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A word as to the pigments : No organic color, such as lake, is ad- missible. The white used is zinc white, which combines chemically with the water-glass. The colors should be ground as fine as possi- ble. They undergo a slight change by fixing, but acquire their nor- mal tone in time. Cobalt appears much brighter, and light ochre much darker, and are, therefore, not recommended. The colors when fixed do not shine. Maclise, who made many experiments with water-glass both in England and Germany, and who gained much information from Kaulbach and other practitioners, says that the porosity of the plas- ter does not necessarily result from the coarseness of the sand, and was assured by the artists most conversant with stereoehromy that any remarkable coarseness of the surface was by no means indispen- sable for insuring the absorption of the water-glass. The roughness or smoothness of the ground was entirely optional. They also stated, in disagreement with the recommendations of the discoverer, that it was not Decessary to saturate the plaster with the water-glass pre- viously to painting on it, but that a final fixation of the picture with the fluid sufficed. Such plaster as is used for buon fresco they deemed to be sound enough in itself ; and on a ground of this nature, Maclise saw the artists work in Berlin. But it should be smoothed with a wooden float, and not rubbed with an iron trowel, as in fresco, a pro- cess that brings the lime to the surface, rendering it non-absorbent, and, consequently, subjecting the colors to the risk of flaking. The process being new, was at first necessarily tentative. Addi- tional experiments revealed new facts or modified old ones. In a let- ter dated September 14, 1860, Pettenkofer thinks that the potash water-glass is quite safe, and less liable to effloresce than the soda water-glass. In another letter he recommends a ground of Portland cement. The first coat is composed of three jiarts of coarse sand and one part of cement. This surface, when still fresh, is covered with a thin coat of a finer mixture — three parts of fine sand to one of cement — from one to two-twelfths of an inch. When the upper layer has sufficiently sucked, sand is thrown against it. After a quarter of an hour the sand is removed with a sharp-edged iron ruler, together with the crust of the mortar. Then more sand is thrown against the surface, which, when dry, is sprinkled with a sat- urated solution of carbonate of ammonia in water. Kaulbach 114 MURAL PAINTING, painted a stereoehromic picture on a ground of Portland cement and sand in the Dominican Monastery at Nuremberg. Maclise tried it, but apparently did not like it. It will be seen that the original process, as invented by Fuchs, has been much modified in practice. It is not impossible that to some of these modifications may be attributed the WATER-GLASS. 115 partial failure of the water-glass process to fulfil its liigli promise. Maclise recommends several colors of the organic class prohibited by F uchs ; but I should think that the latter was in the right. THE KEIM PROCESS. This “is based on the stereochrome process of Sclilotthauer and Fuchs, differing, however, from that in such important particulars as to constitute, practical!}', an entirely new process in itself. In the year 1818, Professor Sclilotthauer, of the Munich Academy, who had for some time been engaged in experiments with a view to discover- ing some permanent process for mural paintings, turned his attention to the substance known as water-glass (silicate of sodium), the inven- tion of the chemist Fuchs. The result was the adoption of the stereo- chrome process. In this process the surface to be painted on con- sisted of an ordinary mortar of lime and sand, impregnated with water-glass. Upon this surface the painting was executed in water- color, and was then fixed by water-glass. ... In practice, it soon became evident that a simple spraying of water-glass, applied to hete- rogeneous pigments, without reference to their peculiar properties as regards chemical composition, cohesive capability, etc., was not sufficient to insure their permanence ; certain colors in particular, as ultramarine, umber, and black, were observed to be always the first to detach themselves, in the form of powder, or by scaling off from the painting, thus pointing to the fact that their destruction was not owing to any accidental defect in the manner of their application, but to some radical unsuitability arising from the chemical conditions of the process.” It would be unjust to the memory of Fuchs, not to state that the painters often neglected to follow his precepts. He particularly em- phasized the necessity of saturating the plaster ground with water- glass; but neither Maclise nor the German artists whom he con- sulted deemed it necessary to follow this injunction. It is not impos- sible that their neglect mav have had something to do with the ultimate decay of the pictures ; unfortunately, there are no data on which to base an opinion. The exact nature of the grounds on which the pictures were painted, as well as their actual condition should be precisely known in order to come to an authoritative conclusion. Fuchs, moreover, attributing the failures, that were at first frequently made, to the upper layer of plaster, recommended as a substitute the water-glass cement, previously described. This he deemed more reli- able than the plaster ; yet it does not appear to have been used as a 116 MURAL PAINTING. ground for mural paintings. Again : lie insists that the meagre colors, such as black — the very colors that “ were observed to be al- ways the first to detach themselves ” — require more water-glass, which should be added with a fine brush. He even thinks it would be well the mix the water-glass with such colors. Perhaps this injunction, too, was violated. 