerry builders even in those days), but it was
found that if only one layer of arenatum and one of
marmoratum were put on over the ¢rullisatio, the
38 MURAL PAINTING

colours did not show with their proper brilliancy, and
the plaster was likely to crack and the whole decay
after a time. When done well and thoroughly the
surface of the stucco was so smooth that it might be
polished, and it was sometimes used for mirrors. In
the baths of Titus the stucco was one and a quarter
inch thick, and was as hard as marble.

In modern times the Italians use three kinds of
stucco, the first called pozzolano, which consists of
two parts lime and one of pozzolana, or Roman
cement; the second marmorato, made of two parts
lime and one of marble dust; and the third arenato,
made of two parts lime and one river sand. Signor
Forni, however, calls the first plaster arricciato and
plasters generally smalto. The rough plaster was
always made of pozzolana, lime, and sand. The lime
for the plastering is made from limestone or marble.
It should be slaked long before being used, so that
parts not sufficiently calcined may have time to be
dissolved, and be reduced to a proper consistency ; for
should the lime be fresh, or not thoroughly slaked, it
will “blow,” that is, emit pustules and destroy the
surface of the stucco.* The Greeks tempered their

* A story comes to my mind told to me by the late G. T. Robinson, a
man whose knowledge was encyclopedic and his experience immense.
When a young man he was studying in the Campo Santo at Pisa, and

made the acquaintance of an artist who was engaged in repairing the
frescoes in that building, who promised him to tell him the secret of
THE PREPARATION OF THE WALL 39

arenatwm in a pit, the lime and sand being compounded
with wooden rammers until thoroughly amalgamated,
and the same method was adopted with the trwilisatio.
To ascertain when it is fit for use cut it with an axe;
if it comes in contact with lumps, the lime is not well
tempered ; if the iron comes out dry and clean, it is
perishing and weak, but when fat and well macerated
it will adhere to the iron like glue. River sand only
must be used. Pit sand causes fermentation in con-
junction with lime, sea sand is salt and the salt dis-
solves the plastering. Pozzolana is a red earth
found at Puteoli and a strong cement. Roman cement
is an imitation of it. The marble dust is chippings of
marble sifted into three grades of coarseness, the first
being a very fine powder and the last almost like small
pebbles.

The plaster is better if laid some years before, but if
the wall which it is proposed to decorate is covered
with old mortar the ingredients of which are unknown

compounding the intonaco used by the medieval painters. Accord-
ingly on the last day of his stay he led him across the piazza to his
house and showed him in the undercroft, exposed to the air, but
sheltered from wet, three casks containing slaked lime. Tapping the
first, he said, ‘‘My grandfather: unfortunately very little of him
left’ ; tapping the second, ‘‘ My father : I shall soon have to commence
him” ; and tapping the third, ‘‘ Myself: this is what I am preparing
for my children.” This shows how not only traditional knowledge
and receipts are handed down from father to son in a land where
tradition is not yet dead, but the very materials with which the work
is done, and reveals the true secret of its permanence,
40 MURAL PAINTING

it should be entirely removed. The Germans use for
their rougheast three parts of sand to one of lime. At
Munich the lime was slaked in this manner. A pit was
filled with clean burnt lime stones, which on being
slaked were stirred continually till the substance was
of an impalpable consistence. The surface having
settled td a level, clean river sand was spread over it
to the depth of a foot or more, so as to exclude the air,
and lastly the whole was covered with earth. The
German painters preferred it to remain thus for three
years, and Cornelius prepared the lime for the Ludwig
Kirche eight years before he painted there. The pits
were simply dug in the earth, but Professor Hess
recommended them to be lined with brick. At Genoa
the lime is left in the pit for from eight to twelve
months, according to its ascertained strength.
Vitruvius gives the following directions for the
preparation of a curved ceiling. Parallel ribs are
to be set up not more than two feet apart; cypress
is preferable, since fir is soon injured by rot and
age. When the ribs have been got out to the right
curve they should be fixed to the ties of the flooring
above or to the roof with iron nails. The ties should
be of wood not liable to injury from rot, age, or damp
—such as box, juniper, olive, heart of oak, cypress,
and the like, common oak always excepted, which
from its liability to warp causes cracks in the work.
 

 

 

By Nicolo di Pietro Gerini. In the Sacristy, Santa Croce, Florence.

CHRIST BEARING THE CROSS,
To face page 40.
THE PREPARATION OF THE WALL 41

The ribs having been fixed, Greek reeds previously
bruised were to be tied to them with cords made
of Spanish broom. On the upper side of the arch
a composition of lime and sand was to be laid, so
that if any water fell from the floor above, or from
the roof it might not penetrate. The arches having
been prepared and interwoven with the reeds a coat
was laid on the underside. The arenatwm was after-
wards introduced on it and it was then polished with
chalk or marble. Paolo Veronese’s frescoes at the
Villa Maser were painted on cored ceilings made
in much this manner. The ribs were of deal, with
poplar laths, three inches by one inch, plastered above
as well as below, as in the French framed ceilings,
such as those at Versailles. Sometimes in Italy the
upper portions of brick vaults were plastered, as in
the Palazzo del Giardino at Parma. On damp walls
an inner wall is advised by Vitruvius, with an air space
or channels in the wall; if there is not room for this
the rough coats should be made with pounded potsherds.
Wiegmann says that the layers of mortar should
be rubbed with a wooden rubber to remove the
crystals which may form, that the wall should be
always damp upon which the layers are applied ;
if four are used they should not be thicker than
m. 0-018, if only one or two they should be at least
m, 0027. The last coat of sand-mortar having become
42 MURAL PAINTING

solid enough, finer mortar or stucco is applied, com-
posed of calcareous spar and pounded marble. This
spar is more often found in the ancient plasters
than marble powder, though the Romans called this
stucco marmoratum, but they called both by the
same name. Of this plaster two or three coats are
put on, gradually getting thinner and finer, the first
m. 0°008, the second and third m. 0:004 to m. 0:002
thick. As soon as the consistency of these layers
allows of it, they are to be beaten in every direction,
which makes them more solid; afterwards the surface
is smoothed with a flat polished stone, taking care
to keep it wet. Often one only finds two coats of
marble, or even one, often the colour is borne on
a coat of fine sand, lime, and broken terra-cotta. The
thickness also varies, the medium thickness being
m. 0°07. The ancient thickness is always greater
than the modern. At S. Médard-des-Prés the coat
of coarse sand and lime is m. 0:021 thick, covered
with a second coat of finer mortar m. 0:004 thick,
and a stucco on which the artist worked. The stucco
of the pillars of the loggie is only m. 0-003, The
thick ground keeps moist longer, and the painter
could work for five or six hours without stopping
On thicker layers which would keep damp still longer,
thicker coats of colour could be applied, such as
coloured mortars. According to the monk Denys, the
THE PREPARATION OF THE WALL 43

Greek painters of the Middle Ages mixed straw with
the lower coat and cotton-fibre with the upper. The
stucco, by the beating of the daculi (an implement
which appears to have survived to the present day
in Ischia), became so close and fine in texture as
in some cases to resemble marble. Vitruvius says
“That which is well covered with plaster and stucco
closely laid on, when well polished, not only shines
but reflects to the spectators the images falling on it.”
“Some persons, cutting slabs of plaster from the
ancient walls, use them for tables; and the pieces of
plaster so cut out for tables and mirrors are of them-
selves very beautiful in appearance.” Although at the
time of the Renaissance and in the modern revival
of fresco the smooth surface with which the plaster
was finished, as suggested in these extracts, was not
approved by the painters, the remains of Roman wall-
painting which have come down to us are almost
universally executed upon such a surface and have
lasted well for the most part, though that may be
partly owing to the wax varnish which appears to
have been used to preserve the colours. A smooth
surface takes longer to harden than a rough one.
Sometimes it was roughened by rolling a linen cloth
over it, which also made the texture even, and obliter-
ated the marks of the trowel. Leo Battista Alberti
says that nails were fastened into the wall to keep
44 MURAL PAINTING

the coats of plaster on, and that bronze was better
for this purpose than iron, but that he himself pre-
ferred the practice of inserting thin pieces of flint
projecting edgewise from the joints of the stone, driven
in with a wooden mallet. When the frescoes in the
Vatican were examined by Cavaliere Agricola in the
forties he found that the Heliodorus had suffered from
a flue behind it—the plaster projected in some places
nearly four inches from the wall! It had been secured
with nails and the cracks filled in with some com-
position in 1702 by Carlo Maratta. One cannot help
thinking that Leo Alberti’s flint nails would have
been of service here.

The German manner of preparing the surface for
painting is as follows. The surface is wetted with
boiled or rain water till it ceases to absorb. Then
a thin coat of plaster is spread over the part to be
painted, rather rough. As soon as it begins to set
(ten minutes or so, according to the season), a second
thin coat is laid: somewhat “fatter” lime and sand
in equal proportions. These two layers together are
scarcely a quarter of an inch thick. A wooden trowel
is used, and if the surface is required quite smooth
some beaver nap is fastened to the trowel, or a
dry brush is passed over the plaster in all directions.
At Genoa the preparation of the intonaco is very
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THE PREPARATION OF THE WALL 45

spade from the centre, and is mixed with water in
a trough with a sluice at the end till as thick as
milk; it then passes through the sluice and a fine
hair sieve into earthenware jars, filling them two-
thirds full. When the water on the surface is clear
it is poured off. After there is no more to pour off
the lime is of the consistency of white paint and
as smooth. It is now mixed—two parts of sand to
one of lime, great care being taken to have the sand
even, sharp, and not too dark in colour. Professor
Hess said that if the plaster contains too much lime
it becomes incrusted too soon, is too smooth on the
surface, and easily cracks. If it contains too little
it isnot easily floated and the plaster is not so
lasting. A glass float should be used where a wooden
one is unfit. The surface of the last coat should be
slightly roughened to render it fit for painting on.
“The wall thus prepared should be left for a quarter
or half hour before beginning to paint.” Professor
Church says that the lime-putty prepared for the
frescoes at the Houses of Parliament was of excellent
quality, so that their failure cannot be ascribed to
bad material. He also recommends the wall being
well wetted with lime- or baryta-water before the
plastering is commenced, and says that it should
be dry, free from soluble saline matters, and not
very porous, and should have a damp course. He
46 MURAL PAINTING

gives a receipt for a fresh kind of plaster which he
says he has found good. “Three parts of burnt lime
in very fine powder are ground up with two parts
of whitening or prepared chalk; the mixture is grouted
and then strained through hair sieves; five parts of
the putty thus obtained are mixed with five parts
of sifted, crushed marble, or with five parts of sharp,
fine, sifted sand, or with three parts of sifted pumice,
or with the same quantity of infusorial (siliceous)
earth; the whole being moistened with a sufficient
quantity of lime-water to render working easy. For
the undercoats the sand may be coarser, and a small
quantity of the most silky and white asbestos, cut
with scissors into short uniform lengths, will prove
a desirable addition, lessening the risk of lack of
continuity in the undercoats.”” In small works a
smoother surface is required, and it may be polished
by putting a sheet of paper on it and passing the
trowel or the palm of the hand over it, which presses
the roughnesses into the body of the plaster.
FRESCO PAINTING

THE permanency of paintings executed “a fresco”
depends upon the action of the carbonic acid in the
atmosphere, which converts the lime of the mortar
into carbonate of lime. The carbonic acid is driven
out of the limestone or chalk by the process of burn-
ing, and when slaked the remaining lime is converted
into a pulp of hydrate of lime. In this form it exists
in the mortar and greedily absorbs the water with
which the colours are applied. This water, with that
already in the mortar, dissolves a portion of the
hydrate of lime, and after a time this solution finds
its way through the supervening layer of colour to
the surface, where it absorbs carbonic acid gas from
the atmosphere. It thus becomes carbonate of lime,
and lies upon the surface in a thin crystallic film,
protecting and securing it, so that it may be washed
if not rubbed hard. Experiment has shown that the
colour does not sink far into the surface. The pig-
ment becomes saturated with the solution of hydrate
of lime, which can only become carbonate of lime

47
48 MURAL PAINTING

on the surface, and if this surface be removed by
scraping or dissolved away by an acid, or in some
other way, the pigment gives way readily if rubbed
with the finger, and still more with moisture. Frescoes
sometimes peel off in flakes. This is caused by the
different layers having been superposed at a sufficient
interval for the crystallic film to have been allowed
to form between them, though if the work is
sufficiently rapid and well-judged for the layers not
to interfere with each other, but at the same time
to become equally saturated with the solution of
lime a real process of cohesion takes place. The
Rey. J. A. Rivington commenced his paper on Keim’s
process at the Society of Arts in 1884 with this
excellent account of the chemistry of the fresco
process, and I thought I could not do better than
reproduce it here. Professor Church says that in
air contaminated with the products of combustion
of coal and gas true fresco soon perishes. “The
carbonate of lime is converted into the sulphate,
breaking up the paint and becoming itself dis-
integrated in the process of change. And the layer
of paint itself may scale off from the production of
sulphate of magnesia from the carbonate of magnesia
in the plaster... . If more binding material be re-
quired it may be introduced by means of lime-water,
or even of baryta-water, which contains twenty times
FRESCO PAINTING 49

as much hydrate of baryta as the strongest lime-water
contains hydrate of lime. In some plasters and with
some pigments silicate of lime is produced, a more
permanent binding material than the carbonate.”

In this chemical union of pigment and lime the
number of colours which can be used is necessarily
limited, since all vegetable and animal pigments must
be excluded, as they will be altered by caustic lime,
and some even of the mineral colours, leaving for
the most part only colours which are dull in tint.
But this limitation of number and brilliancy is dis-
tinctly advantageous from the point of view of decora-
tion, since it is almost impossible to produce a garish
colour effect with them. The painters of the Renais-
sance produced any bright colours they desired by
glazing with tempera after the work was dry, but
any retouching is liable either to go black or perish
in some other ‘way, especially if exposed to weather
or bad air. The medium employed by Munich artists
for such retouching was vinegar and white of egg,
and crayons made of pounded egg-shells and red
chalk have also been used. The colours are chiefly
simple earths, though there is said to be a method
of rendering vermilion durable. The Munich list is
as follows: WHiITE—lime which has been kept a long
time. YELLOW—all kinds of ochres and raw sienna.
Reps—all kinds of burnt ochres, burnt sienna, oxides

E
50 MURAL PAINTING

of iron, and lake-coloured burnt vitriol Browns—
umber raw and burnt, and burnt terre verte. BLack
—burnt cologne earth. PurpLes—burnt vitriol, cobalt
blue and lake-coloured burnt vitriol. GREENS —
verona green (terre verte), cobalt green, and chrome
green. BLUES—ultramarine, cobalt, and factitious
ultramarine (the last does not always mix well).
Mr. Armitage gives a much more restricted palette.
“Lime takes the place of white lead. The only yellow
it is safe to use, at least in England, is raw sienna;
probably, however, Mars yellow, which is derived from
iron, might be used with safety. Light red of various
kinds and burnt sienna are the principal reds. Oxide
of chromium is the green. Raw and burnt umber
are quite safe, as is also black. Blue is a difficult
colour to use, and it is almost impossible to paint a
blue sky properly gradated. Lakes and vegetable
colours are to be strictly avoided.” Paillot de Monta-
bert says: ‘‘The earths employed should be marbles
and stones as far as possible, so as to make a sort of
coloured mortar when well ground.” P. Pozzo says
that Roman vitriol calcined in the oven is a good
colour for fresco; tempered with brandy it makes
a red purple very useful for sketching in drapery
intended to be finished in vermilion. These two
colours mixed make a colour as sparkling as the
finest lake. The “light red of England,” which, I
 

Portion of the Great Crucifixion by Fra Angelico in the Chapter- House
of S. Marco, Florence.

To face page 50.
FRESCO PAINTING 51

suppose, means Indian red, is said to give almost the
same colour as the vitriol, acquiring its proper colour
as it dries. The receipt for preparing vermilion is
quoted from M. Watelet: “Put it in powder into an
earthen jar and throw on it lime-water taken at the
moment of effervescence from quicklime thrown into
it. Use the cleanest and clearest. Pour off this lime-
water without stirring up the vermilion, and repeat
the process several times. The vermilion should be
purchased in lumps, since in powder it is often
adulterated... . . Burnt yellow ochre gives a pale
red, and has the same good qualities as in its raw
state. Mixed with the black earth of Venice it may
be used for the shadows of carnations and for those
of yellow draperies. Red chalk may also be employed.
Umber is principally useful for the shadows of yellow
draperies. Burnt it is excellent for strong shadows
of carnations mixed with black earth of Venice.
Enamel powder blues stand air and rain very well.
They must be laid while the plaster is very fresh, and
a second coat in an hour increases their brightness.
It is strong enough for ordinary shadows; for strong
shadows charcoal black should be added. Ultramarine
is excellent, but too dear for frequent use. Of green
terre verte of Verona is the best. Pozzo even says
that it is the only one which can be used, the others
being affected by lime. The black earth of Rome
52 MURAL PAINTING

resembles that of Venice, and is generally used for
black draperies. Black of charcoal and burnt wine
lees may also be employed.” Latilla, who was a
member of the Society of British Artists, gives the
following list, which scarcely agrees in all its details
with his statement made just before, “that mineral,
animal, and vegetable substances are destroyed quickly
by the action of the lime.” Wurrr—calcined marble
or stone lime. YELLOws—Naples yellow, yellow ochre,
Roman ochre, brown ochre, raw sienna, and burnt
sienna (!). Reps—Chinese vermilion, light red, Indian
red, burnt copperas. Browns—raw umber, burnt
umber, Vandyke brown, Cologne earth. GREEN—terre
verte. BiLuEs—ultramarine, ultramarine ash, French
ultramarine, cobalt, royal smalt. Buacks—ivory black
and charcoal. He says that smalts of various colours,
as used for glass painting, are valuable (enamel colours
apparently), and gives certain mixtures which he had
found useful, such as—* For flesh tints use light red
and lime, or vermilion and white. For high lights,
burnt sienna, varied with Naples yellow or raw sienna.
For greys, ultramarine ash and white. Black, Indian
red, burnt sienna and white (mixed) make good shadows
for flesh, as does also raw umber, when the subject
is very large. Burnt umber possesses great depth
in fresco, and is an excellent colour for the darker
shadows. Draperies, if painted in black and white,
FRESCO PAINTING 53

may frequently have the lights glazed; which gives
a fine effect.”

When the plaster has been properly prepared for the
painter and has been left for a short time to become
sufficiently firm, the outline is traced and he begins to
work. The surface should be wet enough to receive
the impression of the finger, but not so wet as to be
stirred up by the brush. If it dries too fast it must be
sprinkled. The first tints sink in, and to get the full
effect the surface has to be gone over several times.
But if it be not occasionally moistened it is found that
the upper colour does not unite with that underneath.
Great attention to the preparation of tints on the
palette is necessary, for if mixed in small quantities as
the work proceeds they will appear streaky when dry.
Rain-water (which has not passed through an iron
pipe) boiled or distilled water must be used. After
the painter has laid in his general colour he should
wait half an hour or longer, according as the colour
~ gets, before proceeding to more delicate modelling. In
the first operations warm or powerful tints should be
avoided, as these can be added with better effect as the
work advances. After the second painting and another
pause the work is finished with thin glazings and
washings. If the touches of the brush remain wet on
the surface, and are no longer sucked in instantaneously,
the painter must cease to work, for the colour no
54 MURAL PAINTING

longer unites with the plaster, and the touches will
show as chalky spots. As this moment approaches the
absorbing power increases, the wet brush is sucked
dry by mere contact with the wall and the operation
of painting becomes more difficult. A letter from a
Mr. A. Wilson, written in 1843, describes the process
used by Genoese painters in fresco at that time. The
artist had two pots, one of lime, and one of pale flesh
colour. On a large slate table he had terre verte,
smalt, vermilion, yellow ochre, Roman ochre, darker
ochre, Venetian red, umber, burnt umber, and black,
rather stiff, about one or two ounces of each ground in
water. Near him lay a lump of umber; he tried his
colours on this, which instantly absorbed the water.
He was painting a head of the Virgin, and began with
a pale yellow for the glory, then laid in head and neck
with pale flesh colour, and the masses of drapery round
the head and shoulders with a middle tint, with brown
and black in the shadows. Next with terre verte he
modelled in the features, while he also put in the cool
tints of the face with pale umber and white, using the
same tint for the hair and the folds of the white veil.
All these colours were quite thin; he touched the
intonaco tenderly and allowed ten minutes to elapse
before touching the same place a second time. He
now worked from his coloured study, modelling the
features, putting colour in the cheeks and mouth, and
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FRESCO PAINTING 55

shading the hair and drapery, deepening always with
the same colours. Having worked for half an hour he
halted for ten minutes while he mixed darker tints,
and then began finishing, loading the lights and using
the colours much stiffer ; he also softened with a brush
dipped in water. Another rest of ten minutes; but he
had nearly finished the head and shoulders now and
only had to put in some light touches in the hair,
heighten the lights generally, touch in the darks and
throw a little white into the halo round the head. He
had done this in about an hour and a half with four
rests to allow the wet to be absorbed into the plaster.
The Munich men have an expedient to arrest the dry-
ing if the painter has to be absent for some time. A
board is padded on one side, the cushion being covered
with waxed cloth ; a wet piece of fine linen is then
spread over the fresh plaster and painting and pressed
against the surface of the wall by the cushioned board
buttressed by a pole from the ground. But any such
expedient must be of slight utility, since, as has been
said, fresco does not depend for its durability upon the
thorough drying of the plaster, but upon the crystallisa-
tion of the carbonate of lime on the surface of the
wall, forming “a fine transparent enamel which the
colouring matter thoroughly penetrates, invests, and
becomes itself so fixed.” The failures which attended
some of the earlier attempts at reviving the art of
56 MURAL PAINTING

fresco painting in England were partly due to the
painters not realising the necessity of using freshly
made plaster nor of ceasing to work when crystallisa-
tion had commenced on the surface. Paillot de
Montabert also lays stress on the necessity for
strengthening the tints by going over them again with
touches of the same colour to correct the weakening
which takes place on their absorption into the lime.
He says retouching may be done by hatching the first
painting over with a stronger tint in harmony with
that below. “These hatchings freely made are
softened by the intervening air and united to the
general effect. Tints may be softened into each other
directly after being applied either with soft wet
brushes or with the fingers, a process used most in
heads and extremities, especially when the plaster has
been allowed to harden by leaving it a little too long.”