1 Keim suggests several innovations in the preparation of the wall. If this be already covered with plaster, it will serve for the first coat, provided it be sound and dry. If not, the bricks must be laid bare, and the plaster between them picked out to a depth of about three- fourths of an inch. On this surface, a thin squirting is cast, com- posed as follows : — 4 parts of coarse quartz sand, infusorial earth and powdered marble, mixed in certain proportions (?) to 1 part of quick-lime, slaked with distilled water. Upon this squirting-cast follows plaster of the ordinary consist' ence, and composed of the same ingredients. On this, again, a third or painting ground is laid, not exceeding from one-eighth to one-quar- ter of an inch in thickness. This last coat is composed of : 8 parts of the finest white quartz sand, marble-sand artifi- cially prepared, and free from dust, marble meal and in- fusorial earth in the proper proportions (?) to 1 part quick-lime slaked with distilled water. For works executed on the exterior of buildings, pumice-sand is recommended in addition to the other ingredients. A wall thus pre- pared “ presents so hard a surface as to admit of sparks being struck from it with a steel.” Only distilled or filtered rain-water should be used in this process ; for should the water contain lime it would af- fect the fixing-solution to the prejudice of the painting. When the plaster is thoroughly dry, it is treated to a solution of hydro-fluo-silicic acid, to remove the thin crust of carbonate of lime. It is then saturated with two applications of potash water-glass di- luted with distilled water, and when dry is ready for painting. The 1 Mr. Otto Grundmann, Instructor in the School of Drawing and Painting. Bos- ton Museum of Fine Arts, worked for some time in water-giass, with Godlried Gutfens and Jan Swerts of Antwerp, in the Church of St. Nicholas, Ypres, about nine years ago. They did not prepare the plaster ground with water- glass, nor did he think that these mural paintings ha t deteriorated. The same artists had executed other works in tvater-glass, and were well satisfied with the process. Mr. Grundmann says, that “blacks and blues are treated like other colors, and that a second coat of water-glass may be used [over the whole pic- ture] if the first should not be enough.” He saw the works of Kaulbach.in water- glass at the National Gallery of Berlin. The * History of the Reformation ’ was overspread with cracks, not long plaster cracks, but short cracks, such as are de- veloped on oil paintings. It had not, however, grown dark. The exposed fres- cos on the outer walls had greatly suffered. WATER-GLASS. 117 grain may be coarse or smooth according to the artists’ taste ; but the smoother the ground, the less absorbent it is, and the more diffi- cult the fixing. If desired, the ground may be prepared in any tone, and all those colors may be used that are suitable for the stereo- chrome process. These are, for the most part, the natural earths and metallic oxides. Every color should remain chemically unaffected by the ground, by the other colors in contact with it, or by the fixing material. “ To meet this end, the colors in this process are treated beforehand with alkaline solutions (of potash or ammonia), to antici- pate any change of hue which might result from the use of the alka- line liquids which form the fixative. In addition to this, they are further prepared with certain other substances, such as oxide of zinc, carbonate of baryta, felspar, powdered glass, etc., as required by the peculiar properties of each, in order to obviate any other danger of chemical change taking place. . . . From the various nature of the properties possessed by some of the pigments, it was found that their capacity for absorbing the alkaline silicate with which they were fixed varied very greatly. There was also a marked difference in the degree of mechanical cohesive capacity, which they respectively possessed. To equalize them in these respects, without which the fixing would have been a work of great difficulty and uncertainty, alumina, magnesia and hydrate of silica were added as required. The result was that all the colors are equally acted upon by the fixing so- lution, and all attain an equal degree of durability after fixing, both as regards the mechanical and chemical action of this process upon them. In the year 1878, a large mural painting was executed by this process on the exterior of the parish church at Eichelberg, near Regensburg. Before its completion, and therefore before any of the fixing solution had been applied to it, it was drenched by a heavy storm of rain. Contrary to anticipation, it was found that the paint- ing, so far from being in any degree washed away, had held perfectly firm, and even in some places seemed to be as hard as if already fixed. Mr. Keim’s explanation of this unexpected result, which he subsequently confirmed by experiments, was that a chemical cohesion li'ad already taken place by the action of the alkali, set free in the mortar, upon the silicates in the pigments.” The preparation of the colors and the fixing-glass is apparently a complicated process, and demands the services of an expert. But the artist would be freed from all such complications, and for him the process would be very simple. He can paint thinly or with impasto, and retouch ad libitum. It is to be observed, however, that 113 MURAL PAINTING. pigments applied thinly can be more securely fixed than impasto, and are therefore likely to be more durable. (But impasto is also more liable to perish in the other processes, not to mention its tendency to collect dust. Yet at times it is too effective to be discarded, especially in combination with rich materials.) The palettes are constructed with small pans to hold the colors, of which the residue, at the end of the day’s work, may either be replaced in the bottle or kept moist in the pan with distilled water. “ The last stage in the process is the work of fixing. In the ster- eochrome process the fixing medium employed was silicate of potash, thoroughly saturated with silica, in combination with sufficient sodic silicate to prevent it from opalescing. The chief defect of this lay in the fact that it was often apt to produce spots upon the painting. Mr. Keim has substituted silicate of potash, treated with caustic am- monia and caustic potash. The action of the carbonic acid in the atmosphere and in the water during the process leads to the forma- tion cf carbonated alkali, which makes its way to the surface, and would form, when dry, a whitish film over the painting. To obviate this danger, as well as to expedite the process of converting the sili- cate of potash, with the basic oxides existing in the substance of the painting, into silicate, the fixing solution is heated further with car- bonate 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 volatilizes, and carbonate of potash is formed, which is easily removed by washing, after the completion of the fix- ing. The fixing solution is employed hot, with the advantage of obtain- ing a quicker and more perfect formation of silicate than was pos- sible in the stereochroine process, where the solution was applied cold. The effect of the fixative as it sinks into the ground, which has already absorbed the pigments, is to convert the painting into a veritable casting, uniting with colors and ground in one hard, homo- geneous mass of artificial stone. The finished painting has proved itself impervious to all tests. It will admit of any acid, even in a concentrated form, being poured over it (save, of course, hydrofluoric acid).” It has other applications than that of mural painting. For house-painting it is claimed that it would last as long as the house itself, only needing an occasional scrubbing; it would also form an excellent protection against damp. Taking its durability into con- sideration, it is not more expensive than other systems . 1 ’ Condit, referring as a house-painter to certain ready-mixed pigments, of which water-glass (silicate of soda) is one of the ingredients, says that he “ has WATER-GLASS. 119 There is much in the preceding paragraph, where comparisons are instituted between the Keim and Fuchs processes, to which excep- tion may be taken. As we have seen, the latter did not recommend the potash water-glass for painting. This was an innovation intro- duced probably after the death of Fuchs (1856); for Prof. Petten- kofer recommends it as a substitute for the soda and double water- glass (in 1860) “ which is apt to come up to the surface of the painting.” From the Frescos by Julius Schnorr, in the Royal Palace, Munich. (An unobjectionable efflorescence, according to Fuchs, and easily re- moved.) Pettenkofer also counsels the use of caustic potash with the water-glass for fixing, in the proportion of one to fifteen, except for black, cobalt, and chrome red. The fixing solution may have been “applied cold in the stereochrome process,” but contrary to the recommendation of Fuchs, who is very explicit with regard to the heating. Though the Keim is undoubtedly an improvement over the earlier processes, yet it evidently has not been compared with that of Fuchs, but with a less laborious one — and probably less secure — seen such a paint in nearly perfect condition after tern years, a portion protected by a building being in an absolutely perfect condition, with a tino lustre. Some of the paint, however (probably too little oil), would crack and peel in the worst manner, the paint curling like a dried leaf. This, I am told by an old painter who has used these paints for ten years, it was specially and decidedly prone to do, if (1) any break, however sma 1, occurred, the water seemingly shelling it off, either directly or by expanding the wood ; (2) if placed over or under a lead and oil paint. We have, probably, here one of the best illustrations of the theory and fault of a good paint. It is hard and therefore durable, preventing even white lead from ‘ chalking’ for nearly a dozen years. But as it contains too much hardening substance for its little amount of oil, it is too hard, has no elas- ticity, and^cracks badly;. moreover, the oil does not penetrate the wood (water- glass goes into the wood), and, by reason of this and the small elasticity, destruc- tion is rapid and fatal, whenever it begins, as it may soon.” Such pigments and their application differ widely from the pure water-glass process; but even the behavior of these hybrids is not without its lesson. 120 MURAL PAINTING. substituted by impatient practitioners. This is worth noting, as in- deed is everything bearing on the decay or preservation of mural paintings. It is to be deplored that there is no detailed, authoritative, and accessible statement of the actual condition of all the important water-glass paintings executed thirty or forty years ago. Very likely many of them are still sound. Though the painter may, and probably must, take much of the above on faith, yet a presentation of the principle of water-glass has been necessary, in order that he (or the architect) may judge of its applicability as a decorative medium. In the second paper, I took occasion to doubt its durability when applied to the exterior of build- ings, basing my doubts on the behavior of pigments exposed to sun and weather influences. Possibly these doubts are ill-founded. The principles on which the process is based seem logical, and the im- proved Keim method may prove far more durable in exposed situa- tions than others that have been found wanting. Durability is but a relative term. No human product is everlasting. Buildings them- selves are comparatively short-lived. A painting may fairly be called durable that co-exists with the wall it decorates. There is much to recommend the process as a medium for interior decoration, if half that is claimed for it by men of repute be true. Given the materials, it is simple and direct ; so simple that any mural painter could quickly master its technicalities. Like fiesco, it is without gloss, though probably less luminous. It apparently pos- sesses ail the requisites for monumental painting on the wall. CHAPTER Xn. THE EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS OF THE MURAL PAINTER. Study for Paul Baudry’s Ceiling, ‘The Glorification of the Law.' AYING briefly reviewed the technics of mural painting, it will now be relevant to consider the education of the painter and his essential qualifications. Perhaps there is no more fruitful method of procedure than to analyze the training of the Renaissance giants, and to institute a few salutary comparisons between their development and that of modern men — especially of our compat. riots. From what has already been expressed in these pages, the reader has doubtless drawn many pregnant deductions for himself; but, at the cost of repetition — for only by persistent re-iteration can we ever be heard — certain statements must be made. Much has been written, both tentatively and authoritatively, on the political, physical, and ethical conditions that are essential to the evolution of an artist. Some have maintained that art can thrive only within specified degrees of latitude and longitude. Some have defined the 122 MURAL PAINTING. political conditions most favorable to its growth. Of these a few have stoutly affirmed that it must be fertilized by despotism — as if despotism could nourish anything necessarily so free and spontane- ous as art 1 Others have attributed its triumphs to religious zeal. Doubtless race, climate, government, and religion enter, as ingre- dients, that subtle compound called