When the day’s work is done the superfiuous plaster
is cut away, and care must be taken to make the joins
at the edges of forms so that they may not attract
attention. The next day the surface of the plaster
already painted has to be wetted, especially at the
edges, which must be done with a brush; so that it is
best to begin at the top of the painting, if possible, and
thus avoid soiling from the water running down over
the work already completed. The changes undergone
by fresco in drying are rather alarming to the inex-
FRESCO PAINTING 87

perienced painter ; within two or three months various
changes succeed each other till the picture almost
entirely disappears. Michel Angelo was so much up-
set by these changes that he went to the pope and
asked to be allowed to resign the work on the Sistine
ceiling. He was referred to San Gallo, who explained
the matter to him.

Latilla’s instructions as to the sequence of processes
are interesting as showing how such things were done
in his time. “In beginning large mural decorations
the first step is to paint in all the ornament, it being
easier to harmonise subject to ornament than ornament
to subject; and arabesques form an excellent key for
the tone and colour of the historical painter. This
part completed, it is a good plan to fix the blank
cartoons in their respective situations, and then sketch
in the general design, as a better judgement of it
can be formed when up.” This must mean that spaces
were left for the figure compositions, the rest of
the wall, or ceiling, being covered with a more or
less architectural framing of ornament. “When all
the cartoons are painted with egg tempera, they should
again be placed on the panels, when the full effect
of the whole will be seen, which is especially necessary
when different hands are employed. Alterations and
improvements can then be suggested and the various
cartoons harmonised to suit each other.” This is a
58 MURAL PAINTING

practice advocated by Mr. Armitage also, and one has
no difficulty in realising the advantage of employing it.
“Tf possible, have the cartoon placed in situ, so that
the size of the figures, the arrangement of the groups,
and the general effect may be judged. Nothing which
requires alteration should be left knowingly. Sim-
plicity cannot be too much observed in the colouring
as well as the design.” Latilla goes on: “When the
plan is fully arranged, and the panels prepared to
all but the last layer of stucco by the plasterer, the
painter may commence thus: a portion of the cartoon
must be cut out, and the back of the outline blackened
with charcoal, laid upon the piece of fresh plaster; a
point having been passed over the outline, an impres-
sion will remain on the stucco (or it may be pounced).”
“Semi-opaque tints scumbled over solid colour become
very brilliant, the high lights should then be touched
on. The whole should be kept low in tone, as the
colour dries considerably lighter. Over the first layer
of colour the touches are almost invisible for some
seconds. Dark colours, if used first with white, should
be glazed purely afterwards. Water sprinkled with
a long soft brush on the stucco occasionally will pre-
vent its getting dry too soon. Flesh should be painted
at one time, drapery at another, and always so as
to avoid seams in the lights, and where it would be
difficult to unite the next part. Backgrounds, particu-
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FRESCO PAINTING 59

larly skies of a large size, must be painted by two
or three persons, the superintending artist directing
and harmonising.” Paillot de Montabert says of back-
grounds that care must be taken to prepare enough
colour for the whole surface, as the matching of tints
is extremely difficult. Mr. Armitage says “ Paint from
the shadows to the lights. At the end of the day,
when the surface is becoming too dry for solid paint-
ing, thin washes of colour may be used. The Italian
‘terra rossa, burnt sienna, raw sienna, and even
vermilion may be of great service for glazings.” He
also describes another mode of painting in true fresco,
in which the colours are used transparently through-
out, and which he says, as far as his experience went,
was more durable than the solid method. In this
very fluid lime was floated over the intonaco as soon
as it was sufficiently set, and after an interval of ten
minutes another coat was given. “This smooths the
surface. Pounce the outline. You have no palette,
but half a dozen small tumblers. In one mix raw
umber and oxide of chromium with water. Make two
weaker tints from this in two other pots. This replaces
the old terre verte. (Modern terre verte will not stand
the action of lime.) Model your head from dark to
light. Then take three clean tumblers and make tints
of light red or terra rossa, adding raw sienna for a
bronzed complexion, and tint over the completed
60 MURAL PAINTING

modelling. Then with a small brush and burnt sienna
or burnt sienna and umber strengthen the darkest
parts, such as nostrils, division of the lips, etc., and
add black for eyebrows or eyelashes if required. There
are none of those capricious changes to fear in this
process, which constantly occur when lime is used
as pigment.”

In the time of Cennini a shaded monochrome was
first painted. The flesh and the hair were outlined
with sinopia (light red) on the rough plaster, and then
the thin lime surface plaster spread, only covering as
much as could be painted in a day. It was made
as smooth as possible by what would now be called
water-polish. A strong outline was then painted on
the white surface with “verdaccio,” which was made
of black, dark ochre, light red, and white. Then the
shadows were put in with terre verte and flesh colour
in three tints of light red and white carefully added
over the underpainting. “With the darkest tint go
to the edge of the shadows, but always taking care
at the contours that the terra verde should not lose
its value.” “Verdaccio” was also used for under-
painting draperies, buildings, and other parts, and
sometimes the terre verte was used over the flesh
tint. Care was taken to lay every tint in its right
place, so that only a little softening and blending was
required to complete the effect.
FRESCO PAINTING 61

The brushes should be of hoghair, either flat or
round, but with long hair so as not to disturb the
surface of the plaster, and a few brushes made of otter
hair may be used for small touches; no other hair will
resist the action of the lime. The palette should be
either of porcelain or of tin, in the latter case it may
be protected from rust by a light-coloured varnish.
Latilla recommends the use of earthenware cups to
hold the colours. If the palette is of tin it should
have a rim round it to prevent the colours from
running off.

The preparation of the cartoon is a matter of great
importance, since everything must be settled on it.
Cornelius, the great German fresco painter, used to
prepare his upon a frame covered with strong cloth
upon which paper was glued. A second layer was
glued over this when dry, the sheets being scraped
a little at the places where they overlapped. The
surface was then prepared with size and alum and
the drawing made with charcoal. It was fixed by
wetting the cloth at the back and steaming the
drawing in front, which melted the size a little and
thus fixed the charcoal. .A tracing was made from
this cartoon and either pounced or traced on the wet
wall, Latilla says the cartoon should be painted with
the same colours as the fresco, and if opaquely it will
be better imitated by the’ assistants. He advises the
62 MURAL PAINTING

use of colours ground in water and a medium of yolk
of egg. He mentions that white will work pleasantly.
and in an impasto if mixed with parchment size and
a little drying oil and used with yolk of egg—a form
of tempera. He also says: “Beat up a little pale
drying oil with the white and yolk of an egg; it
makes an excellent medium and the colours do not
change when it is used. It will receive high finish
and may be employed either opaquely or semi-
transparently.”

One of the drawbacks to the use of fresco is that
the rough surface harbours dirt and is very difficult
to clean without damaging the crystallic film. Pro-
fessor Church gives the following directions for cleaning
a dirty and damaged fresco: “ Methylated spirits of
wine applied freely on tufts of carded cotton removes
the tarry and sooty impurities which a previous careful
brushing of the painted surface has failed to dislodge.
Attempts to clear the clouded portions by means of
distilled water are not usually successful. The films
which obscure the surface sometimes consist of sul-.
phate of lime, etc. In getting rid of this somewhat
opaque film by means of water portions of the pig-
ment are generally removed.. When a fresco has been
dusted and then cleansed with spirits of wine it should
be allowed to dry thoroughly and then treated with
the paraffin copal medium, largely diluted with spirits
 

Fresco by Filippino Lippi in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of the Carmine, Florence.
THE DELIVERANCE OF 8. PETER FROM PRISON,

To face page 62.
FRESCO PAINTING

of turpentine or pure toluene. The matt surtace 1s
thus preserved, the obscuring films are rendered trans-
parent, and if another cleaning is ever needed the
surface may be safely sponged with pure water or
weak spirits of wine.”

Signor Forni, in his manual for the picture restorer,
gives the following as the result of his experience and
of traditional methods of cleaning frescoes: “ In case of
mould or efflorescence, get the wall as dry as possible,
wash it gently with a damp sponge dipped in very dilute
ammonia, and leave it for three or four months. If the
mould returns do it again. If this does not succeed
there is no remedy. If it succeeds, and more complete
cleaning is required, use stale bread or skim milk,
lupin flower mixed with water, white vinegar, white
wine, lime-water, or a weak solution of tartaric acid.
Good results may sometimes be obtained by the use
of distilled vinegar, sour lemons, and salt water. If
the blackening comes from smoke, especially if of an
oily nature, pure ammonia is better, or a decoction
made from saponaria root; then essence of soap, Greek
wine (used by Carlo Maratta in the Vatican), sul-
phuric acid, but weak, onion, urine, or cooked potatoes,
washing the painting with a sponge dipped in distilled
water and drying with white cloths, soft and clean.
Retouchings may be recognised by being more opaque
when looked at against the light, and special care must
64 MURAL PAINTING

be taken where they occur—if they begin to move
the colour will show on the cotton. Blue was always
put over a red fresco preparation “a secco,” and so were
some of the greens, but yellows, reds, purples, mixed
tones, brown, and black are almost always without
retouchings. Varnishes are almost impossible to
remove satisfactorily.”

There are certain drawbacks to the employment
of fresco which may be noted here. At a meeting
of the Society of Arts on February 12th, 1864, when
the subject under discussion was the best method of
painting to employ in mural decoration, at which a
paper was read by J. B. Atkinson highly extolling
fresco, Lord Elcho, who was in the chair, quoting
J, BR. Herbert, R.A. Said that if the plasterer on one
day put more water into his plaster than he did on
another the colour would come out different though
the same colours had been employed. In the fresco
of Lear and Cordelia he had cut out the head of
Lear six times and that of Cordelia five times, and
there was no part of that picture which had not
been cut out four times. Mr. Dyce’s and Mr.
Herbert’s plasterers both died mad—in Mr. Herbert's
opinion, owing to constant worry. Paillot de Monta-
bert cautions the painter in these words: “The
artist who is careful of his health will not commence
his work until the plaster is quite dry, especially
FRESCO PAINTING 65

if in a closed place or one sheltered from wind.
A dangerous dampness is exhaled from it, and a
fetid odour from the lime which affects the chest
and the brain. A painter ought also to examine
carefully the scaffold made for him. The mason often
prefers to risk his life to taking the care required to
make the scaffold absolutely firm; the artist ought
not to be so rash.... For this mode of painting
there is no to-morrow in which to reconsider. The
day’s task has to be done without turning back. The
only way of making alterations is to cut the plaster
out and start afresh.”

As has been said, the practice in Italy at the end of
the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries
was to retouch the fresco when dry with tempera
colours and to obtain those brighter colours in this
manner which fresco would not give. Pinturricchio,
for instance, in the contract for the Piccolomini library
at Siena, agreed to paint the heads in fresco and finish
them in tempera. Careless cleaning or natural decay
has often removed these “ritocchi” or caused them to
turn black. Taylor, in his manual for fresco and en-
caustic painting, describes a medium which he says is
very good for retouching which sounds as if it might
be permanent. It is made of “caseum” from fresh
cheese. The cheese is to be triturated and worked
with warm water till all the soluble part is carried off

F
66 MURAL PAINTING

by the washing. “Use a sieve or coarse linen cloth,
through which it is finally pressed to deprive it com-
pletely of the water. The residuum will crumble like
stale bread. It may be dried on unsized paper. This
material is not soluble in water except by adding
quicklime; by triturating this mixture it becomes a
very viscous sort of cream, which can be diluted with
water—dries quickly and cannot again be dissolved.”
It may be kept mixed with lime in a stoppered bottle,
and when required ground with a muller and warm
water.

Fresco secco differs from buon fresco in that it is not
painted upon wet plaster. The same colours are used,
and it is claimed by some that it is as durable as real
fresco, and will bear being washed quite as well. The
plastering having been completed, and lime and sand
only used for the last coat, the whole is allowed to dry
thoroughly. It is then rubbed with pumice stone, and
the evening before the painting is to be commenced
the surface must be well wetted with water in which a
little lime has been mixed. The next morning the
surface is again moistened and the cartoons fastened
up so that the outline may be pounced. The colours
are mixed with water only as in buon fresco. If the
wall becomes too dry it is moistened by sprinkling, or
with a fine syringe. The process is ancient and is
described by Theophilus. With Cennini the word
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FRESCO PAINTING 67

“secco” generally means tempera. Professor Church
says the fixation of the pigments is less complete.
Peter of S. Audemar gives the medium for “ secco” as
either egg or gum, confusing it with tempera as
Cennini does.

The most modern opinion is that up to the time of
Giotto tempera only was used, but that his practice
was to begin with fresco, finishing and adding small
details in “ secco,” and that true fresco did not become
common until the end of the fourteenth century.

The most accessible modern frescoes are (for the
Englishman) Sir E. J. Poynter’s Martyrdom of S.
Stephen in 8. Stephen’s Church, Dulwich; Mr. Watts’s
fresco of the Lawgivers in the hall at Lincoln’s Inn;
Mr. Dyce’s figures of Apostles, etc., on the east wall of
All Saints’, Margaret Street; Mr. Armitage’s frescoes
in the church of 8. John, Duncan Terrace, Islington ;
and those by various artists in the corridors of the
Houses of Parliament and in the House of Lords. A
very successful series was painted by Mr. Dyce in the
King’s Robing-Room—subjects from the Morte d Arthur,
illustrating the knightly virtues of “Courtesy” (Sir
Tristram harping to La Belle Isoude), “ Religion” (the
vision of Sir Galahad and his company), “ Generosity ”
(King Arthur unhorsed spared by Sir Lancelot),
“Hospitality” (the admission of Sir Tristram to the
Round Table), and “ Mercy ” (Sir Gawaine sworn to be
68 MURAL PAINTING

merciful and never to be against ladies). They are in
very fair preservation except for efflorescence and
scaling here and there, mostly in the less successful
subjects fortunately. The most successful are the
“Religion” over the fireplace, an excellent piece of
design and painting, and the “Hospitality” opposite
the windows. The skies throughout are very luminous,
and the restriction in the number of possible colours
scarcely felt at all, the absence of brilliant reds and
yellows being rather an advantage than otherwise,
and the blues have been lowered very scientifically.
A few of the heads have become black in the en-
deavour to give more relief by modelling, especially in
“Courtesy” and “Mercy.” The darks of the hair in
the background figures in “Hospitality” might be
lighter with advantage, thus giving a slight prominence
to the foreground figures in accordance with the differ-
ence in size.

Sir Edward Poynter's fresco of 8. Stephen is nearly
in a perfect state. The frescoes at All Saints’, Margaret
Street, were cleaned and retouched by Mr. Armitage a
good many years ago.
TEMPERA

THE word “tempera” is used for a glutinous medium
which binds colours and is soluble in water, such as
size, gums, or egg; and in a more restricted sense for
a vehicle in which yolk of egg is the principal ingre-
dient. The analysis of fragments of coloured plasters
from ancient buildings shows that a form of tempera
was the usual manner of applying the colours to wall
surfaces. In Egypt wax was found together with sub-
stances coming from animal blood and glue; at Athens,
wax, odoriferous gums, and substances thought to be
vegetable. In Sicily yellow organic matters were
found in considerable quantities mixed with a little of
a fat substance and lime. At Pompeii there were
found: (1) Organic matters in less quantity than in
Sicily, and containing portions of fat substances and
lime, with traces of silica, aluminum, magnesia, and
sometimes chlorate of sodium; (2) Animal matters,
supposed to be milk, mixed with lime.

In the Middle Ages yolk of egg diluted with fig juice,
which was used for painting, was also used medicinally.
70 MURAL PAINTING

For wall-painting warm size was sometimes used, the
distemper colour of the present day. A fifteenth-
century MS. in the public library at Strassburg,
quoted by Eastlake, gives a receipt for making size
which would keep and not smell—very useful, since
stale size does not dry well. It was made from parch-
ment cuttings like the gilder’s size of the present day,
but vinegar was to be added after it was made and the
whole well boiled again. (Mrs. Herringham, however,
says that boiling size diminishes its tenacity.) When
it was used equal quantities of size and water were
taken, honey was added, and the whole warmed. Pro-
fessor Church says that in selecting a size the special
purpose for which it is to be used must be considered,
and whether one which is insoluble in cold water and
strongly gelatinising or one which is partially soluble
and very adhesive would be best. “The former is less
liable to crack when dry than the latter. The very
fine gelatins used in photography will often be found
suitable. As caustic lime, caustic soda, chloride of
lime, sulphurous acid, and certain mineral acids are
frequently employed in their manufacture, they must
be tested. A hot-water solution must not redden blue,
litmus paper, nor bleach dahlia paper, nor embrown
turmeric paper.”

In using a size medium care must be taken that the
ground has no grease in it: the colour when mixed
Detail from Botticelli’s fresco of the life of Moses, in the Sistine Chapel,

To face page 70.

 
TEMPERA 71

should drop from the brush in a thread, the size being
used warm.

Glutinous vehicles were diluted with wine for a long
time in Italy; the northern artists were content to
use beer. Honey was added to retard the drying of
the colours. As long ago as the latter half of the
thirteenth century it was the English practice to
varnish tempera pictures; and the numerous black
Madonnas revered in various churches show that such
varnishing was usual still earlier, the darkness of tone
being usually the result of the darkening of the
varnish. In dry climates egg tempera attains a firm
consistency and withstands ordinary solvents. It sets
rather than dries, and to be solid must be painted
directly and left undisturbed. Tempera was used for re-
touching frescoes “a secco,” adding details which would
have taken too long to put in at the time that the
main painting was done, and also for painting on
the dry wall as well as on panel and cloth fastened
to wall or panel. Sometimes the medium used was
the whole egg diluted with fig juice, which acted as
a solvent and also contained a small amount of india-
rubber. If the yolk should become too thick to use
it may be diluted by the addition of a small quantity
of water, being well mixed by shaking. Cennino
recommends two temperas for finishing buon fresco,
the first that just mentioned and the second yolk of
72 MURAL PAINTING

egg only, and “you must know that it (the latter) is
of universal application—on walls, on panels, or on
iron, and you cannot use too much of it.” In chapters
lxxii. and xc. he directs the artist to check the
over-absorbency of the wall with a diluted wash of
egg before commencing to paint. He mentions seven
to ten coats of colour, so that it is evident that it was
the custom to paint with thin coats of colour, and
without using impasto. It was usual to make an
under-painting in green, called “verdaccio,” then to
glaze transparent colours over the shadows and mix
white with the same tint for the lights.

The yolk of egg medium does not protect the colours
from deterioration with absolute completeness, but
answers well enough for most purposes; and the best
fifteenth-century pictures are still in a state of pre-
preservation which may almost be called perfect.
Professor Church says that “yolk and white of egg,
like other nitrogenous bodies, are susceptible of
coagulation, and thus may become a substance which
is virtually leather. This may be effected by treating
them with a solution containing tannin. Egg yolk
being one-third oily or fatty matter is really well
on the way to be an oil medium. As it dries the
oil hardens and remains intimately commingled with
the albuminous substances left behind on the evapora-
tion of the water present. These albuminous substances
TEMPERA 73

coagulate and become insoluble in the lapse of time—

a change greatly accelerated by the old practice of

exposing the finished tempera picture to the sun.”
He gives the following analysis :—

Yolk. White.
Water s ‘ . 515... 84:8
Albumen, vitellin, etc. . . 150 ... 12:0
Fat or oil 4 . 800 ... 05
Mineral matter . « Lt ac 122
Other substances 3 es 21 aw 25

and says that temporary preservation from putrefaction
may be effected by means of a lump of camphor or
a few drops of eugenol (from oil of cloves). “A
saturated solution of eugenol in five per cent. acetic
acid is made, and this is added, drop by drop, with
constant agitation, to the yolks in a wide-mouthed
bottle, the change of colour in a slip of turmeric
paper giving the stopping point, when this paper just
regains its original colour, which was turned brownish
red by the yolks. Water may now be added and
a lump of camphor.” He lays great stress on the
correction of the alkaline reaction of the yolks, re-
turning to the subject again ; this time he recommends
the addition of a few drops of white vinegar. White
of egg needs dilution with water, thorough shaking
and filtering through muslin. Used alone it dries too
hard for painting with, has very little body, and after
74 MURAL PAINTING

a time has more tendency to crack than when mixed
with the yolk. The media serve not only to bind the
pigments to the ground, but also the coloured particles
to each other. Lead and copper paints are now
excluded from the tempera palette, so that the sulphur
in the egg does not alter any of the colours.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century tempera
painting on cloth was common in the Netherlands;
Van Mander says that at that time rooms were
frequently hung with such works instead of tapestry.
The mediums employed were egg and size. Eastlake
asserts that the priority of records is in favour of
an English invention of the vehicle, both for trans-
parent and more solid tempera, that which was used
in the Netherlands being different from that employed
in Italy, and that according to Sandrart the ordinary
tempera was found not to last, owing to the size being
affected by the damp climate. For the same reason,
no doubt, the transparent method described in Le
Bégue’s copy of the MS. of Alcherius was adopted
both in England and in Germany, in the former
country certainly during the fourteenth century.
Eastlake gives it thus: “In England the painters
work with these water colours on closely woven
linen saturated with gum water. This, when dry, is
stretched on the floor over coarse woollen and frieze
cloths, and the artists, walking over the linen with
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‘NIDUIA FHL dO HLUIG AHL

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TEMPERA 75

clean feet, proceed to design and colour historical
figures and other subjects. And because the linen
is laid quite flat on the woollen cloths the water
colours do not flow and spread, but remain where
they are placed, the moisture sinking through into
the woollen cloths beneath, which absorb it. In like
manner the outlines of the brush remain defined, for
the gum in the linen prevents the spreading of such
lines. Yet after this linen is painted its thinness is
no more obstructed than if it was not painted at all,
as the colours have no body.”