art; but in just what proportions it would be impossible to state with accuracy. While we know that certain nationalities have shown a marvelous facility and disposition for the arts, while it is self-evident that under certain physical influ- ences the practice of art is out of the question, yet it would be very unsafe to predicate what are the fittest environments for the artistic growth of civilized nations, especially in these days when modern inventions are rapidly levelling all the barriers that formerly isolated them. Eugene Muntz writes, 1 “In order to prosper, the arts exact a combination of circumstances the most complex, and no rigorous correlation can be established between moral, religious, or political development, and artistic production. The latter assuredly will always bear the impress of its surroundings, but its intrinsic value will result from very different causes. There are great nations, like England, that have never been able to form an indigenous school, and there are great epochs, like the French Revolution, that have not witnessed the birth of a single chef-d’oeuvre.” It is frequently said that America is yet too callow to evolve an art. I do not believe it. If anything were to interfere with our artistic growth it would be the acceptance of so baneful and fatal- istic a theory. Nothing is more depressing to the artist than to be told that his entourage precludes the realization of his dreams. When man is pioneering in the primeval forests he has neither such dreams nor the power to realize them. But the pioneering epoch was passed more than two centuries ago in some of our communities, com- munities that were established by the offspring of an old civilization. The Greek colonists of Magna Grecia produced artistic works of almost equal merit with those of the mother country ; and at that time things marched slowly. Ages were then required for the evolution of a nation or an art ; but recent inventions have unconscionably dis- arranged the time-table of the sages. Our older communities have begotten children that in a few decades have grown prodigiously. As yet they are somewhat crude and undeveloped, but ambitious and receptive. Far be it from me to nullify all that has just been said 1 Etudes sur I’Histoire de la Pienture , etc., Paris, 1886. THE EDUCATION OF THE MURAL PAINTER. 123 about the inscrutability of the mysteries that generate an atmos- phere congenial to art, by effusively predicting a brilliant artistic career for America ; but I certainly wish to demolish the counter- proposition. If freedom, youth, energy, wealth, amalgamation of race, variety of climate, and a rare eagerness to learn from others, argue anything, it is surely the life, not the death of art. The com- mercial spirit may at times offend, but it supplies the sinews of war, as it were, those boundless opportunities so stimulating and necessary to the production of great works. Commerce did much for the arts both in Venice and Florence. However widely opinions may differ as to the relative merits of the modern educational systems, they must be comparatively unani- mous as to their inferiority to those of Mediaeval or Renaissance times. Then the relations between master and pupil, as has been previously shown, were exceedingly intimate, the latter frequently living as well as working with the former, beginning at the foot of the ladder and working his way up to the topmost rung — if there was anything in him — passing through the successive mechanical and aesthetic stages, from the grinding of colors to collaboration with the master on an important easel or mural painting. The oft-quoted but precise words of Cennini — from which I have already drawn — give such a definite idea of the pupil’s obligations that their inser- tion at length will be justified. “Know, that you cannot learn to paint in less time than that which I shall name to you. In the first place you must study drawing for at least one year; then you must remain with a master at the workshop for the space of six years, at least, that you may learn all the parts and members of the art — to gri-nd colors, to boil down glues, to grind plaster, to acquire the prac- tice of laying grounds on pictures, to work in relief, and to scrape the surface and to gild; afterwards to practice coloring, to adorn with mordants, paint cloths of gold, and paint on walls, for six more years — drawing without intermission on holydavs and workdays. And by this means you will acquire great experience. If you do otherwise you will never attain perfection. There are many who say that 3'ou may learn the art without the assistance of a master. Do not believe them; let this work be an example to you, studying it day and night. And if you do not study under some master, you will never be fit for anything ; nor will you be able to show your face among the masters.” Again, he says, “ Now then, you who, possess- ing noble minds, are lovers of this accomplishment, and who stud}" the arts in general, adorn yourselves first with this vesture — namely, 124 MURAL PAINTING. love, reverence, obedience, and perseverence.” Such was the normal curriculum in Italyi and it will be seen that it strongly resembles that of Byzantium as described in a previous chapter. It was an admirable common-sense system of education, and one that is more or less closely followed to-day by would-be lawyers, soldiers, archi- tects, mechanics — by the students of every profession, except those of art. The pupil left the atelier thoroughly equipped. He was well- versed both in the material part of his art and in the science of pic- ture-making according to the lights of his master. For some years he painted in the latter’s style. The idea of what we call originality never entered his head — and there is really but very little scope for originality without lawlessness. He was quite content could he slightly improve on some motif of a predecessor. Raphael’s Sposalizio was inspired by Perugino’s, but greatly surpassed it. After making sev- eral' sketches for his Entombment , he finally adopted Mantegna’s scheme, impregnating it with his exquisite personality. Small won- der is it that such works, the slow accretions of time and experience, were very beautiful. (It was just so in the days of the Greeks. A man died happy could he improve a moulding or a capital.) While executing his maiden commissions, the young artist kept his eyes open, drew from the paintings and seulptures of accredited masters, and traveled when his circumstances permitted. If he were intelli- gent and receptive he gradually emancipated himself from his mas- ter’s style, as will every artist of ability sooner or later. The man who fears to be enslaved by his instructor, while following his behests, must be made of poor stuff. His artistic parentage may be revealed in the products of his brush or chisel, but why should he be ashamed of it ? Do not our ver}' faces betray our origin ? Are we impeded in the race for life bv our inherited experience ? Do we not rather deem it so much gain, well pleased if we may add thereto our mite for the benefit of posterity? And if even this cannot be accomplished we must bear in mind that the world has need of qualified, non-creative subordinates. When art moves in well-defined channels its course is smooth and prosperous. The men of old had a definite purpose, knew whither they would go, and went there by the most direct route. To them the Renaissance was a tonic, not an irritant. The “ Second Birth,” the great “Awaken- ing ” meant liberty, not riot. The treasures of antiquity exalted, but did not intoxicate them; were used, not abused. The stream did not overflow ; for its banks were high and solid, the influx gradual and controllable. But suppose the dikes had been less secure, and 1 Slightly modified, but not essentially, in the ‘atter half of the fifteenth cen- tury when men lived faster. THE EDUCATION OF THE MURAL PAINTER. 125 that tributaries from Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Japan, Greece, Byzan tium, Arabia, Spain, France, Germany, etc., had suddenly poured thei waters into the stream, what then ? Would the artists have checkei the torrent, or the torrent engulfed the artists? Something like this is happening here to-day. It was shown in chapter X. that the transition from the easel-picture to the wall was an easy matter for the Renaissance artist. All their works were in the “grand style/’ whether on paper, panel, canvas, or plaster ; so that as far as invention and design were concerned, scarcely any change was necessitated by their passage from the studio to the staging. Different technical conditions naturally exacted variations of technique, but not of conception. The line was occasionally and unobtrusively used — though much less than is com- monly supposed — to define objects remote from the spectator, and to detach them from their environments. It was rarely apparent, as a line, in the best days. The figures and draperies were beautifully modelled (“ finished,” the layman would say,) and broadly, withal. Breadth does not mean, as some suppose, dash and coarseness ; it means simplicity, suppression cf the meaningless, emphasis of the broad and expressive masses at the expense of accidental, insignifi- cant and belittling detail. The astonishing part of Giotto’s, Ra- phael’s, and Michael Angelo’s mural work — and in fact that of all the great frescoers — is that it looks well both near and far off. Every painter knows how difficult it is to effect this result, or, in the slang of the studio, to make a refined piece of work “hold ” at a distance. The execution of the nude on the Sistine Vault is perfection — broad and careful, not in the least coarse or slovenly. The outlines, without being hard, are firm and eloquent, so that there is absolutely no doubt about the contour of a figure . 1 The same might be said of a hundred or more frescos of that epoch. In later, decadent days the work grew coarser, more summary and effective, and more scenic. Bravura took the place of heroic delineation. Modern decorators frequently paint too coarsely in the expectation that distance will 1 Wilson, who had special facilities for examining the vault of the Sistine, says that these frescos excite admiration “ particularly when observed from-a distance of a few feet.” “It might be thought that the vigorous draughtsman with some tendency to exaggeration of form, might exhibit a similar disposi- tion in the use of the brush, but he painted in the soft Tuscan manner so much in contrast with his forcible drawing.” “ The heads and faces were painted with loving care and attention, the features being clearly outlined with dark, fine lines to insure distinctness when seen from a distance.” “ It was frequently Michael Augel.o's practice to include portions of the background in his day's work: he evidently did so to insure Softness of outline.” At an altitude of sixty feet the “fine lines ” were not noticeable, aud the cod tours, though clearly defin J, were not harsh. 12G MURAL PAINTING. mitigate the effect. Certainly, distance softens asperities, but the choice of handling should be guided rather by the degree of light than by the degree of distance. A blaze of light will reveal any undue rudeness of execution at a very considerable distance. A coarse and vigorous treatment would be far more legitimate and agreeable on a neighboring obscure wall than on a strongly-lighted one, many times more distant. These facts are strikingly exempli- fied on the stage. Every frequenter of the theatre, not purblind, must have been alternately disgusted and amused by the injudicious and stupid, though generous, application of cosmetics to the features of the corps de ballet , choruses, and supernumeraries (not to men- tion the superior officers); disgusted, because the effect under the tell-tale glare of gas and electricity is positively loathsome ; amused, because these poor receptacles of pigments fancy, like the ostrich, with his head in the sand, that “ nobody sees.” Could they but imi- tate that long and strong-legged bird in deed as well as thought! Buffoons and clowns, failing to recognize the revelations of light, revolt oftener than they amuse the discriminating portion of their audiences. To return once more to the Renaissance artist. We have noticed the community of style between his mural and easel work. The dif- ference in technique was conquered in the atelier. Wall-painting was not only practised, but practised under the eye of the master, and subsequent collaboration gave the necessary confidence. Thus the pupil thoroughly solved the material mysteries of the wall. Mural painting presupposes a certain decorative proficiency and knowledge of architectural forms. These, too, the tyro acquired in the atelier. And here is another bond of union between their easel and wall pictures. Both teem with architectural and decorative motives. The Renaissance painters revelled in the suggestions of antiquity, and evolved countless combinations of column, frieze, pilaster, arch, arabesque, and garland from their inexhaustible fecundity. There was but one style of architecture — that derived from Rome — and they played with it in the full exuberance of their Italian facility. The functions of painter and architect were fre- quently interchangeable, and, as a result, their paintings were strongly imbued with the architectural feeling for structural harmony, and their architecture with a pictorial feeling for ornament. Their field was limited by definite bounds, and they could easily cover it. In contrasting the training of the modern artist with that of ihe Renaissance, it is not my purpose to follow his career step by step, THE EDUCATION OF THE MURAL PAINTER. 