In England walls which were to have figure subjects
painted on them appear often to have been prepared
with cloth glued over the surface, an expedient also
adopted sometimes in Italy ; and Sandrart says, “as
they feared the walls might crack, they glued linen over
them, then laid a ground of gypsum and painted their
pictures in tempera.” Damp was of course a great
enemy, and many were the expedients resorted to to
keep it at arm’s length. Tinfoil was sometimes used
for this purpose. Vasari says “walls, when dry,
should receive one or two coats of warm size, the work
being then executed entirely with colours tempered
with it.” The followers of Giotto used to combine
fresco and tempera in their work far more than merely
in retouching. They used to sketch in the composition
on the rough plaster to try the effect, and then the
76 MURAL PAINTING

intonaco was laid over it, either in pieces or altogether,
according as tempera or fresco was intended to pre-
ponderate in the completed work. (See the section on
fresco secco.)

Ornaments in relief, such as nimbi and diapers (to
be afterwards gilded), were formed with “ gesso sottile”
(made with one gallon of water to one pound of
plaster), to which was added enough Armenian bole to
give it a little colour. Ornaments thick enough to
cast were fastened to the walls with ship pitch. Small
reliefs were also made with “ vernice liquida” (sanda-
rac varnish) and flour, and with two parts of wax and
one of pitch used warm.

In tempera, when the binding matter, the gluten, is
too plentiful, the colours dry on contact with the air
and the painting cracks and scales off: from this arises
the necessity of applying them in thin coats and letting
them dry well before retouching. The process was
much used by the Egyptians. Whether wood or cloth
were the ground the first coat of colour was always
white, the white underpainting making the colours of
the other coats more brilliant. Egypt produces mimo-
sas which give gum, and gelatine glue was known
there, but, according to Mérimée, its painters preferred
a tough gum like gum tragacanth. There are few
signs of cracking in their paintings, and some think
that they used honey to mix with the gum, The
TEMPERA 77

colours were applied with brushes made from the fibres
of the reed, larger brushes were doubtless made of the
arak (Salvadoro persica) say Cros and Henry. These
brushes and palettes of wood, alabaster, or enamelled
pottery are to be seen in museums. Sometimes they
have as many as twelve hollows in them, but seven is a
more usual number, the colours employed being white,
yellow, green, blue, red, dark brown, and black. They
used varnishes with which they “glazed,” and these
are sometimes still transparent and colourless, though
others of a resinous basis have darkened. The Greeks
and Romans also used gum and glue as a medium.
Vitruvius writes of the preparation of lamp black.
“One takes a part, which tempered with gum serves
for writing ink, the rest mixed with glue may be used
for painting walls.” They used principally “ sarco-
colla,” a resinous gum from a shrub of North Africa,
transparent and soluble in water, “very useful for
painters and doctors.” Pliny says the best glue is
made from the ears and genitals of bulls. “Glue of
Rhodes is that which deceives the least, so doctors and
painters use it.” “Those.who paint by putting a coat
of sandyx (fire colour) and of purpurissimum (violet
carmine) with egg (which shows that the egg medium
was then known) obtain the brightness of minium. If
they wish to make purple they put upon a coat of blue,
purpurissimum with egg.” This is evidently a pro-
78 MURAL PAINTING

cess of glazing. They also used milk as a medium.
The earth of Chios dissolved in milk was used, accord-
ing to Pliny, for rewhitening walls, At Elis there was
a temple of Athene in which Panznus, brother of
Pheidias, covered the plaster with milk and saffron,
which, Pliny says, could be smelt when rubbed with a
wet hand. Vitruvius says that by mixing vaccinium
(our myrtle) in a certain manner with milk a fine
purple was made.

The brushes used by the Greeks and Romans were
made from the tail of the ox in the most ancient times,
but Vitruvius mentions hog hairs. The sponge was
also used and sometimes by way of a brush’; Pliny
says “there is a sort of close, fine sponge, from which |
brushes are made.” All sorts of grounds were used,
M. Chevreul analysed some coloured stucco from the
temple of Jupiter at Agrigentum and from an ancient
temple at Selinunt, and found considerable quantities
of organic matter. In two Roman fragments found at
the Palais de Justice, Paris, in 1848, he found none,
and thought the colours had been used with a medium
of lime milk. Some fragments from 8. Médard-des::
Prés showed neither gum, resin, oil, gelatine, nor cheese.
M. Chevreul thought these were done with a medium
of hydrated lime mixed with the colours and sufficient
water to make it fluid, which is probably the true
explanation. The plasters used by the ancients were:
sco of the Birth of the Virgin, in S. Maria Novella, Florence.
PORTRAIT OF LUCKEZIA TORNABUONI,

To face page 78.

 
TEMPERA 79

in Egypt, chalk mixed with serum and blood; in
Etruria, lime; in Sicily, lime mixed with chlorites of
sodium and calcium, silica and ferruginous aluminum.
Professor Church says that for tempera (and fresco
secco) the wall must be quite dry and completely car-
bonated, as otherwise the alkaline nature of the ground
would limit the colours which could be used. Many
Greek and Byzantine paintings were executed upon a
caustic lime ground, natural earths being the principal
colours used, which are not affected by alkalies.
Slaked lime mixed with chopped straw, flax or cotton
formed the basis of the plaster, all liable to decay and
discolour the ground. The ordinary Italian and
Spanish tempera ground consisted either of whitening
and size, or of burnt gypsum, stirred well with water,
so as to lose the power of setting, strained, and mixed
with size. Great care was taken in the washing. The
best size was made from parchment or the finer kinds
of fish glue. The ground should always be absorbent ;
the use of too much size makes it crack. Whatever
medium was employed the ground was always sized
before commencing to paint.

At the time that some mural painting of the
thirteenth century was discovered in the Sainte
Chapelle at Paris an analysis was made of the colours
by MM. Dumas and Persoz. The result showed that
the whites were probably a preparation of lead, perhaps
80 MURAL PAINTING

flake white ; the drapery blues were phosphate of iron,
probably native, and the other blues were ultramarine ;
the bright red with which the aureole round the
angel’s head was painted was vermilion, the browns
and yellows were ochres; the greens were made with
these ochres mixed with phosphate of iron, and the
roses and violets were probably obtained from shell
fish by a simple mechanical preparation.*

* The question of the Tyrian purple was investigated in 1859 by
Lacaze-Duthiers. He found that when the matter which becomes
purple is taken from the murex it is white or slightly yellow, some-
times slightly grey. (It is a little band on the lower face of the
mantle between the intestine and the gills.) Submitted to the action
of the sun it becomes first citron yellow, then greenish yellow, then
green, and then turns to violet which becomes darker and darker. At
the appearance of the violet a penetrating smell of essence of garlic is
given off. By varying the quantity of the material and the length of
exposure to the sun, drawings may be made of vigorous tone and deli-
“cate broken tints. Lacaze-Duthiers made photographs with it which
Cros and Henry say were quite successful. The matter is soluble in
water and alcohol before being influenced by the light, but when it
has become violet it is perfectly insoluble. ‘‘If you wish to have a
fine colour,” says Pliny, ‘‘ for 50 lbs. of wool mix 200 lbs. of buccin to
111 Ibs, of purple, in this way this superb amethystine colour is
obtained.” Purple also meant a red colour. ‘‘ During my youth,”
says Cornelius Nepos, as reported by Pliny, ‘‘ violet purple was the
fashion, and was sold at 100 denari the lb. (about 237 francs the kilo)
soon after the red purple of Tarentum, and afterwards the dibapha of
Tyre, of which the lb. cost more than 1000 denari.” Pliny dis-
tinguishes between purple and ‘‘ conchylienne” colour, ‘for each the
matter is the same only for the latter ‘buccin’ is not used, also
they pour into the decoction of purple urine and water in equal parts,
and then add half as much purple again, It is by means of an in-
complete saturation that this delicate colour so much praised is
obtained, so much the brighter as the wool has taken less dye.”
TEMPERA 81

Paillot de Montabert says that he found the use
of egg yolk only gave much force and unctuousness
to the colours; that the mixture of the white with the
yolk gave tenacity and greater transparency; while
the white used alone gave still stronger and more
lively colours, but less soft and more friable. Resins
may be added to the yolk, rendering it still more
tenacious, harder, and therefore less permeable, and
the volatile oil of wax can also be added to this gluten
to delay its drying. He says “the process is very rich
and splendid, and as powerful as oil.” Yolk of egg can
be bleached by exposure to light when thinned with
spirits of wine. White of egg may be kept in a dry
state to be liquefied as required.

He also gives very full directions for painting in
distemper. The palette should be of tin, with a piece of
leather round the hole through which the thumb goes, to
prevent it from galling the flesh, The other end should
have a raised edge and several hollows to hold the
colours, which should be ground in water only. The
size must be kept liquid by being put over some warm
coals. “If it gets solid on the palette it may be
melted by warming. Take care that the colours do
not get dry at the same time, and thin the size if
necessary.” At the end of each day the palette should
be washed and dried to preserve it from rust. When
working on a large scale the tints must be mixed in

a
82 MURAL PAINTING

pots, and the palette becomes much too large to
handle ; it then stands on a box by the painter. The
most important point is the keeping the surface of
the cloth, wood, or wall on which the painting is being
executed damp. Walls must be perfectly dry in their
structure or the colours will fade in drying, and they
will crack. If the wall is prepared with lime, lime
must be used in the painting, which then becomes
Jresco secco. If it is intended to use chalk whites the
wall must be prepared with chalk or plaster white
in very thin coats. The plaster must be as good and
even as possible; when thoroughly dry give it one
or two coats of very hot size, stronger than that
which is to be used with the colours. If it is rather
uneven, mix a little whiting or chalk with the size
to make it more even, or even plaster which has been
exposed to the air and well ground. When this is dry
the surface is to be scraped as uniformly as possible.
The design is then drawn on the surface with charcoal
quite lightly, and when the arrangement is settled the
outline is gone over with a small brush and very pale
colour. The colours should be tried on plaster squares,
or on panels prepared in the same way as the wall,
or on a warm tile, chalk, or umber, all of which
absorb the moisture immediately and show what the
colours will be like when dry at once. Tints which
look the same when wet are often quite different when
 

 

 

 

 

 

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To face page &2.
TEMPERA 83

dry. Keep the pots of colour warm, and stir them
up each time you put the brush in them, as the colours
are apt to sink to the bottom. Use the colours strong
and bright, remembering that they lose half their
strength and more in drying. So that one need never
fear heaviness, but rather weakness and too great
greyness. Remember, too, that burnt earths change
less than other colours, and that lake and black change
scarcely at all. The brushes should be very soft—
those made of goats’ hair are good for uniting the
colours.

Before beginning to paint, damp the wall till it
absorbs no more water; the dampness affords time
to unite the colours and give suavity and freshness
to the distemper. Begin with the pale tones and
work downwards to the half-tones and the browns.
Distemper requires a decided and single painting.
It can be retouched, but the same colours must be
employed, otherwise muddiness will result from the
mixing of a different over- and under-colour. Tints
may be united at once with a brush dipped in pure
water. Glazing may sometimes be used, but a light
hand and a very soft brush are required, with great
rapidity of execution. Before attempting it, pass a
wash of size over the place. Sometimes the touches
will not “take,” the ground being too much charged
with size. Then mix ox-gall with fresh colour. If
84 MURAL PAINTING

you wish to retouch after the colour has dried you
must moisten the place with your finger and saliva;
every other way makes a patch. The effect of retouch-
ing is that the added touches stand out disagreeably
like a coarse mosaic. The best way is to place the
fresh tints when the painting is half dry so that
the upper touches may not drag up the lower tint.
De Montabert also says: “The rapidity of drying may
be lessened by adding viscous juices to the medium,
such as those from the bark of mistletoe, the roots
of viburnum, the juice of elder, narcissus roots, or
other bulbous plants, or snail slime; fig juice has
always been employed for this purpose. Sugar, honey,
or syrups of marsh mallow or jujube also will lessen
the speed of drying, but they become yellow, and
absorb moisture constantly.” Egg forms the best
medium, and volatile oil of wax might be mixed
with the size advantageously. Red draperies may
be painted successfully with red lead and glazed
with lake; yellow draperies may be glazed with
gamboge. Blue draperies may be sketched in red
ochre and glazed with blue. The fifteenth-century
painters obtained greens by glazing yellow over ultra
marine, examples of which may be seen at S. Croce
in Gerusalemme at Rome. The colours which cannot
be employed are vermilion and brown-pinks, Wash-
ing over with weak size, however carefully and lightly
TEMPERA 85

done, always reduces brilliancy, but if gold is to be
added it has to be done. The mordant is then put on;
it is thick glue with a little honey added. The hatch-
ings are put on with the point of a brush, with the
material in a warm state and pretty thick. When
it is firm the gold is applied and allowed to dry for
several days. Care must be taken that the preparation
does not sink into the colour, which may be discovered
by its losing its shine, for then it loses its adhesiveness,
and the operation has to be gone through again.
KEIM’S PROCESS FOR WALL-
PAINTING

Tue failure of the frescoes which were executed in
Germany (on external walls particularly) at the time
of the revival of fresco painting, of which the north
and east sides of the new Pinacothek at Munich
showed such deplorable examples, the hail and rain
having destroyed the protecting covering of crystallic
carbonate of lime and washed away the colour from the
wall beneath, induced certain of the German chemists
to search for a mode of wall-painting which might
defy the elements and show for centuries the creations
of the artist just as they left his hand. The intention
was laudable, and success appears to have attended
the attempt; and although the difficulty occurs to
one that if the decoration is in harmony with the
building when it is new, and remains unaltered, it
will become more and more out of harmony as years
go by, and the unprotected portions take on the lovely
tints which nothing will give but the lapse of years;
while on the other hand, if this is allowed for in

86
 

 

Fresco by Luca Signorelli, in the Cappellu Nuova, Orvieto Cathedral.
THE RESURRECTION,

To face page 86.
KEIM’S PROCESS FOR WALL-PAINTING ‘87

the scheme of coloration, the want of harmony between
the decoration and its surroundings will strike one
at once; it is scarcely to be expected that the artist,
who naturally thinks his picture the most important
part of the fagade, or the chemist, who glories in
the success of his devices, will hold the objection
of any importance.

The first of these processes was the water-glass
or silicate of potash process invented by Dr. Johann N.
von Fuchs, who called it stereochromy, and published
a pamphlet explanatory of the process, which was
translated into English by direction of the Prince
Consort, who was always ready to further any effort
in connection with art. The best known examples
executed in England by this means are Maclise’s
two large paintings in the Houses of Parliament, and
Herbert’s “Moses” in the Peers’ Robing-Room in the
same building. Maclise went over to Germany to
make investigations, and it was upon his information
that Herbert worked.

The plaster was allowed to become quite dry before
being worked on, and the painting was executed with
pure distilled water. Maclise said that he painted
direct on to the wall from models, ‘sailors, marines,
guns, tackle, ropes, blocks, etc., and that the painting
was nearly indelible before the operation of fixing,
from the colours becoming absorbed. The pigments
88 MURAL PAINTING

used were the same as in fresco painting, except that
the lime white was replaced by zine white. The
under coat of plaster was made of two parts sharp.
sand, two parts fine sand, and one part of slaked lime
in fine powder. The upper coat on which the painting
was executed was one-tenth to one-eighth of an inch
thick, and was made of three parts fine sand and one
part slaked lime. The surface of the plaster may be
made of any roughness desired—Kaulbach preferred
it as rough as a rasp—and the final preparation of the
surface is made by sweeping off the loose particles
of sand and moistening it with a saturated solution of
carbonate of ammonia before commencing to paint.
The next day, when the portion painted has dried,
the water-glass is sprayed over it with a syringe,
though Maclise used to apply it with a large flat
water-colour brush. He used it “two parts water
and one of the concentrated liquor imported from
Berlin” and applied it freely twice. The water-glass
was composed of powdered quartz boiled in purified
potass or soda, and Dr. Pettenkofer said that the
potass solution was to be preferred.

This process showed certain disadvantages which
other German chemists set to work to remove, seeking
perfect permanency and believing that the only sure
guarantee for the permanence of any painting was
the thoroughly scientific observance of and adherence
KEIM’S PROCESS FOR WALL-PAINTING 89

to the laws of chemistry. “Unless the painting is
executed under conditions which can be proved to
comply with the demands of chemical laws, its per-
manence is a mere matter of haphazard experiment
and a perfectly open question.”

A paper was read by the Rev. J. A. Rivington on
October 15th, 1884, at the Society of Arts, upon the
process as improved by Herr Adolf Keim, and a
description is given in Professor Church’s Chemistry
of Paints and Painting; while the late Sir Roberts-
Austen, ©.B., also read a paper on the latest develop-
ment of the process as used by Mrs. Lea Merritt
in Mr. Harrison Townsend’s pretty little church at
Wonersh, near Guildford, on December 6th, 1895,*
and from these various authoritative sources the follow-
ing account is put together.

The preparation of the wall is a most elaborate and
tedious process. Any damp bricks, over-burnt bricks,
or decaying wood must be cut out of the wall and
replaced with sound material. If there is any stucco
already upon it it must be cleared off and the joints
raked out to about the depth of three-quarters of an
inch, Upon this surface a thin squirting is cast, com-
posed of coarse quartz sand, infusorial earth, and pow-
dered marble, four parts of this mixture to one part of

* My thanks are due to the Council of the Society of Arts for
kindly permitting me to make use of the papers referred to.
90 MURAL PAINTING

quicklime slaked with distilled water. The object of
this is to insure adhesion to the wall. Then follows a
coat of mortar of ordinary consistency to fill up all
inequalities. This is made, according to Sir Roberts-
Austen, of pure lime, which has been slaked for some
years, one part, four parts washed and dried sand,
and one-eighth part of Keim’s rough cast extract,
the lime being first well stirred in twice its bulk of
distilled or filtered rain-water, passed through a fine
sieve, and then mixed with the sand. The wall must
be carefully dusted and made very wet; when it has
sucked in the water, very thin mortar is thrown from
the trowel, and before this has quite dried more cast,
so as to make the surface quite even. It should not
be smoothed with the trowel, but great care must be
taken to get the surface even, because otherwise the
‘painting ground cannot be of equal thickness all over,
which would affect the fixing of the colours. This
mortar must not dry too suddenly or it will crack, and
in very dry, hot weather it should be sprinkled with
water. If cracks appear they must be carefully filled.
When it is dry, which will probably take nearly a
year, the painting ground is laid on it. This is com-
posed of the finest white quartz sand, marble sand
(artificially prepared and free from dust), marble meal,
and calcined fossil meal (infusorial earth). The sand
composed of these materials, carefully mixed in proper
 

Detail from Luca Signorella’s fresco of the Resurrection.

Cappella Nuova, Orvieto Cathedral.
To face page 90.
KEIM’S PROCESS FOR WALL-PAINTING 91

proportions, is mixed with quicklime slaked with dis-
tilled water in the proportion of eight parts of sand
to one part slaked lime. It is applied as thin as
possible, one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch deep.
For work on the exterior of buildings the addition
of pumice sand is recommended. Sir Roberts-Austen
said that the rough cast must be thoroughly wetted
with distilled water, and that if the plasterer rubs
it after it is dry the surface will be rotten. The
reason for using distilled water is that any admixture
of lime would affect the fixing solution. Marble sand
(carbonate of calcium in a crystalline form) has been
proved by experiment to add greatly to the firmness
of the mortar, and the infusorial earth (a form of
silica) has a double consolidating effect—first mechani-
cally, cementing and binding together the coarser
particles with the lime; second, by forming to some
extent with the lime a silicate of calcium, such as
afterwards results from the addition of the water-
glass.