127 but merely to signalize certain significant variations. No one for a moment will suppose that any training however elaborate, can ever supply the deficiencies of nature. From childhood we have been told that the artist is born. This idea is so deeply rooted, that as a corollary to it, many illogieally believe in the laisser alter system of ed- ucation, i. e., no education at all. It would be irrelevant to discuss here whether such a system could produce an accomplished land- scape, or still-life painter, but I strenuously hold that it can never produce a figure, much less a mural painter. Monumental work must be grammatical. The phenomenal success of men like Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, or Rubens must be attributed in a great measure to the exact equilibrium maintained between their invention and execution. The predominance of the former marks the amateur; of the latter the professional hack. The curriculum of the mural painter is identical with that of the easel-picture painter, but must be supplemented with other exercises. Both should be thoroughly versed in the chemistry of their craft (which they are not) ; but be- sides the normally prescribed studies, the mural painter should be thoroughly conversant with architectural and decorative forms, as well as with all the material conditions that concern his department. In penning these lines, the American student is uppermost in my thoughts, though much that is here written is equally applicable to students across the seas. There are, however, unpretending schools in foreign lands, especially in Italy, that fulfil many of their techni- cal duties to the would-be mural painter, as is evinced by the mechan- ical excellence of numerous monumental works . * 1 Very different with us are the relations between master and pupil, than they were in Cennini’s day. Instead -of an authority almost pa- ternal on the one hand, filial obedience on the other, and an intimacy quite equal to that of kinship on both, there are ill-defined connec- tions of the loosest description. Too frequently self-assertion and distrust on the part of the pupil are met by the master’s indifference. This is a logical result of the temporariness of their contract. Pupils run after a teacher till fashion ousts him, and then follow the fashion. Constant change of master is exceedingly detrimental, especially in J I can personally attest the excellent mechanical results of the instruction at the little school of Siena, which has doubtless its counterparts in other towns. I saw several of the advanced pupils practising on the wall of a little chapel in the Campo Santo, wher*-their professor was frescoing. Owing to his courtesy, as already stated, I was permitted to experiment with them. Maccari, a grad- uate of the school, painted some first-rate frescos in the Sud rio at Rome, though less transparent, perhaps, than the old work. I refer purely to tech- nique. We know that Italian art is not what it was, though by no meaus so con- temptible as many would have us believe. 128 MURAL PAINTING. the earlier stages of development. Every new pedagogue lias always something new to preach, and were the novelty that comes with every change the desideratum, the pupil would remain a pupil till death in- tervened. The master should be»chosen in the first place with judg- ment and under advice; then liis beneficent counsels should be al- lowed full time to bear fruit. When the foundation of his education has been solidly laid, the tyro will be less distracted by seeing and hearing strange things. The superstructure may be greatly embel- lished by precious fragments culled here and there. How the assim- ilative Raphael profited by the examples of Leonardo, Michael An- gelo, Fra Bartolommeo and others in his first free years ! Yet such influences might have only distracted him, and proved anything but beneficial when under the tutelage of Perugino. A young pupil is not capable of judging for himself, and, if a free agent, will change instructors with the seasons. There is little analogy between the dis- cipline of our methodical professional schools and colleges, which turn out excellent material, and the elastic regulations of our anoma- lous art schools, which may be entered without preliminary require- ments, and for a brief or protracted period. Few of the latter have any real hold on their pupils. The private ateliers are scarcely worth mentioning ; they are chiefly recruited from the amateurs, and their whole tenor is unprofessional. It is the misfortune of many able artists that they are driven by necessity to take pupils without discrimination. The public or quasi-public schools have an irresisti- ble attraction to the serious pupil in this, as in other countries ; for centralization is the tendency of the day, and the greater the pity, since the fierce rivalry of the private ateliers is a wholesome stimu- lant to pupil and art, saving both from a dreary, official monotony. But while it is true that there is a general tendency to uniformity of method, to the foundation of large central schools moulded on a com- mon model, and to the unintentional suppression of the private ate- lier, within those establishments there is anything but unity. Art schools differ so radically from other schools that there can be but little analogy between their respective polities. Discipline in both is essen- tial, in order to inculcate the means of artistic or literary expression. But here the analogy ceases. The range of studies in the latter is so varied, that specialists are needed to interpret them, even did a limited number of pupils permit the supremacy of one instructor. From the very diversity of their specialties, these separate units work in harmony and form an homogeneous whole, either under the control of an indi- vidual, or body of men who give it the necessary stability. Though this Minerve elevant le Genie vers I’Empyree ’ (Drawing in black and white for a Ceiling) by Prud’hon (1760-1825) THE EDUCATION OF THE MURAL PAINTER. 129 polity obtains in a less degree in our art schools, nevertheless it obtains, with a strong tendency to develop in the same direction. But in no de- partment of human culture is the need of a dominating personality so imperative as in aesthetics. There should be no such thing as un- belief for the pupil in the earlier stages of his evolution, faith and enthusiasm being as essential to him as to the catechumen; without them consistent progress would be impossible, for there would be nothing to build upon. Consequently in matters of taste, and espec- ially of interpretation, there should be but one supreme authority for the beginner. Is this generally the case? By no means; for we have one master for the life, another for the portrait, a third for the antique — purely arbitrary divisions of one and the same thing. (Or, perhaps, the pupil to benefit, as he fancies, by the advice of many, and to extract the little good lie may find in each, goes to one day- school and another night-school.) To work in unison the masters must be offshoots from the same parent stem ; but too often they hold antagonistic doctrines, which, however interesting and sound they may be per se, when preached in concert craze the poor pu- pil, who has not always the power to discriminate between differ- ences that arc real, and those that are only apparent. Nothing but doubt and perplexity can result from such conflicting tenets. Certain auxiliary studies, involving neither taste nor interpretation, as anatomy, perspective and the like, may be advantageously pursued with specialists; but such studies only. To make matters still worse these conflicting elements are often under the control not of one strong, confident character, who might give unity to a body even so hetero- geneous, but of a committee (what an innate love we have to govern by committees !) which is often made up of conflicting elements, and not infrequently recruited from laymen, who, however conscientious they may be, are generally without convictions, and hence timid. So that to the evil naturally resulting from such a government is added a general feeling of instability and temporariness that unsettles and cools both instructor and pupil. Another, and perhaps the greatest objection to the public-school system (and I must denominate all schools public that are not abso- lutely under the control of the artist-instructor, even though a fee be exacted), is the perfunctory nature of the relations between teacher and taught. No man, much less an artist, can advantageously teach those who are not in sympathy with him. He is congealed at once. No pupil can profit by the counsels of a master whom he. disapproves — and young America does not keep his disapprobation in the back- 130 MURAL PAINTING. ground. The very traits that have raised him high in some pursuits, have retarded him in the fine arts, where the discipline is lax, and the restraints insignificant. There is much in art that is the result of accumulated experience, and must be learned from the experi- enced, a fact very difficult for the scholar to comprehend. He is far too prone, owing to the lack of sympathy and confidence be- tween himself and master, to be led by the few hectoring pupils that are found in every school-room, rather than by his preceptor. These conclusions may seem harsh and unflattering, but if true, why con- ceal them? The personal experience of many years as an instructor in a semi-public school, and of several in an atelier — not to mention the experience as a pupil — has forced me to them. Yet candor and affection compel me to state that I have met with a number of ardent and intelligent exceptions. The experience of others may not tail}' with my own ; but these pages do not pretend to infallibility ; and as knowledge is the result of all experience, I contribute my own, trust- ing that the complement may be forthcoming. This state of things is not peculiar to our own country. I should be very reluctant to disparage the French system of education, either on my own testi- mony, or on that of my compatriots ; yet the following significant words from an eulogistic review 1 of Hippolyte Flandrin’s mural paintings in Saint-Germain des Pres, 2 though published in 1862, cer- tainly corroborate what I saw for myself a decade later, and what has very recently been reported to me by reliable students. “ No more self- denial, no more modesty on the part of the pupils, no more devotion on the part of the masters ; or rather there are no more masters and no more pupils. In vain f look for schools of painting; since we must be careful not to designate by such a name those school-rooms in which a greater or less number of young people are gathered about a sorry model, that they dare to call nature. There is no in- struction worthy of a master in such places, no initiative, no action on the mind of the pupils, no community of work among them, no true affection, frequently, even, no sympathy in their way of seeing. There is a cold professor who passes among indifferent pupils doling out to them from time to time some common-place advice. Where are the great intellects about which other intellects, eager to learn, formerly clustered ? Where is the benevolent guardianship of former 1 A. Gruver, Gazette des Beaux- Arts, Mars, 1862. See also, a brochure by M. H. Lecoq de Boisbaudran, entitled, Coup d’ceil sur V Enseignement des Beatix-Arts. Paris, 1872. 2 The medium used for these paintings was the huile cirS (oil and wax)inventod by Baron Taubenheim. THE EDUCATION OF THE MURAL PAINTER. 