When this layer has dried for several days—the
Rev. J. A. Rivington says when the mortar is perfectly
dry down to the brickwork or stone of the wall—a
crust of carbonate of lime is formed on the surface,
which is removed by an acid supplied by the Munich
firm, diluted with three measures of distilled water
(hydrofiuo silicic acid). This is brushed upon the
92 MURAL PAINTING

walls twice in succession by a slow, regular movement
from a large hoghair brush, to open the pores of the
wall. It is then allowed to dry for twenty-four hours,
after which it may be washed twice with distilled
water. The hardening fluid supplied from Munich is
then applied diluted with two measures of water. A
varnish brush about three inches wide is used for the
purpose, and is lightly and evenly drawn over the sur-
face. Drops must not be allowed to run down, and
there must be no retouching. This fluid is silicate of
potassium. The wall is allowed to dry for twenty-four
hours, and the application is repeated. Ceilings may
be sprayed, but a glass spraying-can must be used for
the acid solution. In places where the ground is un-
even it is better to dilute with four measures of water
and brush over the surface twice in succession and re-
peat the process in the same manner. The ground may
be rough or smooth according to taste; the smooth is
more difficult to fix, as being less perfectly absorbent.
It can be made of any tint and can be applied to other
materials if it be wished that the decoration should be
removable, such as stone, tile, slate, wire gauze, glass,
and even canvas, which can be rolled with perfect
safety. Sir Roberts-Austen says it is, normally, pure
white; when struck or scratched it should ring
like a stone (and sparks may even be struck from it
with steel), if rubbed with the finger no little grains
KEIM’S PROCESS FOR WALL-PAINTING 93

should be detached, and water thrown on it should be
quickly and evenly absorbed. It is then ready for
painting on, but may remain for years before receiving
colour. Should the presence of any hollow spots be
detected by sounding (caused by non-penetration of
the fluids) they must be cut out with a sharp knife
down to the rough cast and replaced, following the
same process. Professor Church says that oxide of
zinc may be advantageously substituted for a part of
the lime in the intonaco, and it may be added to the
pigments. Also that fine asbestos paper, wetted with
lime-water and firmly pressed by rolling into a soft
freshly laid lime and sand plaster, makes an excellent
ground for stereochrome painting; but as a single
breadth only can be used, the size of a painting on such
a ground is limited. It is most important that the
wall should be thoroughly dry and the materials used
quite pure. In order to learn whether a wall surface
is dry, Professor Church recommends the gelatin test.
“ Hold a piece of coloured sheet gelatin closely against
the wall by a stick pressed against the centre. If the
wall be moister than the air the sheet will curl out-
wards.”

The colours used are treated beforehand with alka-
line solutions (of potash or ammonia), to anticipate any
change of hue from the alkaline liquids which form the
fixative. In addition to this they are prepared with
94 MURAL PAINTING

other substances, such as oxide of zinc, carbonate of
baryta, felspar, powdered glass, etc., as required by the
peculiar properties of each, to obviate all danger of
chemical change taking place. The Rev. J. A. Rivington
said that at that time thirty-eight colours had been
prepared; four varieties of white, six of ochre, two of
sienna, ten of red, two of brown umber, two of Naples
yellow, two of ultramarine, five of green, three of black,
and cobalt blue. Cadmium was to be added. The
whites were “zine white and baryta white, oxide of
zinc and artificial sulphate of barium. The latter is
less dense, and useful for lightening colours without
much damaging their transparency. The ochres and
siennas are combinations of oxy-hydrates of iron, cal-
cium, alumina, magnesia, and silica, the colour is due to
their being subjected to the influence of heat for a
longer or shorter time. The reds are chiefly oxides.
The chrome is a sub-chromate of lead. The umber is
oxide of iron and manganese combined with silica. The
Naples yellow is a. compound of oxide of lead and
antimony or antimoniate of lead. The ultramarine is
artificial, and consists of silica, alumina and sulphate
of sodium. The cobalt is protoxide of cobalt com-
pounded with alumina. The cobalt green is the same
material in combination with oxide of zinc. The terre
verte is chiefly silicic protoxide of iron, and also con-
tains magnesia, alumina, and potash. The chrome oxide
"FG osed Gov] OF,
‘ombnug kg ‘nibnsog ‘owqung jap orboj,09 oy) fo burro ay) woLf spapunoy

 
KEIM’S PROCESS FOR WALL-PAINTING 95

green is oxy-hydrate of chromium. All are equally
acted upon by the fixing solution.” By the time that
Sir Roberts-Austen delivered his paper the number
of pigments available had increased to forty-five,
and he said that all the colours were clear and
bright. The colours which cannot be used with the
alkaline fixative, such as vermilion, aureolin, the
chromates, cadmiums, and madders, are replaced by
red lead, chrome red, and uranium yellow.

The colours are ground in distilled water and are
mixed on a tin palette with little wells on its surface.
The wall must be kept wet, while being painted on, by
spraying. Every variety of treatment is possible, and
the process adapts itself to any individual style of
painting. The colour may be used either transparently
or with impasto, but the thinner the coat of colour the
greater is the degree of security which can be obtained
by the fixing. The Rev. J. A. Rivington says that the
process is “ far pleasanter and easier to work in than
oil or water colours.” It presents as perfect facility
for transparent glazing as water colour, and for paint-
ing in body colour it even surpasses the capabilities of
oil colours in its power of opaque treatment. The
delicate tints when laid over darker tones do not
darken, but keep their full value perfectly. Professor
Roberts-Austen said that to a certain extent alterations
might be made by washing out.
96 MURAL PAINTING

When the painting is finished and has been allowed
one or two days to dry (in damp weather it is advisable
to make use of fire-heat) the fixing takes place. The
fluid from Munich is diluted for the first and second
applications with two measures of distilled water, and
for subsequent applications with three. It is advan-
tageous to warm it by standing in covered vessels in
pails of boiling water, as when hot it sets more quickly.
It is first applied as spray by an apparatus with
bellows; any drops which may run down should be
dried up at once with clean blotting-paper. After
drying for twenty-four hours it should be applied
again more plentfully, and with the apparatus nearer
to the wall; let it dry again, and apply the spray
again, using the weaker solution. After this it may
be applied with a broad paint-brush. The test of
perfect fixing is the rubbing of the surface with a
white cloth without any soiling being visible. The
darker colours may require as many as eight applica-
tions of the fixing medium. “Be careful to allow
time for drying between each. Over-fixing will pro-
duce a grey, shiny spot. A few weeks after the fixing
wash the surface with a copious spray of distilled
water to remove any slight efflorescence.” The Rev.
J. A. Rivington thus describes the process of fixing.
It “is done with silicate of potash treated with caustic
ammonia and caustic potash, further treated with
"96 aSed v0RJ OL

owmbnwg hg “mbniag ‘orgung yap o16aj09 949 fo burp oy} wosf sjopunoy

 
KEIM’S PROCESS FOR WALL-PAINTING 97

carbonate of ammonia, The effect of this upon silicate
of potash is that silica is precipitated in a fine
gelatinous form and ammonia set free. This latter
volatilises, and carbonate of potash is formed, which
is easily removed by washing, after the completion
of the fixing. The solution is employed hot, so as
to obtain a quicker and more perfect formation of
silicate. The effect is that the pure colours are in-
closed in silicates, whenever the pigments themselves
do not take part in their formation. The action of
the fixing solution is to form, in addition to the fresco
carbonate of lime, a silicate of calcium, which makes
the surface much harder, being as it is, with the
carbonate of lime, a constituent of some of the hardest
marbles, The finished painting will admit of any
acid (except hydrofluoric) being poured over it, and
it can be cleaned with caustic potash.”

Sir Roberts-Austen thus summarised the chemical
composition of the materials used and the actions
and reactions of the various processes: “The ground
is about equal parts of quartz, sand, and marble
dust.* This ground is mixed with eight measures
of lime and laid on the wall. The undiluted solution

* Free silica 2 : - 3 . §2-28
Lime ; 5 ‘i . - 26-96
Carbonic anhydride a ; i . 20-72

99-96
98 MURAL PAINTING

of acid contained 2°34 per cent. of acid (H,SiF,).
The object of the treatment of the surface with this
is to destroy the layer of carbonate of lime and form
silico-fluoride of calcium, which is not insoluble.
Treatment with the soluble silicate follows.* The
colours have foreign substances added in some cases
to make them fix equally with the silica. The fixing
solution (16°50 per cent. of silica) completes the
cementing together of the particles of the ground
and of the various pigments by forming an alkaline
carbonate and double silicates. The cost of materials,
acid, hardening fluid, and fixing fluid is about 3s, 4d.
a square metre.”

He also drew out the differences between the old
process of Von Fuchs and Keim’s later process as
follows: ‘Von Fuchs recommended the - treatment
of the underground with the application of water-
glass diluted with twice its bulk of water. Upon this
the painting ground was laid one-tenth inch thick
of ground marble or dolomite with not too much lime.
In Maclise’s journal it was stated to be one-third.
The subsequent treatment, first with phosphoric acid
diluted with six times its bulk of water, converted

* Silica ‘ ‘ - ‘ . 22:03
Potash (K.0) . . ‘i - . 819
Water - 7 ‘ i . 68.92

 
 

Ceiling-paintings by Perugino, in the Stanza dell?’ Incendio del Borgo,

in the Vatican.

To face page 98.
KEIM’S PROCESS FOR WALL-PAINTING 99

the crust of carbonate of lime into phosphate of lime,
and then two applications of fixing water-glass, with
intervals for drying, made the ground suitable for
painting on with water colours. The fixing was then
done by spraying with water-glass diluted with
half its bulk of water, repeated, with intervals for
drying. Keim’s improvements were—to restore the
original scheme in preparing the wall; in fixing the
proportion of lime at one-eighth of the bulk of
powder; third, in fixing more gradually and by a
more diluted silicate. Von Fuchs found that silica
combined more readily with two bases than one,
and consequently water-glass became insoluble more
quickly when mixed with earths or mineral oxides,
forming double or treble silicates. It adheres better
to marble and dolomite than to quartz, though a little
lime with quartz improved its cementing powers.
With gypsum it was not satisfactory.”

Canvas of proper texture prepared by soaking in
a special solution forms a suitable ground for the
colours which are laid on and fixed as in the case
of the prepared mortar. The work is equally per-
manent in character and entirely unaffected by light.
It is uninflammable, and can be cleaned without the
least injury to the most delicate colours. Professor
Church says the commercial solutions of water-glass
contain from 28 to 60 per cent. of the alkaline silicates,
100 MURAL PAINTING

and that the preparations made for the use of painters
“may be trusted.” They should be carefully kept
from the air, which contains carbonic acid, and all
calcareous matters, such as gypsum, zine white, etc.,
banished from their neighbourhood.

‘The claims which are made of absolute permanence
and unalterability for this process make it incumbent
upon any artist making use of it to put all the know-
ledge and feeling which he possesses into his work.
By his works he will be judged; there will be no
added glamour by the passing of the years, nor can
any friend say by way of excuse that there has been
deterioration. And this may well give the artist pause
before essaying so perfect a process, for fashion changes
and the triumphs of one decade are often paled by the
newer lights and the fresher talent of the next, and
the painter himself may hold a different opinion on
the merits of the work over which he triumphed on
its completion, which stares unaltered at him who looks
at it with different eyes. But for him who has full
confidence in his powers and in the permanence of his
opinions, and has time allowed him sufficient to under-
take the various operations in their proper sequence,
this process seems to promise immortality, or such
measure of it as may be gained by the conservation of
his work such as he had imagined it, and in the con-
dition in which his last completing touches left it.
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING

ENCAUSTIC is a term applied to a mode of painting in
which the medium is wax, which was generally mixed
with the colours, the final process being the “inustion ”
or caters, the application of heat, to fuse the colours
together. The wax most frequently mentioned as
used by the painters of antiquity is “Punic” wax,
which was merely wax bleached. The process as
described by Dioscorides and Pliny was to expose
yellow wax to the air, and then boil it in sea-water
to which nitre had been added: the whitest part was
taken out with spoons and put into a pot of cold
water. It was again boiled in sea-water and again put
into cold water. After doing this three times it was
dried on rushes in the open air either by sun or moon-
light.

There were several kinds of encaustic—in the first
sticks of coloured wax resins, which were melted by
means of heat, were used; in the second they were used
cold, softened by the addition of oil, like pastels, and
were afterwards worked with heat; and in a third the

101
102 MURAL PAINTING

wax colours were probably used dissolved in an essen-
tial oil and applied with a brush. The implements
required were—first, a colour box with coloured wax
pencils; second, a little stove to melt the wax; third,
brushes; fourth, instruments of metal, either iron or
bronze, having the form of a spatula and called techni-
cally “cestrum” and generically “cauteria.” In 1847,
at 8. Médard-des-Prés in Vendée, some utensils and
materials for encaustic painting were found in a tomb.
These consisted of a bronze colour-box, several bronze
spatulas (cestra), two instruments of rock crystal, one
of which contained gold powder mixed with a gummy
substance, two brush handles, a palette made of basalt,
and several glass bottles and phials filled with colours
and resin. Some of them also contained bees-wax,
wax and resin mixed, and a complex mixture of oleic
acid and “margarique,” wax and lamp-black, “no
doubt from the acidulation of a neutral oil mixed with
the wax.” The colours found were blue, sienna earth,
and Egyptian blue. At Pompeii, in the street of
Stabia, a mortar, pieces of pumice stone, asphaltum,
and a mixture of asphaltum and pitch, a piece of
yellow ochre, with portions of tar, lamp-black, red and
yellow ochre, blue, and two sorts of white were found
together.

The colours used by the Egyptians are light yellow
ochre, orpiment (sulphate of arsenic) or a vegetable
 

in the Library of Siena Cathedral.

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ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 103

yellow, red ochre (burnt yellow ochre) or vermilion,
and three blues—a dark copper blue, indigo, and a
pale oxide of copper blue. All the greens are olive in
tone and depend on copper for their colour. The
whites are—first plaster mixed with a gluey medium,
a chalk white, the white which was made by grinding
up rings of white glass or bracelets of white enamel,
and, perhaps, white lead. The blacks are charcoal,
oxide of iron, and manganese, or sulphate of lead.
Pliny says that the Greeks painted with vermilion
(minium, really red lead) pictures which they called
monochromes. For a long time they used only four
colours—earth of Melos for white, “sil” (attic ochre)
for yellow, Pontic “sinopis” for red, and “atra-
mentum” for black; but he describes a picture of
Venus by Apelles in which the sea was blue. Blue is
found in all the Etruscan paintings in the tombs. At
Nola, Pestum, Ruvo, Corneto, etc., one sees in the red
flesh a sort of red chalk; where yellow is occasionally
employed it is a brilliant ochre; the blue is a natural
powdered copper colour mixed with an earthy sub-
stance—united with yellow it makes an agreeable
green; but a copper-green has not yet been found.
The black is charcoal. These are colouring matters
which are abundant in the country.

Vitruvius distinguishes between natural colours
which are formed in the places where they are
104 MURAL PAINTING

found, and artificially made colours. The natural
colours were: (1) Yellow ochre, called by the Latins
“sil”; the best, that of Attica, was no longer found in
his time ; to imitate it the dyers threw on to Eretrian
chalk an infusion of dried violets, a detail which one
does not quite understand. (2) “Rubrica,” Ruddle, a
red chalk which was only found at Sinope, in the
kingdom of Pontus, in Egypt, in the Balearic Isles,
in Spain, and in the isle of Lemnos. (3) “ Paretonian”
colour, which he does not describe, but which Pliny
says is a fantastic mixture of slime and the foam of
the sea solidified; it is the thickest of the white
colours. (4) “ Meline,” which takes its name from the
island of Melos. (5) Terre verte (oxide of copper
or of silver, with earthy particles), of which the best
came from Smyrna. (6) Orpiment, called by the Greeks
apoevixey, our sulphate of arsenic. (7) Sandarac, our
minium, oxide of lead. (8) Minium, which was found
near Ephesus, and which is our vermilion or sulphuret
of mercury. (9) Chrysocolla, without doubt a silicate
of copper, which was sometimes replaced, Vitruvius
says, by tinting blue with the juice of a plant, our
dyer’s greenweed. (10) Armenium and indicum, the
last, no doubt, our indigo, The artificial colours were
(1) Lamp-black (atramentum). (2) Egyptian azure
blue (coeruleum). (3) Burnt ochre. (4) Ceruse (basic
carbonate of lead), (5) Verdigris, called “ruca,”
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 105

(6) Minium (sandaraca), coming from burnt white
lead. (7) Purple, which was made from shell fish, a
very precious colour, called for that reason “ostrum,”
or from the roots of madder and of “hysginum,” a
plant not yet identified, though some think it to be the
lichen “roccella tinctorium.” Another way of making
it was with an infusion of “vaccinium” (myrtle)
poured on Eretrian chalk.*

Pliny says that the colours which require a dry,
chalky ground are purpurissimum, indicum, ceruleum,
melinum, orpiment, appianum, and white lead.

The colours found in a shop at Pompeii were analysed

* In the notes to Bohn’s edition of Pliny’s Natural History many
of the ancient colours are identified: for instance, rubrica is red ochre,
peroxide of iron mixed with argillaceous earth ; cinnabaris is properly
dragon’s blood, confused by the physicians with minium, which was
discovered in 439 a.u.c. by Callias the Athenian by submitting to
the action of fire the red sand found in the silver mines (sulphuret of
mercury), according to Theophrastus, The name minium was also
applied to red oxide of lead. Colours which were called “‘ florid”
were supplied to the painter by his employer, on account of their
cost—minium, armenium, cinnabaris, chrysocolla, indicum, and pur-
purissimum. Chrysocolla is generally thought to have been green
verditer, carbonate and hydro-carbonate of copper, green and blue ;
when treated with dyer’s greenweed the best rendered exactly the tint
of young corn. Under Nero the arena of the circus was once sanded
with chrysocolla when the prince himself, clad in a dress of the same
colour, was about to exhibit as a charioteer. Sinopis, named from
Sinope, was a brown-red ochre, red oxide of iron. Parxetonium, said
to be sea foam solidified with slime, was probably either a hydro-silicate
of magnesia or steatite, or rhomboidical carbonate of lime. It was
106 MURAL PAINTING

in 1809 by M. Chaptal, who found: (1) A clay-
like terra verte of Verona. (2) Very pure and fine
yellow ochre. (3) Red-brown ochre. (4) A sort
of white pumice; very white, fine, and close. (5) A
frit of dark blue glass, containing oxides of copper,
of lime, and of alumina. (6) Another blue a little
lighter. (7) A fine rose colour, which he thought
was madder.

Sir Humphry Davy analysed some Roman fragments
of coloured plasters and found: White—several kinds
of chalks and earths. Yellow—yellow ochres, which
became reddish on being warmed; he also found
massicot. Blue—a glass frit made of soda and oxide
of copper, which, by mixing a little lime or other
white, became lighter or darker; oxide of cobalt
furnished more transparent blue. Red was neither

a white used for fresco, Ccruleum may have been ultramarine some-
times, but was generally copper ochre. Pliny says that Vitruvius
is wrong in calling red oxide of lead ‘‘sandarac.” This name is
properly applied to massicot, yellow oxide of lead, and « mixture
of it with minium ; also to realgar, a red sulphuret of arsenic. Sandyx
was made of calcined sandarac and an equal proportion of rubrica.
Syricum was a combination of sinopis with candyx, but according
to Aitius was the same as ‘“‘ usta,” calcined white lead. Atramentum
was a black colouring substance, either a deuto-sulphate of copper in
solution in gallic acid, lamp-black, or calcined wine lees. Armenium
was much the same colour as ceruleum, and admitted of being dyed.
Appianum was a fair imitation of chrysocolla, prepared from a green
chalk, Annularian white was a kind of chalk combined with the
vitreous paste ‘‘ which the lower classes wear in their signet rings.”
‘QOL aBed aovy OF,

«

“onqungy ‘apjsny ayp Ww

asodg 2phap nanung oy) v2 ‘nubajgungy natpup fg oosaty

 

 

 

 
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 107

madder nor cochineal, more like the second than
the first, a modification of purpurissimum, with which
chalk was coloured; minium and vermilion.

In 1826 H. Geiger found in Italian plasters and
coloured stuccoes: Red—vermilion mixed with oxide of
iron and a little carbonate of lime. Light red—oxide
of iron and lime. Violet—oxide of iron mixed with
carbonate of lime. Yellowish brown or brownish
pale yellow. Black—oxide of iron mixed with silica,
a little sulphate of magnesia and of aluminum.
Yellow—oxide of iron.

M. Chevreul found in the red plaster from the
temple of Jupiter Olympus at Girgenti peroxide of
iron, and in a yellowish stucco fine sand mixed with
flakes of silica and ferruginous aluminum. A red
plaster from Pompeii gave organic oxide of iron,
a black one lamp-black, a yellow one yellow ochre,
a white one fat lime mixed with marble (on this
plaster was a red band painted with sulphuret of
mercury and a green one painted with Veronese earth).
The fragments found at the Palais de Justice, Paris,
in 1848 showed the same colours. Hittorff says:
“The colours, whether in Egypt, Etruria, Greece,
Sicily, Italy, or France, are composed of the same
substances, which are natural or artificial metallic
oxides. Only one colour seemed to be a lake,” a
conclusion which the analyses reported above confirm.
108 MURAL PAINTING

The process of painting was as follows. The sticks
of coloured wax resins were melted by heat into little
pots, or on a palette containing them made of metal,
and the tones applied to the panel with a brush.
Heated irons, sometimes even red hot, were used to
unite the tones. On the cooled palette the intermedi-
ate tones could be taken up and mixed with irons
which were kept hot. The ancients knew how to dis-
solve resin in essential oils, and to mix colours with
nut oil, which Attius says is useful to gilders and
workers in encaustic, since it dries and long preserves
their work “containing it.” This suggests a kind of
varnish, some sort of which was certainly used under
the name of “ atramentum.”

Encaustic on ivory was worked in the following
manner. The outlines of the subject were engraved
with the burin, the shadows indicated, and the hollows
were filled up with coloured wax, either dissolved or
melted—apparently a kind of niello, For painting
ships the wax was mixed with pitch, when scraped
from them after long use called “zopissa.” When used
on walls the plaster was first made so hard and
polished that it reflected objects, and was then painted
either in distemper or fresco, as both Pliny and Vitru-
vius say, and afterwards, when the wall was quite dry,
a coat of melted Punic wax mixed with a little oil was
applied with a hoghair brush; then the wall was
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 109

warmed with a small charcoal furnace so as to melt
the wax and unite it well. It was then well polished
with a roller of wax and a clean cloth, “as is done
with marble statues. This operation, which the Greeks
call xatviors, covers the plaster with a breastplate of wax
which preserves the colour from the light of the moon
and the rays of the sun.” In fact, almost every colour
was employed in encaustic without restriction, such as
orpiment, red lead, and other evanescent colours ; wax
having the property of preserving them from the action
of light and from atmospherical changes. Latilla is
responsible for the last statement, and as he painted in
encaustic in the Banqueting-Room at Beaufort House,
he may be supposed to have made experiments which
satisfied him that it was so.

Pliny says that M. Agrippa paid the people of
Cyzicus 1,200,000 sesterces for two paintings, an Ajax
and a Venus. And that he ordered small paintings to
be set in marble in the very hottest part of his warm
baths, where they remained for a considerable time.
The insertion of pictures into walls seems to have been
a common practice. One, inserted by the Emperor
Augustus in the Curia which he consecrated in the
Comitium, was signed by the artist Nicias with a state-
ment that it was in encaustic. Yet at the end of his
catalogue of colours he says that wax is stained with
all these colours for encaustic painting, a process which
110 MURAL PAINTING

does not admit of being applied to walls (!) but is in
common use by way of ornament for ships of war,
ete. The process was much used for the external
decoration of buildings. A varnish was used in
Egypt to protect the surface of paintings, made of
resins, and at Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli one of wax
was found.

The media used in encaustic are called by several
ancient authors by the name of “ Pharmaca.” Suidas
says that naphtha was called “ Pharmacon,” which sug-
gested to Eméric-David that we had here an explana-
tion of the possibility of painting in wax with the
brush. He says that the wall first received a coat of
oil, then a second of Greek pitch (pine resin from
which the oil had been extracted), mastic, and other
materials of that nature. A chafing dish was then
applied to the wall to make the resins penetrate it.
On this coat was applied the painting ground, which
was composed of wax, mastic perhaps, and a colouring
matter, generally white, on which the artist painted
with colours which had been mixed with a medium of
wax and resin, ground up and applied with water only.
(A wooden tablet prepared for painting was found at
Pompeii, and partly confirmed the experiences of the
Abbé Réquéno, whose experiments are here resumed.)
A varnish was next spread over the painting, probably
composed of wax, mastic, and some liquid bitumen, and
 

Portion of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Rome, by Michel Angelo.

THE PROPHET ISAIAH,

To face page 110.
’

ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 111

then came the “inustion,” interior burning, with the
chafing dish which united the various layers of resins
by the application of heat.

The tradition of the use of wax has lasted to the
present day. The paintings of Buffalmacco in the
Campo Santo at Pisa are done on a thin coat of wax,
which appears to have been applied mixed with a
volatile oil on a light plaster composed of a tenacious
substance of a yellow colour soluble in water. The
gold of Benozzo Gozzoli’s paintings in the same place,
separated from the ground by immersion in boiling
distilled water, showed pellicules of wax on its surface.
Ceelius Rhodiginus of Rovigo in the fifteenth century
writes to explain the use of the “ cauterium,” and Lucas
Cranach painted a portrait of Luther in wax in 1520,
as the inscription states. Wax is used in the prepara-
tion of Milanese stuccoes at the present day. The
walls are first covered with several layers of ordinary
mortar, and over these before they are dry a new
plaster of one-sixteenth of an inch is spread, made of
very fine sand and lime, for which they use a hard wood
trowel of the form of a parallelogram. On this plaster
while still damp they apply another of the same thick-
ness made of marble dust and lime slaked at least a
fortnight before it is used. When this is almost dry
it is covered with another layer of stucco made of one-
third marble dust and two-thirds lime, after which, if
112 MURAL PAINTING

a white ground is required, pure lime is spread on the
surface, if colours are desired they must first be mixed
with the lime and marble dust of the second coat, and
afterwards they cover the surface two or three times
with very liquid colour made with lime-water and soap-
water. On this stucco they paint with a brush or
sponge, allow it to dry, and then taking a little iron
trowel which is warmed pass the back of it over the
stuccoed surface till it is quite glossy. Finally, with a
composition formed of three and a half ounces of wax
and six ounces of soap, melted on the fire and dissolved
in two bottles of boiling water, the stucco is covered
several times, and then the trowel with a round back
is passed rapidly over the already shiny stucco,
Although the iron is cold the movement of rota-
tion produces a considerable heat which replaces
the xaivors.

MM. Cros and Henry give some personal practical
notes on encaustic which are exceedingly valuable and
which include a list of colours and of the varying
quantity of wax which should be mixed with the
powders, according to their depth of tint, taken from
Count Caylus. The wax itself should be pure and
white, and should have added to it half its weight of
refined pine resin, called by the French “colophane,” in
English, black resin (which they say should be as pale
as possible). This gives greater brilliancy and tenacity
 

Part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Rome, by Michel Angelo.
THE FALL, AND SACRIFICE OF NOAH.

To face page 112.
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 113

to the colours. The list is as follows (quantities by
weight) :—

 

Whitelead ‘ 30 | Naples yellow . : 30
Wax : . 18 | Wax ; : : . 16
Flake white : . 80 | Charcoal black. : . 30
Wax ‘ . . 20 | Wax : ; . 45
Vermilion 90 | Ivory black . ; . 380
Wax ‘ ; ; . 40 | Wax ‘ , 40
Carmine . . . 380 | Lamp-black j . 30
Wax % ; . . 45 | Wax : ‘ ; . 40
Lake : . 80 | Cologne earth . j . 30
Wax 3 5 : 45 | Wax ; ‘ i . 45
Green lake. : 30 | Verditer . : . 380
Wax : ‘ ‘ . 38 | Wax 2 : ‘ . 24
Ultramarine. ; . 380 | Stil de grain d’Angleterre
Wax ; i . 380 (brown pink ?). . 30
Prussian blue 30 | Wax fs ; és . 45
Wax i 60 | Rouge brun d’Angleterre
Yellow ochre . 30 (light red). ; . 380
Wax : : . 40 | Wax ; : . 30
Ocrede Ru. 4 30 | Stil de grain de Troyes . 30
Wax : 3 ‘ 40 | Wax ‘ ‘ ; . 45
Burnt ochre. 5 30 | Email fin d’Angleterre 30
Wax : ‘ 40 | Wax ; : . 16
Terre d’Italie ‘ 30

Wax s : : . 40

The necessary implements are first a small charcoal
furnace upon which to keep the palette warm when
using the brush, to warm the irons with which to con-
tinue the painting and to prepare the coloured wax;
then the hot palette, which is a disc of tinned metal,

I
114 MURAL PAINTING

iron or copper, with saucer-shaped holes sunk in it,
leaving a flat portion on which to mix tints (it should
have an iron handle covered with wood so that it may
be held comfortably); brushes of hoghair—but even
badger may be used, if you are careful not to put them
in too hot wax or to let them get out of shape by
remaining too long on the hot palette; and several
iron spatulas, bent at the ends so that the hand may
follow the work without hiding it. Count Caylus’
medium was made of wax liquefied in water by an
infusion of salt of tartar. Bachelier also thought of
this. He said that if oil was mixed with the wax it
should be colourless and a powerful drier.

To prepare the rods of colour, you place on a mild
fire a metal pot, tinned inside or enamelled (which is
better). At the bottom you place the colour in fine
powder; then with half a cake of wax you turn the
colour as if you were mixing it. From time to time you
throw into this mixture liquefied by the heat an equal
quantity of resin, or more if you wish it. When the
colour is equally distributed through the mixture you
pour it out into channeled moulds. In this way all
sorts of mixed colours may be made, such as half tints
and shadows, the blues of skies, greens of land-
scapes, etc.

Any surface may be painted on, but you must make
sure that it is not damp. The brush-work should give
‘PIL aded aovy OF,

‘opabur payouy hq Sowoy ‘yadnyp auagsry ayq fo buaprao ay) wosf qoalans wornasp

 
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 115

a vigorous look to the sketch if it has been rapid and
well touched in, before the heated irons are used to
unite the tints, All colours may be used with wax,
since it locks them up. The colours dry almost
immediately and retouchings can be executed for an
indefinite period without scraping away. The cold
palette used in retouching is of wood, and on it the
colours in frequent use are placed in the form of
pastilles. “The wax gives a silky reflex to the tones,
and the subjects painted thus acquire a marvellous
intensity of life. Encaustic does not scale off; neither
the sun nor the heat of rooms makes any alteration in
the colours, and worms and damp are kept away by
the wax. It attracts dust very little and does not
change at all with time.”

The process has attracted a great deal of interest in
France, and several painters made exhaustive experi-
ments with various forms of wax mediums and pub-
lished the results. Of these the most complete was
M. Paillot de Montabert’s, whose process was used,
with some modifications, by Hip. Flandrin, in his
beautiful paintings in the church of S. Vincent de Paul
in Paris, and elsewhere. The mastic used on the
Dome of the Panthéon, Paris, was made of two parts
boiled linseed oil and one part wax. “Warm the oil
with powdered litharge for several hours, stirring the
mixture from time to time. Then pour off the clear
116 MURAL PAINTING

oil, melt the wax and add the oil, keeping the heat up
till it is quietly boiling. Steam arises at first, which
makes it appear to boil. Let the mastic cool and it
will keep indefinitely.” To apply it, and make it pene-
trate the stone on which the painting is to be done, the
surface has to be warmed with a portable stove. When
it is very dry and warm the mastic is applied, warm
also, with a stiff brush, more being added till it ceases
to sink in; a further warming causes the mastic on
the surface to disappear. The medium used was thus
made :—

Virgin wax, perfectly pure ‘ . one part.
Volatile oil or essence of lavender spike one part.
Pure filémi resin .  1-16th of the spike oil.

Sometimes oil of wax and copal resin were added,
according as the medium was required softer or more
unctuous.*

The preparation is begun by softening the wax on
the fire as well as the resins, if they are not already
dissolved in the spirit and concentrated to the thick-

* To prepare oil of wax you take yellow wax and unslaked lime in
equal parts, melt them together in a basin so as to make pellets, put
these pellets into a retort of stone-ware, place this into a reverberating
furnace, and warm it by degrees till red. First a few drops of water
pass, and then the volatile oil. There are gencrally seven or eight
ounces to each pound of wax. The first products of distillation are
least charged with the smell of scorching. By redistilling the liquor
becomes almost colourless,”
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 117

ness of oils; then the spirit is poured in and the dis-
solving is hastened by stirring. With this medium
the colours are ground ; each colour requires a differ-
ent amount of wax—experience shows how much. As
the spirit evaporates more must be added, so that the
colours may be equally liquid. A little oil (not more
than one-fourth of the spirit) may be added without
making the surface shiny. De Montabert also in-
vented a wax varnish which could be used on water-
colour paintings. He took wax which was softened
over the fire, three or four drops of spike oil being
added when the pot was taken off the fire. To the wax
thus softened and divided some spoonfuls of well recti-
fied spirits of wine were added, which boiled and
evaporated quickly. Then more was added and the
wax stirred, after which it divided into flakes while
cooling. It was then well beaten with a spatula, with
the addition of warm spirits of wine from time to time,
and shaken at intervals. The wax divided and lique-
fied, forming an emulsion. With the addition of water
and grinding with a muller a milk of wax was obtained,
which was strained through crape or gauze and spread
over the picture with a broad close badger left a dust
of wax all over the surface when dry, which had only
to.be warmed and polished to give the effect of a
varnish,

The preparation of the wall at S. Vincent de Paul
118 MURAL PAINTING

is described elaborately by M. Hittorff, who was the
architect, but the paintings were not worked strictly
according to rule. The wall was first well looked over,
the joints filled up, and any doubtful places cut out
and replaced. It was then well dusted and brushed
over with a thin coat of perchloride of mercury (50
grammes to 8 litres of water), to destroy any vegeta-
tion which might have grown on plaster or stone. It
was then warmed and dried with a portable furnace,
not less than one foot from the wall, and made so hot
that the hand could not touch it. It was then flooded
with a gluten applied with a stiff brush till the wall
would not absorb more, while the furnace was warm-
ing the next piece, and while still a little warm a first
coat of colour was laid. The gluten was thus com-
posed :—

One part by weight of wax.

s ” 7 essence of turpentine.

» ” as linseed oil.

» » i Venice turpentine,

» » i thin amber varnish,
Half, 53 » white pitch,
Eighth ,, . litharge.

» oo» F metallic soap.

All these substances, except the metallic soap, were put
together into a cauldron on a specially made furnace
“SIT aBed sory oF,
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aypon img hq oosaT

   

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‘una A 0Y) Ur “‘DUngoubsg wpjap yuawUny oy) WI

 
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 119

with hermetically sealed opening so that the vapours
should not catch light. When all was melted it was
kept warm for half an hour, being stirred all the time
with a spatula. The metallic soap was also dissolved
over the fire in three times its weight of linseed oil
and spirits of turpentine. The cauldrons were then
taken off the fire and placed far away from each other ;
when they had cooled a little the soap was poured
little by little into the other cauldron, which was only
half full because the effervescence is very great. As
to the metallic soap it is made by a saturated solution
of protoxide of iron, poured little by little into a con-
centrated solution of ordinary soap. Stirring these
substances together with a wooden spoon a precipitate
is formed; this is washed carefully until the water of
washing only leaves a slight remainder.

The colour for priming was white lead with a tenth
of its weight of bioxide of lead, mixed with a gluten
thus made :—

Wax . : ; . one part.
Spirits of turpentine ' . two parts.
Venice turpentine ‘ . one part.
Thin amber a, 5 . two parts.
Volatile oil of resin distilled . one part.
Elémi resin : : . half a part.

After applying this priming without any liquid it was
120 MURAL PAINTING

allowed to dry for six or eight days; then the joints and
the larger cavities were filled with a mastic made thus:—

Litharge ; : . 20 grammes
White lead calcined, in powder 20

Umber ‘ i . 15 5
Tale or Terre i Jésus. . 20 -

mixed with 500 grammes of linseed oil. These sub-
stances were boiled on a gentle fire for two hours with
frequent stirring until the oil did not blacken. Foam
appeared, and when it became rare and red the cooking
was done. It was then allowed to settle, and was
drawn off clear. (N.B.—The older this mastic is the
better.) The smaller cavities were filled with another
mastic, for which the receipt is not given, and all was
allowed to dry till the mastic had become very hard.
These operations completed, the priming colour was
mixed with flake white in powder stiff enough to
trowel it, and it was thus spread on the wall, so as
to get as smooth and even a surface as possible,
Where it was necessary to add mastic it was done
with thin layers and at intervals, so as to make sure
of its getting dry through and thus avoiding cracks
and warpings. It took a fortnight to dry, and was
then brushed over with picture gluten, or medium,
white being mixed with it, but not to such stiffness
as to prevent the brush being used.
 

 

Fresco by Raffaelle, from the Sala di Costantino, in the Vatican.

To face page 120.
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 121

This picture medium was made thus :—

Pure wax ; : . one part.

Distilled turpentine : . three parts.
Diluted naphtha . : . half a part.

Spirits of copal . ; . one-third of a part.
flémi gum is -

Distilled essential oil of resin one quarter of a part.

The medium used in 1849 by M. Picot was slightly
different :—

Wax . ‘ : . one part.

Distilled essence of turpentine three and a half parts.
Spirit copal varnish : . one-fifth of a part.
Purified white of whale . . one-quarter of a part.
Naphtha or “demi baume” . half a part.

The whole was melted in a bain-marie in a glazed
earthenware pot. It was used on fresh plaster.

This priming was allowed to dry for seven or eight
days, and then a second coat was spread bit by bit
and dabbed while wet so as to obtain a roughened
surface. It is advantageous to allow such a ground
a long time to dry.

Hittorff quotes from Fernbach an account of how
some of the paintings at Munich were done, com-
mencing with the building of the inner wall with
an air space of several inches between it and the
122 MURAL PAINTING

wall of the palace. The preparation of the wall up
to the completion of the plastering is the same as
described previously, but the detail of the opening
of the windows when fine to assist the drying, and
keeping them shut in wet or foggy weather, marks
the northern climate and the corresponding difficulties
of the mural painter. The gluten was thus made:
into a pot 1:50 kil. of wax cut into little slices was
put, and 7°50 kil. of spirits of turpentine (not rectified)
added; they were left for a day to dissolve, and then
0°875 kil. of Venice turpentine was mixed in. The
mixture was carefully warmed to avoid its catching
light, and the wall heated with a portable stove. To
the warm wall the gluten was applied with a brush
carefully and equally; 9 to 10 kils. of it covered about
150 square feet. A thick solution of amber, in the
proportion of one-third, was then added, and the
mixture passed over the still warm wall, so that it
penetrated well. The hand furnace was kept two feet
away from the wall, and any blisters were knocked off,
the place filled up with plaster in thin coats, and then
finished with the wax.

The first priming of colour was composed of 2 kil.
of flake white and 0°50 kil. of white chalk, mixed with
0°625 kil. of a thick solution of amber thinned with
0°125 kil. of poppy oil, to which 0°50 kil. of the wax
gluten was added. All these substances were put
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 123

together in a pot, then ground on a slab of marble,
thinning them a little with spirits of turpentine. The
colour was carefully applied with a large brush from
top to bottom of the wall, following with a dry brush
to make the surface smooth and uniform. On this
surface, when quite dry, the last coat of wax and
turpentine, mixed with a little amber, was applied
about a fortnight before the paintings were commenced.
The colours were mixed with amber, wax, and india-
rubber, together with the wax gluten; and six months
or a year after the completion of the painting the
surface was finished with wax and “inustion.” The
wax used was very old, and was treated for twenty-four
hours to soften it; 1°50 kil. of it was then put into
a glazed pot with 0°38 kil. of Venice turpentine. On
the day it was to be used it was warmed in a bain-
marie till it was clear and warm to the hand; it was
then applied with a three-inch brush decidedly and
smoothly without retouching. Forty-eight hours later
another similar coat was given, and after another
twenty-four or forty-eight a third. It was left for
three days, and then the “inustion” was done with the
portable furnace, and after another three or four days
the surface was gently polished.

Mrs. Merrifield describes a mode of painting which
she saw in use by a Parmesan painter, in which the
medium was wax and resin dissolved in spirits of
124 MURAL PAINTING

turpentine, which may serve as transition to the
processes in which heat is not made use of. The
mixture was fluid and of the colour of milk. The
colours were ground in it and kept in small glasses
floated with spirits of turpentine and covered with
a leather cover to keep out air and dust. All colours
could be used indiscriminately with this medium, even
prussian blue and orpiment. The ground was the
usual plaster, and the painting was done on it, when
quite dry, without any further preparation. The colours
were diluted with turpentine and dried rapidly.

Nortr.

The colours used by the ancients have been discussed in
this chapter, and a similar note upon those in use in the
Middle Ages, from the data furnished by Theophilus, Jehan
le Bégue, and Cennino Cennini, may be of interest. To
begin with black and white. Black was made from the same
materials as are used now, with the addition of burnt bone
and ivory. The black earth of Rome and of Venice is
mentioned in treatises on fresco, but is not any longer used.
A caution may be given as to the effect which some blacks
have upon pigments with which they may be mixed.
Charcoal black decolorises organic pigments by precipitating
their particles; and ivory black and colours allied to it do
this in a greater, and lamp-black in a less, degree. Mérimée
 

 

 

 

 

 

Fresco by Sodoma, in her chapel, S. Domenico, Siena,

THE ECSTASY OF 8, CATHERINE OF SIENA.

To face page 124,
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 125

says that well calcined and washed lamp-black may be used
without danger. The fresco white, lime, was called Bianco
San Giovanni, and white lead was variously known as
Biacca and Cerusa, the “psimmithin” of the ancients.
Theophilus confines its use to plaster-work, wood, or canvas.
It is the only white pigment of the Lucca MS. and of the
Hermeneia, except the lime for wall-painting ; but calcined
bones were sometimes used as well as pounded eggshells.
The yellows were yellow ochre, a natural earth, auripig-
mentum, orpiment, not the colour now known by that name,
but a pale yellow, king’s yellow, which is a yellow sulphide
of arsenic. Since it can be mixed with no colour contain-
ing lead or copper, a white made from calcined stags’ horns
was used to lighten it. Massicot is a pale yellow, a prot-
oxide of lead produced during the combustion of lead in
the preparation of minium. Mrs, Herringham thinks this
may be the “‘arzica” of Cennini, since in Spain it is called
azarcon. Hendrie, however, says that is Theophilus’ “flavus
color,” burnt ceruse. The red opiment, called by Cennini
“risalgallo,” was known to Theophilus as ‘‘sandaracha,”
the Zarnichahmer of the Arabs. This fine colour, though
difficult to make use of, is permanent upon ochres and when
kept from contact with other colours. Another yellow used
was Naples yellow, called by Cennini “ giallorino,” an anti-
moniate of lead, believed by him to be a native mineral of
voleanic origin. The term “sinopia” or “ sinopis” includes
all bright red ochreous earths. These red earths are extra-
ordinarily permanent upon plaster. The modern Venetian
reds are often artificial and seldom free from soluble salts
and sulphates. The sinopis varied considerably in colour,
and is sometimes used for a colour like Indian red—the
126 MURAL PAINTING

trit-oxide. Pliny shows the same inaccuracy in his descrip-
tion of this colour, if the “usta,” without which shadows
could not be made, refers to it, as seems probable. A
factitious bright sinoper was also used, called “rubeum,”
and “amatito,” hematite, is another name for the ferric
oxides which supply us with Indian red and other ochres,
of which a hard, crystalline variety seems to have been
known to fresco painters, which was very crimson in tint.
Vasari mentions matita dura, which, when ground, was
to be used with matita rossa. Mrs. Merrifield found that
specimens from Roche, in Cornwall, calcined, varied in
colour from lake to violet, according to the length of time
they were in the fire. Cennini says it makes the colour
of cardinals’ dresses, which at that period was purple.
*‘Cenobrium,” cinnabar, is our vermilion, a sulphuret of
mercury. It was also called minium, and this name was
passed on the red lead, because the more costly material
was often adulterated with it. Pliny says of the true
minium, which was brought to Rome from Spain, forming
part of the revenues of the Roman people: ‘Indeed there
is nothing guarded with a more constant circumspection, for
it is not allowable to reduce and refine the ore upon the
spot, it being brought to Rome in a crude state and under
seal, to the amount of 2,000 lbs. per annum. At Rome the
process of washing is performed, and in the sale of it the
price is regulated by statute, not being allowed to exceed
seventy sesterces per pound.” Red arsenic and red ochres
were also used to adulterate it. The earliest clear account
of the process of making vermilion artificially is given in
the Lucca MS. (ascribed to the eighth century), The
crystalline red form is identical in composition with the
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 127

black amorphous sulphide of mercury, and sunlight has
the effect of changing red into black. When the colour
is locked up with oil and varnish this change does not take
place, and judging from tempera pictures the medium used
in them also protects it. It has also lasted in frescoes in
rooms. In ancient treatises the context is necessary to
identify any pigment named, on account of the loose way
in which terms were used. In later northern writings, for
instance, sinopia means madder. ‘ Vermiculum” generally
means kermes lake, and a hard red ochre is sometimes called
“ cinnabar,” a word which, to the Greeks, meant vermilion,
but to Pliny dragon’s blood. This last is the resin of
various plants, especially Dracena draco, the dragon tree
of Teneriffe. ‘Lacca” means lake; the pinks and crimsons
of the early Italians have not yet been identified, but the
raw materials were kermes (coccus illicis), gum lac, and
“Verzino” (brazilwood). The use of balsams appears to
prevent the fading of lakes which have been considered
as hopelessly fugitive. ‘ Folium” appears to have been
a general term for vegetable reds and red purples, and also
for vegetable blues. From a passage in Peter of S. Audemar
it may be identified with our madder. Other vegetable colours
used, which must have proved very fugitive, were “safferano”
(saffron), ‘“‘manisch” (a tender violet. colour made from the
juice of the elder berries), ‘succus” (a green made from
the sap of various plants), and “indicum” (indigo). The
introduction of the last gradually put an end to the culture
of woad (isatis tinctoria). ‘‘ Viridis,” or “ verde terra,” was
the green earth, of which the best came from Verona.
“Verde azurro” was a carbonate of copper, the chrysocolla of
Pliny, green verditer; it is blackened by sulphur. ‘“‘ Verde
128 MURAL PAINTING

rame,” verdigris, is an acetate of copper, which can only be
used in a spirit or turpentine varnish ; when used for many-
scripts it was tempered with wine alone. ‘‘Prasinus” appears
to have been the same thing, but was certainly used for wall-
painting. The blues were “ Lazur,” or “ Azurro della magna,”
the male cyanus of the Greeks, a native carbonate of copper
(perhaps Pliny’s “‘armenium,” mountain blue or blue verdi-
ter); and “Azurro oltremarine,” true ultramarine. Some think
that this was the “cyanus” of the Romans; but there is no
certainty either way. Though exceedingly expensive always,
its power and covering capacity are so great, and the beauty
of its colour so extreme, that it has been much used. In
Le Bégue’s MS. it is said to be worth its weight in gold;
the best now costs, retail, twice its weight in gold! In
Cennini’s time the stones cost two to five ducats (twenty to
fifty shillings) the pound, and the German blue sixpence
to one shilling and threepence ; and the best ultramarine
was worth fifty shillings the ounce, and the German ten
to thirty shillings the pound. Sometimes an unscrupulous
miniaturist would scrape it off from the backgrounds of
miniatures to use again.

Theophilus also mentions several compound colours.
“Exedra,” or “exudra,” a mixture of red and a little
black, to relieve and finish the flesh. ‘Posc,” a mixture
of green and red with “membrina” (akind of purple);
“Veneda,” a grey made of black and white lead or lime,
and “ Prasinus,” which he says is green colour with black.
“Pallidus,” is a colour not quite white, but somewhat
inclined to shadow. He commences his chapter on the
tempering of colours (in the appendix in Hendrie’s
edition) thus: “The ‘blue of the Saracens’ is good. Also
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ENCAUSTIC PAINTING 129

another, ‘Roman blue,’ and another called ‘indigo.’
Greek green, green earth, vermilion, minium, white of
Apulia, bone white, and white lead, brisil, orpiment,
ochre, saffron, sinoper, the preparation of ‘ brunus,’ gypsum,
folium.” This list includes several colours not mentioned
elsewhere.
SPIRIT FRESCO
GAMBIER PARRY’S PROCESS

THE process invented by Mr. Gambier Parry, and used
by him in his paintings in S. Andrew’s chapel,
Gloucester cathedral, and in Highnam church, was
thought so well of by the late Lord Leighton, after
using it in Lyndhurst church, that he chose to execute
his two great frescoes in the Victoria and Albert
Museum in this medium (which, however, show some
signs of perishing), and as long ago as 1864 spoke of it
in high terms, saying that it was so like buon fresco in
its effect as to deceive anyone not conversant with the
practice of painting; that it allowed a great range of
colour, embracing the whole palette of the oil painter,
being free from the limitations which are peculiar to
fresco in that particular, as well as in other directions.
The manipulation he found very easy, washes, impasto,
and glazing being all possible within the space of a few
hours, while there was little or no change in the effect
after drying, “not more than in a water-colour draw-
ing on absorbent sketching paper.” Another point in

180
SPIRIT FRESCO 131

its favour was the facility of retouching, as the surface
is always soluble in spirit, though proof against water.
He said that the only point in which he thought it
inferior to true fresco was in the absence of that pure
crystalline quality of light so peculiar to the latter.
The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education
asked Mr. Gambier Parry to prepare an account of the
process for the information of students in schools of
Art, and the technical details here given are taken
from this authoritative account.

The advantages claimed for it are: durability, power
to resist damp and changes of temperature, freedom
from all chemical action on the colours, a matt surface,
and a luminous effect. The preparation of the wall is
a matter of great importance, but Mr. Gambier Parry
was content to accept the ordinary plastering of the
interior of buildings if carefully executed, and no doubt
it was generally better done thirty years ago than it is
now. He says that “the one primary necessity is that
it should be left with its natural surface, its porous
quality being absolutely essential. All smoothing pro-
cess or ‘floating’ with plaster of Paris destroys this
quality. All cements must be avoided, some of them
having too hard and smooth a surface, and others being
liable to efflorescence and chemical action.” Stucco
on a wall of good, dry brick, is best ; next coarse and
porous bath stone or other porous free stone, Sand
132 MURAL PAINTING

papering fills the pores with powder, and is therefore
objectionable. Professor Church says emphatically :
“Under no circumstances should cements containing
plaster of Paris be introduced into the grounds used
for spirit fresco.” He is more exacting than Mr.
Gambier Parry in the matter of grounds, and expects
that the wall shall be specially plastered. He recom-
mends syringing with distilled water charged with
carbonic acid gas under pressure as hastening the
carbonation of the lime, though it delays the drying
of the wall.

The medium used by Mr. Gambier Parry is made of
the following materials in these proportions :—

Elémi resin ‘ ; . 2028, :
Pure white wax ‘ ‘ . «4 ee by weight
Oil of spike lavender . .  8ozs.) liquid
Finest preparation of artist’s copal 20 ai measure

(If a stronger kind of copal is used 18 ozs, are
sufficient.)

The utensils required for the making of the medium
(which should be prepared in the open air, as every
ingredient is inflammable) are two pots, one large and
one small, a long spoon, and a charcoal stove. Two
ounces of elémi resin are melted in two ounces of
rectified turpentine in the small pot, and strained
through muslin into the larger pot. Mr. Parry says
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SPIRIT FRESCO 133

the one which he uses is of copper, six inches across and
eighteen inches high, with a flange near the bottom to
make it stand securely on the charcoal. Into this four
ounces of white wax are put in small pieces. When
all is melted the twenty ounces of copal are added and
all boiled together to a white foam, stirring well with
a spoon which reaches to the bottom. It is to be re-
moved from the fire and then boiled again, after which
eight ounces of spike oil are added.

Mr. Parry decanted his medium into strong, clear,
quart glass bottles, so that the condition of the medium
was always visible, leaving them uncorked to cool.
“When used, the bottles may require shaking, from
the weight of the wax they will tend to thicken at the
bottom.” With this medium all the colours were
mixed as powder on a slab and put into tubes, Mr.
Parry says he has many in tubes above twenty years
old, as fresh as when put in them.

The wall surface requires dry and warm weather for
its final preparation. The amount of medium required
(which is not stated) must be diluted with once and a
half its bulk of good turpentine. Mr. Parry recom-
mends that this should be done over a dull charcoal
fire. With this wash the wall is to be well saturated,
“the liquid being dashed against it rather than merely
washed over it.” The process is repeated two days
later. A few days are allowed for evaporation, and
134 MURAL PAINTING

then the priming is laid on thickly, made of equal
quantities of white lead in powder and gilder’s whiten-
ing, mixed in medium slightly diluted with about a
third of turpentine, and applied with a brush. When
it is sufficiently evaporated to bear a second coat “add
it as. thickly as a brush can lay it. In two or three
weeks it will be dry and “a perfect surface” is the
result—“so white that colours upon it have all the
internal light of buon fresco and the transparency of
pure water colours, and it is so absorbent that their
attachment is complete.”

The actual painting should be done boldly and
simply, using spike oil freely from the dipper. If the
surface is worried the resins rise to the surface and
perfect deadness is lost. If the surface is quite hard
it may be washed over with spike oil to soften it so
that the colours may be well incorporated with the
ground. Transparent glazes are less likely to dry dead
than colours used with white lead.

“The Rationale of the painting is this: that the
colours in powder being incorporated with material
identical with that which has already sunk deep into
the pores of the wall surface, and has hardened there
by the evaporation of the spirit vehicle, may be re-
garded as belonging to the mass of the wall itself.”
The spike oil is the one common solvent, “ the moment
the painter’s brush touches the surface it opens to
SPIRIT FRESCO 135

receive the colours, and on the rapid evaporation of the
spike oil it closes them in, and thus the work is done.”
Mr, Parry gives a caution against allowing spike oil or
turpentine to run down over or be sprinkled upon the
work as a shiny spot is thus produced, which is indeli-
ble except by solid over-painting. Great cleanliness is
necessary, brushes, palette, etc., having to be cleaned
with turpentine at the close of the day’s work to avoid
the unpleasant stickiness otherwise resulting. It is
important to make sure of the genuineness of the
materials used in compounding the medium.
Professor Church remarks that this medium con-
tains two doubtful ingredients, elémi resin and wax,
and recommends in preference a paraffin-copal medium,
which he says is used in much the same way and
involves the same chemical and physical changes. It
is made thus: “Warm twelve ounces of oil of spike
or non-resinifiable oil of turpentine in a glass flask
plunged in water heated to the boiling-point, and
then pour into it in a slender stream about four ounces
by weight of paraffin wax (melting-point 58° to 62° C.)
or of ceresin, or of a mixture of these materials. The
mixture becomes perfectly clear if it be thoroughly
agitated and maintained at a temperature of 80°C.
Then twenty measured ounces of ‘picture’ copal
varnish, or sixteen ounces of oil copal varnish, are
slowly added, with constant shaking, in the same way.
136 MURAL PAINTING

It is of the highest importance that the copal varnish
used should contain a sufficiency of oil. The paraffin- |
copal medium thus obtained may be diluted with oil
of turpentine exactly as recommended by Gambier
Parry with his medium and used in the same way and
for the same purpose.” “It is important to remember
that the use of abundance of medium is necessary
to bind the particles of pigments firmly together.”
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OIL PROCESSES

THE drawbacks to the use of the oil medium for wall-
painting are several. The most evident is the con-
densation of vapour upon the surface. The more
impervious the surface is to damp the more liable
it is to be affected by damp from behind, which will,
unless special precautions are taken, detach portions
of the painted surface from the wall or burst through
it in patches of efflorescence. The history of Leonardo
da Vinci's “Last Supper” at Milan shows how fatal
its use is, even in the hands of a master in art and
science, and it is a matter for lasting regret that
he did not trust to the older fresco medium with which
the great “Crucifixion” at the other end of the
refectory, still in excellent preservation, was painted.
Another disadvantage is the darkening to which
colours ground in oil are liable and the shininess of
the surface in parts, which is very likely to occur not-
withstanding careful surfacing with wax and turpen-
tine. It is, however, the favourite medium of the
French, and since the application of “marouflage”

137
138 MURAL PAINTING

to the fixing of large canvases on walls it is rare
to hear of paintings being executed on the wall in
France. This process makes it possible for the painting
to be executed entirely in the studio and even exhibited
in a picture-gallery (with doubtful benefit, since it
cannot be in harmony with its surroundings there)
before being placed in the position for which it was
designed. Professor Max Koch gives his opinion very
clearly as to the advantages of painting on plaster
in situ and the disadvantages of the oil medium and
“marouflage” thus: “The oil medium so much loved
by the French is quite the least suitable technique
for wall-painting. At first great surfaces shine so
brightly that the beholder can only see a part of
the picture clearly and then they darken with time
surprisingly. Water colours give a much clearer,
lighter tone of colour, do not shine, do not crack,
and do not darken, and if properly handled are more
lasting than oil.” “For interior work one may either
paint on the wall or on stretched canvas. I have
made many studies in my various journeys, and have
come to the conclusion that plaster painting is far
the best for every reason. To me it is imperative
to paint in the given place. In the studio one is
never in the position to think of the relative spacing.
I remember how a colleague (who was an easel painter)
painted a nine-foot figure for the ceiling of an opera
OIL PROCESSES 139

house on canvas; when it was up, sixty or seventy
feet away, he had to look with an opera-glass for the
beauties which were invisible, though they had looked
so pretty in the studio. He had to paint his figure
twice on account of this miscalculation. The French
generally paint their decorative pictures on canvas,
while the Italians always worked on the wall, much
to the benefit of decorative art, to my thinking.”

The operation of “ marouflage” has been developed
from the “lining” of pictures by picture restorers. It
is thus described in La Grande Encyclopédie: “ Appli-
cation to a canvas, panel, or ceiling, of an oil painting
on canvas. ‘Maroufle’ is used for this purpose; a
kind of glue, very concentrated by cooking, partly
formed of the remains of brush washings, the tenacity
of which is extreme.” Mérimeé advises for the
“lining” of pictures for damp situations the use of
linseed oil thickened by long boiling, with which
white lead and a little very fine red lead is to be
ground. Let this get half dry and then lay the
canvas down very carefully, pressing from the centre
towards the edges with broad palette knives or a
roller.

Professor Church says that the paintings in the
Royal Exchange are “ marouflé” on slate slabs slightly
inclined forward at the top and with a ventilated air-
space behind. The composition used was a thick paste
140 MURAL PAINTING

of white lead, oil, and copal varnish spread on the slate
and the back of the picture at the same time. “It
may be affirmed that paintings so secured are free
from all risk of injury from the back,” but of course
the exposed surface requires protection either by some
unaltering substance, such as paraffin wax, or by a
material which can be removed when dirty and re-
placed without the surface of the paint being affected.
Whatever the medium employed the air-space behind
the surface on which the paint is applied very much
increases the likelihood of its permanency, and if back
and front are both protected and the colours used so
as to avoid chemical changes, one is inclined to think
that there can be no deterioration. If slate is used as
a ground for spirit fresco or for oil painting, it must be
free from crystals of iron pyrites (of a brass yellow
colour). The firm adhesion of the priming may be
secured by slowly warming the slate in a water oven,
and then immediately covering it with a very thin coat
of oil copal varnish largely diluted with turpentine and
applied warm. When this is hard the painting may
be carried on, or a priming of flake white in oil mixed
with copal varnish and turpentine may be applied.
Terra-cotta and stone may be treated in the same way,
Professor Church says, and slate may be prepared for
using Keim’s process upon it by warming as before and
then rubbing with paraffin wax. A second heating is
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OIL PROCESSES 141

required, after which the slate is to be rubbed with a
cloth so as to remove any excess.

The most usual mode of securing the matt surface so
desirable in wall-paintings, when oil is the medium
which has been employed, is tunpentine or benzine.
These substances both act by causing a certain amount
of the oil in which the colours have been ground to
evaporate, thus lessening the chance of permanence of
effect. It is possible to obtain the same effect by
finishing with a mixture of wax and turpentine, like
Parris’s marble medium, but if this is used the appli-
cation of it must be the final process, as the film of
wax will prevent any subsequent touches of colour
adhering to the subjacent layers. A process which was
used a few years ago in the decoration of a semi dome
(now destroyed) was to press canvas on to the wet
plaster so that it came through the pores, thus forming
a rough granulated surface, upon which the painting
was executed with oil colours diluted with turpentine
to a considerable extent, so that the colour sank into
the plaster, the absorbency of which was not destroyed
by the first coat of colour. This had the advantage of
a matt surface and a plastery texture, which was
pleasant, but was nearly as difficult to manage as fresco,
without its advantages.

Mérimée gives the following instructions for pre-
paring a wall for receiving painting in oil. When the
142 MURAL PAINTING

plaster is quite dry give the surface several coats of
boiling linseed oil, and cover it afterwards with white
lead or any colour preferred. To guard against the
negligence of workmen in the preparation of the
plaster an oily cement is preferable, which may be
made of quicklime, linseed oil thickened by boiling or
exposure, white lead and fine sand. If the oil is fresh
the cement is so fluid that it runs down, though it
becomes hard in a few days. A better preparation for
the preliminary soaking is a mixture of drying oil and
wax, as used in the Panthdéon, Paris (by MM. Arcet
and Thénard), warming the surface till the mixture no
longer sinks in. On this preparation he says that the
colours do not sink in.
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES

THE conventions which should govern wall-painting
are founded partly on consideration of the position
which the decoration is to occupy, partly on the
material in which it is to be executed, and partly upon
the subject chosen, which should be in harmony with
the purpose to be served by the decorated building.
Thus, an arrangement which is perfectly appropriate
and satisfactory for an easel picture is generally quite
out of place upon a wall, even if oil be the medium
employed in rendering it; a scheme of coloration
suitable to a ballroom would be out of place in a
church, and the detail, or cleverness of manipulation,
which may give value to a water-colour painting in-
tended to be hung near the eye, is absolutely out of
place and even harmful in a fresco or tempera painting
upon a wall, which would naturally be viewed from a
distance; and one may go farther and assert that the
choice of forms and modes of arranging the objects
which together form the composition must be regarded
from quite different points of view, and that such

143
144 MURAL PAINTING

matters as the treatment of light and shade and the
sequence and opposition of the masses of colour must
also have different and special consideration. The fine
qualities of a wall-painting may often be transferred
with advantage to works which are not designed for
special places, but those qualities which are frequently
considered to give special value to easel pictures are
useless to the designer and executant of mural paint-
ings, who must depend for his effects upon careful
arrangement and balance of colour and the resulting
tonality, not upon the successful rendering of aérial
perspective ; upon suavity of line and vigour or grace
of silhouette, not upon the clever drawing or fore-
shortening of the figure; upon a defined and broad
technique instead of dexterity of manipulation, and
the suggestiveness of incompleteness. And it is a
curious fact that although fresco was not the earliest
mode of wall decoration used (at least in historic
times) the conventions imposed by the employment of
that medium, that is to say those ways of working
which are demanded if the painter is to do his work
successfully, and with a tolerable amount of comfort,
are with one exception useful and helpful to the mural
decorator who uses some other medium; that excep-
tion being the difference in the colour when wet and
when the plaster has dried, which makes it difficult to
match the work of one day in colour and tone with
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 145

that of the day preceding. The sweeping outline
which gives such dignity to groups is an advantage to
the fresco painter, since it makes the cutting of the
superfluous plaster when the day’s work is finished
easier, the simplicity of colour caused by the restricted
palette gives a unity and breadth to the general effect,
the necessity of finishing each portion while the plaster
is still wet prevents the over-detailing of parts which
would damage luminosity and darken instead of decor-
ating the wall.

Another point which bears upon the general subject
may here be mentioned, viz. the fact that all mural
painting must be decorative or a failure, that is to
say, that the painter must approach his subject from
the point of view of realism only so far as is necessary
to suggest his intention, but must consider every
detail in its form and colour as part of the decoration
with scrupulous care. To take an instance from a well-
known work—the background of Puvis de Chavannes’
“Girlhood of 8S. Geneviéve,” in the Panthéon at
Paris, is a suggestive landscape, but its value in
that composition lies in its beautiful colour and
in the forms of hill and tree, and not in the least
in the effect of nature which happens to be well
rendered.

A French authority on fresco speaks thus: “An
artist who would be great in the painting of mural

L
146 MURAL PAINTING

pictures must not be allured from genuine art by the
prejudices of the time in which he lives. A pretty
style of decoration may minister to the caprice of
a passing fashion, but it would ill accord with the
nervous and masterly mode of fresco.” Mr. Armitage,
R.A. when lecturing to the Academy students, also
spoke with no uncertain voice on the qualities neces-
sary for the successful production of large mural
paintings. “The great mistake most artists make
when they have a large wall-space to decorate with
figures, is to proceed in the same way as they would
for an easel picture. Elaborate finish, powerful light
and shade, expression and individuality in the heads,
are all excellent qualities in an easel picture, but they
are by no means necessary in decorative work. On
the other hand, a well-balanced and harmonious com-
position, a pure and grand style of drawing, and a
great breadth and luminosity of colouring are abso-
lutely essential for good decorative work. These are
all qualities which are never got by dexterity of
hand, dodges about colour, or chance, to which much
of the fascination of oil painting on canvas must be
attributed. They are only obtainable by patient and
laborious work.” “The decorative painter ought always
to bear in mind that his work is supplementary to
that of the architect. The very word ‘decorative’
implies subserviency to that which has to be decor-
 

A portion of the Castle of Frederick of the Empty Pockets.

THE ‘‘GOLDENES DACHL,” INNSBRUCK,

To face page 146.
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 147

ated.” I extract also a few of the hints on com-
position which he gave as being very useful to the
student. “Beware of concave lines for the outlines
of your groups. Avoid sharp angles, particularly right
angles, unless you wish to draw especial attention to
them. Be very careful about the relative position of
the heads, so that, viewed as points of interest, they
do not form any geometrical pattern. Convex lines
are generally associated with forward movement and
concave with retreat. Right angles in a group of
figures convey the idea of immovability. The lines
and general grouping, as well as the arrangement
of light and shade, should be arranged with a view
to expressing the subject with dignity and grandeur.
Accessory figures, however good in themselves, if they
mar the general effect, must be sacrificed. The art of
good grouping is not of spontaneous growth. Sim-
plicity and grandeur are not always synonymous terms,
as witness the street architecture of the Georgian
period.”

A writer in the Art Journal at the time when the
decoration of the Houses of Parliament was under
consideration, who evidently held a brief for fresco
as against other modes of wall- painting, expressed
admirably many of the characteristics which should be
found in paintings executed on the wall in any
medium. He says: “It is clear that fresco is not
148 MURAL PAINTING

adapted for any such branch of art as requires princi-
pally strong effects of light or shade or colour aiming
at producing illusion, and such effects should be
avoided as resulting in certain failure. On the other
hand, fresco essentially possesses the power of repre-
senting form and figure, all that can express thought,
idea, character, and is perfectly adapted to any under-
taking which acknowledges these as its legitimate
object.” “Architecture gives the general forms, to
enliven without destroying them is the task of fresco
painting. Its subjects must make, therefore, no appeals
to the sense’s illusion, nor aim at being mistaken for
the reality; the highest object should be poetic and
artistic truth.” “The space painted seems enlarged
by light colours and appears loftier, more free and
cheerful. The absurd custom of totally transforming
and destroying the architectural surface by means of
perspective and optical trick, so as to apparently raise
the roof of a hall, or of a church having a flat roof
to a cupola, etc., commenced during the decline of the
art under Correggio, and is most remarkable in the
period of Andrea Pozzo and his contemporaries. To
transfer the effect of oil to fresco destroys every
principle. The inevitable result is dry, dull, heavy
shades, the destruction of the architectural surface,
and finally want of light and quality of colour.” “The
excellence of fresco painting must essentially depend
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 149

upon the creative power of the mind. To think in
little would “be as useful here as to war in little.
Fresco is adapted to represent, with force and beauty,
a great idea; it is not so well adapted to reproduce
the scenes of nature, or to depict the affections, the
feelings and the ties of social life. The chefs d’ceuvre
of painting are in oil—the grandest compositions
are in fresco.” The writer goes on to enumerate
several of the special disadvantages under which
decorative painters laboured in England—disadvan-
tages which are happily less at the present day than
at the time when he wrote, though quite great enough
still.

“Religion does not consecrate the offerings of
their genius by placing them within the precincts
of their temples; the legislator is palsied by the
fear of their direct encouragement; nor have they,
as they merit, the advantage of public sympathy and
support.”

At the time when painting was beginning to revive
after its sleep of conventionality, and the growing
power and wealth of the communes aroused that
emulation which gave birth to the great schemes of
building and decoration, the wrecks of which are to
be seen in so many towns in Italy, how different things
were! Then nearly all the wall-paintings executed
were painted either upon the walls of churches or
150 MURAL PAINTING

of communal buildings, and the town which had given
birth to a painter of talent esteemed itself happy in
finding him employment for the term of his natural
life. And the painters for their part realised the
nobility of the part they were called to play, and
the assistance which their works might lend to the
cause of education as well as to the decoration of
the buildings which enshrined them, and, at least
officially, held the standard high. Listen to the
commencement of the statutes of the Art of Painters
of Siena, dated 1355, but representing an older
tradition, since the historians of the city say that
they had already enrolled themselves as a corporation
in the twelfth century. “Since, by the grace of God,
we are teachers to ignorant men, who know not how
to read, of the miracles performed by virtue of the
Holy Faith, and the foundations of our faith are
principally laid in the adoration and belief of One
God in Trinity, and in God of infinite power, infinite
wisdom and infinite love and mercy: and since no
undertaking, however small, can have a beginning or
an end without these three things—that is without
the power to do, without knowledge, and without the
true love of our work—and since in God every
perfection is eminently united: now to the end that
in this our calling, however unworthy it may be, we
may have a good beginning and a good ending in all
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES ABI

our words and deeds, we will earnestly ask the aid
of the Divine Grace, and commence by a dedication
to the honour of the name, and in the name of the most
Holy Trinity.” The Florentine Compagnia di S. Luca in
its statutes, as printed by Baldinucci, was inspired by
much the same spirit. ‘ We order that all those who
are or shall be inscribed in this society, men or women,
shall be contrite and have confessed their sins, or at
least have the intention of confessing as soon as may
be, and that the Captains and Chamberlains who enter
their names shall inform them of this. And whoever
is received into this society is bound to say every day
five Pater Nosters and five Ave Marias, and if through
forgetfulness or by any press of business he does
not say them every day he must say them the next
day, or when he remembers. And let it be manifest
to all that our intention is that these statutes shall
not bind anyone to crime, but that each one shall do
as much good as he can or knows how according
as God and his mother and the Blessed Messer
S. Luke may give him grace.” In 1395 it was ordained
that on July 22nd they should meet in the chapel
of S. Luke, and that the Captains should pay, and
make each one who was able to do so also pay, two
soldi, and this money was to be given to the priests
to pay for the wax candle which was to be placed
there, and all those present were to “devoutly keep
152 MURAL PAINTING

silence and pray to God for the souls of faithful
Christians dead, passed from this life, and specially
for those of this company which may be in purgatory ;
that God will lead them to the blessings of eternal
life.” With such regulations governing the Guild of
the Painters the opening words of Cennino Cennini’s
“Trattato” are in harmony: “Ye of gentle spirit,
who are lovers of this art and devoted to its pursuit,
adorn yourselves with the garment of love, of modesty,
of obedience, and of perseverance.” The most scrupu-
lous honesty was prescribed in the use of colours,
and though wags like Buffalmacco might occasionally
supply themselves with wine by humorous expedients,
it was considered an act of criminal dishonesty, punish-
able by fine, to employ any but the best colours: “Any
member of the guild who should dare or presume to
use in his works any gold, silver, or colour other than
he may have promised to employ—as, for instance,
alloyed gold for fine gold, tin for silver, cobalt blue
for ultramarine, indigo for azure, red ochre or carmine
for ‘cinabrese’—should be punished and fined upon
every conviction ten ‘libri.’” Cennini also insists
upon the use of good colours as a religious obligation,
and most especially in portraying the Virgin. Even
if the painter was underpaid for his work “God and
Our Lady will recompense him in the soul and in the
body”! It is scarcely necessary to point out how
 

External wall-painting at Hallstadt.

FROM THE PASSION,

SCENES

To face page 152.
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 153

different all this is from the temper which prevails
in the most cultivated art centres among the students
of the present day. And most of the fruit produced
is of the different kind which is to be expected from
such different roots. In those days, too, the learning
of the craft of painting was much more serious than
itis now. There was first a year of trial to see ifthe
youth had sufficient promise and industry to make
it worth while to teach him. If the master was
satisfied, the boy was then bound apprentice for twelve
years. He was sworn never to divulge the secrets
of the art till, having become a master himself, he had
apprentices, to whom he would then teach them, first
binding them by a similar oath to that which had
been administered to himself. Now a few years in
an art school is considered sufficient equipment to
enable the aspirant to wrestle with the most difficult
problems, though, tradition being dead, he cannot
have the advantage of having seen those problems
approached from different points and solved more
or less successfully by his masters. Professor Max
Koch of Berlin, in a paper in the Zeitschrift fur
Bildende Kunst on the training of the decorative
painter, strongly advises him to spend most of his
time in “room-painting.” He says: “The trained
room painter has no fear of technical difficulties.
He has used lime colours from his youth; he has
154 MURAL PAINTING

painted his studies with tempera and cheese-medium,
and also knows the more easily learnt oil technique.
He knows all about the mediums which he uses and
how they behave, leaves alone the long-winded
treatises which teach new things upon all possible
painting processes, and makes his medium by the
receipt which he learnt in the workshop and has
himself often tested.” He gives further advice which
is worth quoting: “It is often the case that weak young
men who are no good for handicraft wish to become
decorative painters. This is a mistake. I can from
experience assure them that painting on the ceiling
is no child’s play. They had better learn how to
paint rooms, so that they may work earnestly; the
iron ‘must’ of life will teach much better than an
art school. They should study the works of the
German, Italian, and French ornamentists.” “The
architect generally conceives the general scheme (of
decoration) and gives the painter a sketch of wall,
roof, or other architectural form which he thinks of
decorating with painting, and leaves him free to give
his fancy rein. A mistake is often made by architect,
sculptor, plasterer, and painter, each striving to put
as much as possible of his particular form of art
into the space, and thus gain a greater part in that
whole which is to be made beautiful by sound
judgement, The scheme settled, two very important
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 155

questions arise—the cost of the work and the time
required to carry it out, Now one sees the value
of practical training. The trained room-painter has
seen before how such a thing may be done, and lays
down the right scale at once. He also knows approxi-
mately how much colour will be required, where to
use the cheap colours, and how to give the greatest
effect to the dearer ones. He knows further what
scaffolding is necessary and what secondary things,
and makes himself pleasant to the client from the
beginning, After the sketches the studies and cartoons
must be prepared in the studio, for the painter must
be ready with everything on his scaffold if he is to
gain credit or profit from his enterprise.”

To return to the medieval practice. The materials
to be used were frequently specified in the contracts,
those of the most expensive kind being specially
charged for or provided by the patron as in classical
times; the traditions from which were handed down
by way of Byzantium and Mount Athos, and certainly
formed the groundwork of medieval practice. M,
Didron says: “In the eighteenth century the painter
of the Morea continues the tradition and traces the
designs of the Venetian painter of the tenth, and the
painter of Mount Athos of the fifth or sixth centuries.
The costume is everywhere and in all times the same,
not only in form but in colour and design, even to the
156 MURAL PAINTING

number and thickness of the folds, The places to be
occupied by certain figures or scenes were fixed by
rule, and the only point in which the Greek master
was free was in his execution.” The art being so
entirely traditional, M. Didron’s account of the pro-
cesses employed in painting certain frescoes in a
church at Mount Athos which he saw in use becomes
of the greatest possible interest, the extreme rapidity
and certainty with which the work was executed
showing that the painter was doing that which he had
learnt traditionally, and most probably using the same
materials and processes as those used by Giotto and
his followers, and the yet more ancient wall-painters
of 8. Angelo in Formis near Capua. In the first case
the artist was decorating the narthex assisted by his
pupils. “A young monk spread the mortar, the
master sketched the subject, the first pupil filled
in the colours within the outlines in the subjects
which the master had not time to finish, a young
pupil gilded the nimbi, painted inscriptions, and made
ornaments, two others, smaller, ground and mixed
colours. Jn an hour he drew a picture representing
Jesus Christ giving his apostles the mission of evangel-
ising and baptising the world. The Christ and the
eleven other personages were nearly life-size. He
made his sketch from memory without cartoon, draw-
ing, or model. On being asked if he had done the
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 157

others round in the same manner he said ‘yes,’ and
added that he very rarely had to alter a line. These
were certainly better than those of our artists of the
second rank who do religious pictures. His memory
was prodigious. He dictated to the second pupil the
inscriptions, etc., without book or notes, and they
were the same as I had seen elsewhere.” In another
case “they allowed three days to pass between the
laying of the plaster (the under-coat, one supposes) and
the painting to allow the damp to evaporate. Before
drawing, the master-painter smoothed the lime with
a spatula and then with a thread determined the
dimensions of the picture. The outline was traced in
red. Inside it a black ground was laid, heightened
with blue, a flat tint. On this he painted draperies
and other ornaments, not touching the flesh. The
master worked at two figures at the same time, going
from one to the other. First a blackish colour, then
with yellow, the flesh properly so called. The first
coat extinguished the black, the second rounded the
figure. A third coat of this pale yellow, thicker than
the other, gave the general tone of the carnations. The
eyes alone were reserved, a coat being passed over the
whole surface. Then with pale green he softened
the black of the shadowed parts which he had
enlivened with blue. Then with yellow he restricted
the encroachments of the green. He then made the
158 MURAL PAINTING

cheeks, lips, and eyelids rosy, and with dark brown
put in eyebrows, hair, and beard, and the line of the
face. The eyes were touched with white and the
black strengthened, and with pale rose he gave the
luminous point of the eye. The lips and mouth were
lightened and finished, and a thick black line run
all round the figure. A few strokes of the brush of
a rosy white were added here and there to lessen and
pale the vivacity of the reds in some of the veins,
some brown touches to make the wrinkles in old men,
and a few finishing touches of various colours. In
Jive hours Joasaph painted in fresco a Conversion of
S. Paul, nine feet broad and twelve feet high, with
twelve figures and three large horses.” No palette
was used, the separate colours were in separate pots,
and the brush was dipped first in one and then in the
other, the colours being tried on the nimbus. The
raising of nimbi was begun with a string dipped in
plaster and fixed on the line traced with the primitive
compass, made of a reed doubled over and fixed at
an angle with a piece of wood. “When the lime is
almost dry they finish by adding gold and silver to the
dresses, and the finer colours are added—especially
Venetian blue—flowers and ornaments, diapers, etc.,
it being necessary for the lower colours to be dry
lest they should soil them. Another painter does the
lettering and all is finished. They do not use oil,
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 159

because that requires the plaster to be quite dry,
and as the colour does not penetrate the lime it is
less firm. For the most important subjects, such as
a Last Supper or a Crucifixion, the master does all, and
there is not the division of labour described above;
but one sometimes finds fine figures of Christ or the
Virgin with other personages near quite mediocre—
in this case the pupils have done their part as well.
The treatise from which the painters work is divided
into four parts. The first, which is technical, gives
directions for preparing brushes and colours, spreading
plaster for frescoes and panels, and painting on these
plasters. The second contains a list of subjects of
symbolism, but especially of history, which may be
represented by painting, with copious descriptions of
each subject. The third gives the places in which the
subjects or personages should be placed in a church,
a porch, a refectory, or a fountain. An appendix fixes
the character of Christ and the Virgin, and gives some
of the inscriptions which abound in Byzantine paint-
ings, The forms of hair and beard, the age, physiog-
nomy, costume, attitude are all marked in this book.”
The founder of the school is said to have been Pause-
linos, who lived in the eleventh century, and since on
Mount Athos there were in Didron’s time “935
churches, chapels, or oratories, almost all painted in
fresco, and filled with pictures on panel, while in
160 MURAL PAINTING

the great convents the greater part of the refectories
were also covered with mural paintings,” one can
easily understand how the tradition lasted for cen-
turies, the art of the Greek Church being a matter
of religious dogma in all that concerns arrangement
and type.

Professor Koch thus defines the difference between
the easel-picture painter and the painter of mural
decorations: “I call the painter ‘decorative’ who
adorns the architecture on the surfaces of wall or
ceiling with painting. I understand by the term
‘Lower Art’ or ‘easel painter’ the artist who puts
upon canvas with colour and brush what his eye
or his fancy pleases, sends his work in a gold frame to
the picture exhibition, where it is then bought by some
purchaser and can be put in a place for which it was
not planned. The decorative painter is often assigned
a definite place to fill and has to make the whole com-
position painter-like.” The easel-picture painter is
trained to the imitation of nature, often as an end
instead of a means to an end, and in a portable object
of this kind the esthetic mistake is not very visible,
but transfer the technique or strive to realise the same
aim upon the wall and the failure from the point of
view of Abstract Art becomes painfully evident. It
is forgotten that as Professor Baldwin Brown says:
“mere imitation of nature is not in itself artistic,
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 161

though it brings into existence the raw material of
art. The imitation is only made artistic by the opera-
tion of the controlling law of composition.” This is
not a mistake made only in modern times, the crafts-
man has always rejoiced in getting as near to nature
as possible, and “from the very beginning of art
history, so soon at least as the carver or painter had
attained some success in the imitation of nature, the
popular eye has looked at his work almost entirely as
representing nature,” a matter of little importance
when detached and movable objects only are in
question, but when permanent decorations which
cannot be removed from their places are produced it
becomes of great importance that true principles
should govern their design and execution. One must
repeat that the painter whose principal ambition it
is to realise the appearance of nature, giving her subtle
aérial perspective by the accurate rendering of delicate
gradations of tone as the various objects sink farther
and farther into the sea of light and atmosphere which
bathes every natural scene, and in a less perceptible
degree the personages composing nearer groups—in so
far as he attains his aim produces that which is unfit
for mural decoration—since his success means the
appearance of an opening in the wall through which
the scene he has represented may be viewed by the
spectator; whereas the object of mural decoration ©

M
162 MURAL PAINTING

is obviously the decoration of the wall-surface, not its
removal. The frescoes of Mantegna in the Eremitani
church at Padua show the only possible way of
employing a mode of painting with considerable use
of realism without much offending one’s esthetic sense.
Here the pictures are framed within architectural
forms, so that if the pictures were indeed spaces
through which the scenes depicted were viewed, the
roof would still be supported by the architectural
skeleton of column and entablature which serves as
frame.

The habit of mind engendered by constant striving
after success in realising the effect of natural objects,
is not only unhelpful to the painter whose business it
is to decorate a wall-surface, but actually harmful, since
it diverts his mind from the consideration of those
problems which it is imperative that he should meet
and solve. It can scarcely be too strongly insisted on,
that while nature must necessarily form the basis of
the painting, and the most earnest study of form and
colour must precede the attempt to produce any work
of decoration which is to be impressive, the imitation
of nature is only useful in so far as it renders the
meaning of the painter clear; and for the mural
painter the question of a treatment in harmony with
the surroundings of his picture, and of such a nature
as to make his painting visible, either at a considerable
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 163

distance or at some strange angle, or in semi-obscurity
as may often chance, is of infinitely more importance
than the accurate representation of nature. And with
this question of treatment is bound up the total effect
of the conception of the general scheme, for it is quite
easy for the painter to dwarf the proportions of a
building, or to exaggerate any defects which it may
have, by adding paintings which are out of scale in one
way or another, or unsuitable to the style of design
chosen: and he, in common with the other craftsmen
whose work should combine to form an impressive and
agreeable whole, must recognise the necessity of sacri-
fice, at the risk of producing a monstrosity, by the
contest of each portion for supremacy.

Sir W. B. Richmond once said that “in decoration
it was no use to copy nature: they must have learnt
nature and have nature at their fingers’ ends, and they
must learn that lesson which came to them late in life,
4.¢. what to leave out.” One is inclined to go even
further, and say that the representation of nature is
only important in as far as it assists the conception of
the designer’s meaning and produces beautiful line,
form, or colour; and the more abstract the mode of
representation chosen is, that is to say the fewer the
means of expression which are retained, the more
absolute must be the perfection with which the ex-
pression is made in those few. For instance, if figures
164 MURAL PAINTING

are painted on a wall in full light and shade and
colour, faults in drawing may be pardoned if the colour
is good, and the intelligibility of the whole is not much
lessened by their presence though its beauty may be;
but if the same figures are to be expressed in outline
filled in with flat tints, the silhouette and drawing of
the limbs must be better than before if an equal
esthetic impression is to be produced, and a greater
care must be bestowed upon the arrangement of every
line of ‘the composition, since everything is displayed,
whereas in the former case some portions would be
salient and others more or less lost. “Beauty in works
of art is of at least as much importance as truth,” says
Professor Baldwin Brown, “unless nature be made
obedient to the esthetic purpose, unless beauty result
from the imitation of nature, such imitation is vain ”—
a sentence which one could wish dinned into the ears
of artists, craftsmen and patrons, till it became part of
their very being; in which case much fruitless labour
would be saved, much waste of good money would be
prevented, and the comparatively few who are not led
by fashion in their admiration of art objects, would not
have their feelings harrowed by the sights which now
too often make them sigh. We want greater co-opera-
tion and sympathy between painters, sculptors, crafts-
men, and architects. What Latilla wrote in 1842 is
still much too true. “In modern times, sculptors and
LIMITATIONS AND CAPABILITIES 165

architects in general have little regard for what is
pictorial, and painters are not at all interested in what
is architectural; and while the Italian rose in the
united strength of the three, the artist of this day
thinks nothing is to be derived from any branch but
the one he owns.”
RECEIPTS

In this volume the receipts for the most part are to
be met with in the body of the work under the
various processes in which they are to be used, but
a few remarks upon the materials which analyses dis-
close the use of, and a few receipts for gilding grounds,
may fitly occupy the place of this section.

First a receipt from a Byzantine MS. for wax paint-
ing by Didron :—Take size, a strong solution of potass
and white wax in equal quantities, mix together and
place them on the fire to dissolve. Add colour to
the mixture; dilute the tint well and paint with a
brush. Let the colour dry and then you can give
it a polish. Gilding, if you use any, will become very
brilliant; it is useless to add varnish. (He says the
monks of Mount Athos still use this receipt.)

Mrs. Merrifield says that the paintings on the walls
of the chapel of 8. Jacopo di Pistoia were ascertained
by Professor Branchi to have been executed on a
ground composed of sulphate of lime (plaster of
Paris), carbonate of lime, and a yellowish colouring

166
RECEIPTS 167

matter tempered with glue. It has also been ascer-
tained that many of Luini’s paintings in the Monastero
Maggiore are not “buon fresco,” but painted on white
stucco in the ancient manner. The MS. of Alcherius
gives the following directions for painting walls:—“Put
a little lime with ochre that it may be lighter coloured,
or mix it with simple red or ‘ prasin,’ or with a colour
which is called ‘ posce,’ which is made of ochre, green,
and ‘membrayne’; or you may take of a colour which
is made of sinople, ochre, lime, and ‘ posce, etc. And
walls should be painted rather moist than otherwise,
because the colours unite together better and are
firmer. And all the colours for walls should be mixed
with quicklime(!).” This is probably the method of
mural painting generally practised in the Middle
Ages.

The mordant for gilding on walls and places exposed
to damp was oil. Professor Branchi analysed some
of the grounds of Benozzo Gozzoli’s pictures where
gilded. The intonaco was white and fine—a “denaro”
(1'779 grammes) contained 0°576 gramme of a fine
white sand mixed with a little argillaceous earth.
The gilding in a picture by Buffalmacco is spread
upon a layer of wax about half a line thick. (There
was no indication that drying oil was mixed with it.)
The gilding was probably:executed (1) by applying
on the smooth intonaco a kind of size soluble in
168 MURAL PAINTING

water and yellow in colour; (2) by applying a thin
coating of wax on this, to which the gold leaf was
affixed. The wax must have been dissolved in a
volatile oil.

Jehan le Bégue’s MS. receipt No. 190. How to lay
gold on a wall or on parchments.—If you wish to
lay gold on a wall, or on paper, or on wood, or upon
a block of marble, grind gypsum by itself separately.
Then grind brown separately in the same manner, and
take three pints of gypsum and one of brown, and
take glue made from parchment or leather, and dis-
temper them together, mixing the said parts, and lay
upon it (the object) one coat of this mixture with a
paint-brush and then another; and so lay three or
four coats. And when the last is dry, scrape it with
a knife or other iron instrument fitted for the purpose,
so that it may be very smooth; and then burnish it
with a tooth or stone, and lay over it with a paint-
brush only one very thin coat of the gypsum and let
it dry. When it is dry lay the gold upon that
mordant as you have been taught. Afterwards lay
upon the gold a very fine cloth that has been two
or three times warmed; or apply it as I do, not so
warm, in order that the gold may be the better
polished.

191. Also how to lay on gold.—Take gypsum and
grind it well with water. Then take your glue, which
RECEIPTS 169

is made of bull skin, and mix with it a little white of
egg, and distemper the gypsum. But when you wish
to lay on the gold cover the place with gypsum with
a brush and let it dry. Do this three times. Then
scrape it that it may be smooth and burnish it, and
again lay another coat of the glue or mordant upon
it, and then your gold upon that, and remove the dirt
gently with cotton, and then let it dry. But if you
wish to polish it, do so with hematite or with a dog’s
tooth.

192, Also how to lay on gold.—Take brasilium newly
distempered, with white of egg well whipped, with a
sponge or otherwise, and draw and paint with it what-
ever you like on vellum or on any other thing you
wish to gild, and immediately lay the gold upon it, .
and remove the dirt with cotton, scarcely touching
it, and leave it to dry for half a day or a whole day
if you like. Then take a dog’s tooth and begin to
burnish at first gently, lest you should spoil it all,
and then harder, and afterwards so hard that your
forehead is wet with perspiration.

194. Of the precautions required in gilding—But
take notice that you ought to work in gold and colours
in a damp place on account of the hot weather, which,
as it is often injurious in burnishing gold, both to the
colours on which the gold is laid and in the gilding, if
the work is done on parchment that is too dry and not
170 MURAL PAINTING

sufficiently moist; so also it is injurious when the
weather is too dry and arid, or too damp while apply-
ing colours or gilding,

From the Bolognese MS. given by Mrs. Merrifield :—

To make a mordant for gilding on walls—Take
calcined bone, ground fine with weak glue, such as
parchment glue, and let it dry; and when quite dry
grind it up afresh with linseed oil and make it rather
stiff; then take a little “ liquid varnish ” and incorpor-
ate it with the bone dust. Add to it a little saffron,
sufficient to give it colour and make it rather stiff.
When you wish to put the gold on the wall the mortar
must be dry, and the mordant must not be applied too
thick. Let it remain five or six days and then put on
the gold.

171. A mordant for gilding on walls, etc—Take
litharge, verdigris, and a little ochre, and grind them
with a little linseed oil and “ liquid varnish,” incorpor-
ate them well together, and then gild in the usual
manner.

Gilding was often imitated by the use of less costly
materials, such as silver or tinfoil varnished over with
a yellow varnish or lacquer, the “ sandarac ” varnish so
often mentioned in books on the beginnings of oil
painting. At S. Jacopo, Pistoia, note is made of the
use of thirty-seven pieces of tin, in the fifteenth
century, while 7,000 leaves of gold were used. From
RECEIPTS 171

one ounce of gold the Roman gold-beaters obtained
750 square leaves and upwards, four fingers broad, as
Pliny relates. Modern gold-beaters make 1,200.
Cennini complains that in his time 145 leaves were
obtained from a ducat in place of 100, and Vasari says
that 435 leaves were made from three ducats, the same
proportion.

A composition of quicksilver, tin, and sulphur,
called “porporino,” was used to imitate gold, and
Jehan le Beégue gives full details of how to make
“auripetrum,” the tin with the varnish over it.
“Spanish saffron, distempered with very clear glue or
liquid varnish, and laid over very clear, that is, very
bright and well-polished tin, assumes the appearance
of gold to those that look on it, for it receives its colour
from the sun, and its brilliancy from the tin, and thus
may be made excellent auripetrum.” Another receipt
says that the saffron flowers should be treated with
white of egg, into which the tin leaves are to be dipped
three times, drying between and then polished with
onyx and greased with linseed oil; and another gives
myrrh and aloes, equal parts by weight, boiled
together, as the colouring medium, into which the tin
leaves varnished are to be dipped, and subsequently
into a similar decoction of the middle bark of the
black plum; and yet another gives linseed oil and
resin and “ vernix ” (sandarac varnish).
172 MURAL PAINTING

No. 325 gives: A water proper for distempering all
colours.—Take a pound of lime and twelve pounds of
wood ashes; then take boiling water and put the
whole together, making them boil well; after which let
the mixture settle and strain it through a cloth. Then
take four pounds of that water, heat it well, take about
two ounces of white wax and put this to boil with the
water, then take about half an ounce of fish glue, put
it in water, and leave it until it is well softened, and,
as it were, melted, when you must manipulate it until
it becomes like paste, and throw it into the water with
wax and make all boil together; then add to it about
half an ounce of mastic and boil it with the other in-
gredients. Take some of this water on a knife-blade
or a piece of iron to ascertain whether it be done; if it
is like glue it is all right. Strain this water while hot
or tepid through a linen cloth, let it settle and cover
it well. With it you may distemper all kinds of
colours.

No. 347. Water in which linseed oil has been steeped
for a day and a night receives a glutinous quality
from that seed which makes it proper for tempering
colours.

No. 318 gives fish glue dissolved in good white wine
as a medium for gilding on a ground of gypsum and
sinople. This is somewhat akin to Pliny’s “ Leuco-
phoron,” a cement used for applying gold leaf to wood.
RECEIPTS 173

It was made of half a pound of Pontic sinopis, ten
pounds of bright “sil” (attic ochre), and two pounds
of Greek “melinum” (a white earth), well mixed
together and triturated for twelve successive days.

S. Forni gives the following receipt for putting lines
of gold and silver on draperies or feigned reliefs :—
Make a mordant of wax, purified suet or tallow, gum
elémi, turpentine, and mastic, in equal proportions,
except the suet, which is to be half. Melt them gently
in a pot, stirring with a wooden spatula. Then with a
fine brush, and this mixture diluted with half its
weight of essential oil of pine, draw the lines. When
it is dry enough to be sticky apply the gold or silver.
The next day dust off the superfluous metal with a soft
brush of beaver or badger. If you cannot see the lines
you are drawing you may stain the colour, with
dragon’s blood or minium ground very fine with essen-
tial oil of pine.

If the gilding is to be laid on aureoles or ornaments
raised in plaster, give the surface two coats of size, and
then with a mordant paint the shapes; leave it for
twenty-four hours and then apply the gold leaf. The
following two mordants are good, he says :—

Boiled oil : ‘ . 339 grammes.
Venice turpentine : . 112
Naples yellow . ‘ . 140

”

”
174 MURAL PAINTING

Warm the oil and mix the turpentine carefully with
it, then add the Naples yellow ground in a little oil.

Boiled oil ‘ : . 112 grammes.
Yellow ochre . i . 56
Minium ; 5% . 28 y
Copal varnish . ‘ . 56 5;

Grind the ochre and minium together with the oil,
then add the varnish. It does not last so well as the
other, but can be gilded immediately.

Boiled oil mixed with yellow ochre and Armenian
bole, ground together in equal parts to the consistency
of syrup, may also be used. It is best when it has
been kept a good while.

For making “ caseum” for cheese tempera 8. Forni
gives the following :—It may be prepared by adding a
little carbonate of potash or of soda to curds, but it is
better to press the curds through a sieve or to dry
them in a cloth to get rid of all the whey. Ammonia
added makes a viscous cream which may be diluted
with water. Keep the * caseum” dry in a glass bottle
well stoppered, and mix with ammonia as ‘required,
first softening it with warm water.

Fig juice should be collected in October, and kept
dried in drops in a glass bottle. When required as a
mordant for gilding mix it with wine or liquid
ammonia.
RECEIPTS 175

Blues and blacks made from charcoal require size as
amedium. Yolk of egg makes the former green, and
the latter do not dry properly.

Punches used for stamping patterns on gilded sur-
faces are better made of ivory than of either iron or
steel.
INDEX

A

Advantages of spirit fresco, 131

Advice to students by Mr.
Armitage, 146, 147

Altichieri da Zevio, his paintings
at Padua and Verona, 20

Assisi, church of 8, Francesco,
Cimabue’s paintings there, 16

—— paintings by Cimabue’s
pupils, 16

A water proper for distempering
all colours, 172

B

Bartolommeo, Fra, 27

Boccaccino, Boccaccio, 27

Borgognone, Ambrogio, 27

Botticelli, Sandro. 22, 23

Brushes used by the Greeks and
Romans, 78

C

Cambiasi, Luca, 34

Cartoons for fresco, 61

Catacombs of Rome, paintings in,
and subjects, 5, 6

Cennini’s opening words of the
“Trattato,” 152

Cheese medium for retouching
frescoes, 65, 66

 

Chemical reactions
process, 97, 98
Christian paintings in catacombs,

5

in Keim’s

Cleaning of frescoes (Professor
Church), 62

— — (Signor Forni), 63, 64

Colours available for fresco (Mr.
Armitage’s list), 50

— — — (Latilla’s list) 52

— — — (Munich list), 49, 50

— — — (Pozzo’s list), 51

— for encaustic painting (Cros
and Henry), 113

— used at Sainte Chapelle,
Paris, 80

— — by the Egyptians, 103

— — by the Etruscans, 103

— — by the Greeks and Romans,
103, 104, 105, 106, 107

—— in Keim’s process, 93, 94,
95

— — in Middle Ages, (note) 124,
125, 126, 127, 128, 129

Comparative unimportance of the
representation of nature in
decorative work, 162, 163

Comparison between Von Fuchs’
and Keim’s processes, 98, 99

Co-operation between various
crafts most desirable, 164

Correggio, 81

Costa, Lorenzo, 26

176
INDEX

D

Da Vinci, Leonardo, and his
pupils, 30

Del Sarto, Andrea, 27, 28

Difference between easel-picture
paar and decorative painter,

Disadvantages of oil processes,
138, 140

Distemper painting, Paillot de
Montabert’s directions, 81, 82,
83, 84

— = adding gold enrichments,
8

Drawbacks to the use of fresco,
64, 65

E

Effect of painted decoration on
architecture, 148

Egg medium known to the
Romans, 77

Beyptian palettes and brushes,

Encaustic painting, the ancient
process, 108, 109

— — the modern process, 115

— — on ivory, 108

— — various kinds of, 101, 102

Etruscan paintings in tombs near
Orvieto, 2

F

Ferrari, Gaudenzio, 31

Fixing processes used in Keim’s
process, 96, 97

Foppa, Vincenzo of Brescia, 27

Fra Angelico, 21

Francia, Francesco, and his pupils,
26

Fresco painting, Mr. Armitage’s
transparent mode, 59, 60
— — Genoese practice in 1843,

4,

N

 

177

Fresco painting, Latilla’s instruc-
tions as to sequence of pro-
cesses, 57-58

— — the practice in Cennini’s
time, 60

— — the process, 53, 54, 56

— — reasons for the decay (Pro-
fessor Church), 48

— — reasons for its permanence,
47, 48

— ‘*secco,” 66, 67

G

Ghirlandajo, Domenico, 23

Giordano, Luca, 33

Giotto, paintings by him at
Padua, Assisi, Florence, and
Naples, 17

— his pupils and paintings by
them, 17, 18

Gozzoli, Benozzo, 21, 22

Greek painters of antiquity, 4, 5

Grounds for tempera used by the
ancients, 78, 79

Guido, Reni, 33

I

Imitations of gilding, 170, 171 |
Implements used in encaustic
painting, 102, 113

K
Keim’s process for wall-painting,
86
L
Limitations and conventions

which should govern wall-
painting, 148, 144, 145
Lippi, Fra Filippo, 22
Lorenzetti, Pietro and Ambrogio,
and other Sienese artists, 19
Ludius, the Roman painter, 3
Luini, 30
178

M

Mantegna, Andrea, 26

Marouflage, 139

Masolino and Masaccio, 20, 21

Mastic used for the Dome of the
Panthéon, Paris, 115, 116

Medieval studentship, 153

Media used in ancient encaustic
painting, 110

— for gilding on gypsum and
sinople, 172

— for securing matt surface for
oil painting, 141

Medium for preparing a wall for
oil painting, 142

— for spirit fresco, 132

Michel Angelo, 28

Minoan Palace at Cnossos, 1

Modern frescoes (accessible), 67,
68

Mordant for gilding on walls, 170

— for lines of gold and silver on
draperies, etc., 173

— for ornaments raised in plaster,
178, 174

Mordants for gilding, from Jehan
le Bégue, 168

— from a Bolognese MS., given
by Mrs. Merrifield, 170

Mount Athos, its paintings and
painters, described by M.
Didron, 155, 156, 157, 158,
159, 160

N
Nelli, Ottaviano, 25

Oo

Oil of wax, to prepare, 116 (note)

Ornaments in relief, 76

Oil aa for mural painting,
13

 

INDEX

P

Paillot de Montabert’s directions
for distemper, 81, 82

Painters in the Emilia in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries,
11, 12

— in France in the eleventh
century, 10, 11

-— Greek of antiquity, 4, 5

— of Padua and Bologna, of the
thirteenth century, 13, 14

=e the time of Charlemagne,

8
?

Painting in’ wax medium by
Parmesan painter, 124

Paintings at Cnossos, 1

— at Lanuvium, 3

— executed in the fifth century
at Milan, 7

——in the sixth century at
Monza and Padua, 7

——jin the eighth century at
Rome, 7

— of the tenth century in France
and Italy, 8

—of the eleventh century at
Majori, Rome, and Verona,
15

— of the thirteenth century at
Subiaco, 14, 15

—of the Bolognese school, 26,
33

— of the Florentine school, 16,
17, 18, 21, 22, 28, 24, 27, 28

— of the Milanese school, 30

— of the Paduan school, 20, 26

— of the Sienese school, 19

— of the Umbrian school, 25, 28

— of the Venetian school, 32, 33

Perugino, Pietro, 25

Piero dei Franceschi, 23, 24

Pinturricchio, 25, 26

Pliny’s details on Greek wall-
painting, 2, 3

Pompeian wall-paintings, 4
INDEX

Pompeian wall- paintings, Otto
Donner’s opinion as to their
being in fresco, 4

— — — Winckelmann’s opinion
as to their being in fresco, 4

Pordenone, Giovanni Antonio, 32

Precautions required in gilding,
169

Preparation of colours for encaus-
tic, 114

— of lime (Genoa), 45

— of lime (German), 40

— of the wall (from Vitruvius),
37, 40, 48

— — — German, 41, 44, 45

— — — (Keim’s process), 89, 90,
91, 92, 93

— — — modern Italian, 38

— —— (Professor Church) 45,
46

— of wall at S. Vincent de Paul,
Paris, 118, 119, 120, 121

—of the wall for spirit fresco,
181, 182, 133

Process of encaustic used at
Munich, 122, 123

— of painting spirit fresco, 134

Professor Church’s alternative
medium for spirit fresco, 135

Punches for stamping patterns on
gilded surfaces, 175

R

Raffaelle and his pupils, 28, 29
Romanino, Girolamo, 32
Romano, Giulio, 29

Ss

Sacro Speco, Subiaco, thirteenth-
century paintings, 14, 15

8. Angelo in Formis, near Capua,
9, 10

 

179

8. Francesco at Assisi, Cimabue’s
paintings there, 16

—— paintings by Cimabue’s

upils, 16

8. Piero in Grado, near Pisa, 8

Signorelli, Luca, 24

Simone de Martino of Siena, 19

Sodoma, 31

Spirit fresco, Gambier Parry’s
process, 130

Statute of the Art of Painters,
Siena, 1355, 150, 151

Subiaco, paintings at the Sacro
Speco, 14, 15

T

Tempera, 69

— tests for
Church), 70

— various mediums for, 69, 70,
71, 72, 73

Tiepolo, 33

To lay on gold, 168, 169

To make ‘‘caseum” for cheese
tempera, 174

To make a mordant for gilding on
walls, 170

‘*Tombe Golini,” near Orvieto, 2

Training of a decorative painter
in Germany (Professor Max
Koch), 153, 154, 155

Transparent paintings on cloth,
of the fourteenth century,
74, 75

Tyrian purple, 80 (note), 83, 84

size (Professor

U

Use of a wax medium in medieval
times, 111

Use of a wax medium in finishing
stuccoes in Milan, 111, 112
180 INDEX

Vv Water-glass or silicate of potash
process, 87, 88
Vermilion, receipt for preparing | Wax painting, Byzantine receipt
for fresco, 51 from Didron, 166
Veronese, Paolo, 32, 33 Wax varnish for water-colour
paintings (de Montabert), 117

WwW
Z

Walls prepared by glueing cloth
on them and then laying a | Zingaro, paintings at Naples by
tempera ground, 75 him, 27

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