131 days? Where is the docility, the devotion, the loyalty, of the pu- pils? Where is that communion of principles and ideas that cre- ated great works ? The weak leave these pretended schools with a routine that soon chokes them, and from which the strong emanci- pate themselves with great difficulty. All await impatiently the hour of deliverance, happy moment when they can shake off the academic yoke, open an atelier, dub themselves masters in their turn, and avenge the wrongs done them by their former instructors on their future pupils. We forget too quickly that but a few chosen ones can raise themselves unaided into the higher spheres ; that the taste and intelligence requisite to follow and comprehend the evo- lutions of genius are already rare, and ought to satisfy the ambition of men of talent, and that there is danger of being overwhelmed in attempting the course of Phaethon. Yet never has the practice of art, never has cleverness been wider spread; and all is dispersing in vain smoke, all is at the discretion of caprice and fashion. Never was so much spent for such small and poor returns.” “But if there are no more private schools where brains ferment, where theories freely clash, and from which works are turned out with passion to uphold sound or unsound ideas, at least we have offi- cial instruction. The palace of the School of Fine Arts is one of the most splendid in our capitol ; there the reproductions of the chefs- d’oeuvre of all ages are pompously displayed, and it is impossible that with so many elements of instruction men of taste and scholarly artists should not be formed. Besides is it not inadmissible that in a country so completely administered, where the Government con- trols celebrated schools, in which it fits its youth for all the liberal professions, the law, engineering, the army, and medicine, there should not also be a school wherein architects, sculptors and painters are formed? That is inadmissible ; nevertheless, it is true. Official in- struction in the fine arts exists but nominally in France ; the walls of the school are admirably adorned, but within them the mind of the pupils remains empty. The professors — for there are professors, and very celebrated, too — . . . teach the scholars neither to sculp- ture nor to paint, still less to compose a group or a picture; all that doubtless counts as a mere accessory, and is learned perhaps outside. . . . There are, then, no more independent schools of painting in France, that is to say, there are no longer doctrines rallying around an illustrious master artists determined to work, fight, and give their lives for the defence and propagation of their ideas ; nor is there a public school where the State makes good the loss of individual force. . . . 132 MURAL PAINTING. Assuredly, ’tis a sweeter task to adorn a boudoir than to contribute to the majesty of a temple ; but as decorative painting has had its being in all ages, as it is and always should be the true painting for masters, it is evident that art cannot be too much encouraged in this direction.” Apropos of French instruction, I have heard competent authorities bitterly complain that pupils too frequently denied their real master — some nameless, unribboned, worthy man of the provinces, per- haps — and entered for a brief period the atelier of a Parisian nota- bility, merely to profit by his name and fame. How many artists — not from France alone — figure in dictionaries and catalogues as pu- pils of this or that celebrity, who would scarcely recognize them were they to meet ! Yet these same artists are well aware that they owe everything to masters more devoted, more efficient, but less widely known ; whose names, forsooth, must be suppressed, because they would make but dingy appendages to their own on the official list. The tails to their kites must be flexible, long, and sufficiently weighty to steer them upwards to success. Such denials render our cata- logues practically useless for educational inferences. Before dismissing this weighty question of the mutual attitude of master and pupil, a modern tendency very pertinent to it should be briefly noted, a tendency which Hamerton has emphasized in his comparison of the actual paternal and filial relations with those of the past, and that is the growing reluctance on the part of the parent — and I will add, master — to issue the word of command, trusting and preferring that the son — or pupil— may be prompted to the right by his own free impulse, or if to the wrong, that time and salutary ex- perience may mend and more than mend the error. This is partly due to the reaction from the stern and disciplinary past, and is partly the result of certain social and ethical revolutions that cannot be dis- cussed here. That this unwillingness to control the minor exists is very evident, and is not without its embarrassing consequences in the training of art students. In considering the qualifications of the modern artist for the wall, we must not ignore his accomplishments — his fine and subtle feeling for nature ; his marvellous faculty for rendering surfaces ; his power of synthesis, of summarily expressing in a few telling, loose, and studiedly vague strokes, life, and earth and air; his power of analy- sis, that enables him to interpret almost photographically the minute details of tangled reality ; his love for the effective picturesque ; his delight in open air — all these faculties and feelings have made him THE EDUCATION OF THE MURAL PAINTER. 133 a great landscape-painter, not as was stately Claude, with his formal arrangement of temple, tree, plain and mountain ; or Poussin, or Sal- vator, but as a free and unconventional lover of rusticity. It may be questioned whether the out-of-door feeling — la peinture de plein air — is a great gain; whether the essence of it, all that could be assimilated by art, was not utilized long ago by the Italian frescoists and the dross rejected ; whether many great men did not, and do not still, avowedly reject the whole of it on high artistic grounds ; yet whether these are facts or not, it may be safely averred that we are intimate with nature now as we never have been before, that our hori- zon is thereby vastly extended, and that our close and conscientious observation of man and his surroundings is a rectifying agent of inestimable value. The mischief is done when nature is made the. end, not the means, an error we are too prone to commit ; yet mis- takes and excesses, much as we may deplore and endeavor to avoid them, are the almost inevitable concomitants of all great revolutions. For our consolation let us bear in mind that epochs of realism have usually preceded still greater epochs of — I will not say idealism, for that word, first-rate though it be, is just now in disrepute — but of art. Something great will surely be the result of our daily friction with nature. By a closer study of it, Giotto, the great reformer ( 1276 - 1337 ), shattered the hieratic conventionalism of Byzantium, and regenerated an effete art, which, now ebbing with his stolid imitators, now calmly manifesting itself in the beatific but excep- tional inspiration of an Angelico ( 1387 - 1455 ), now rising again with artists who turned once more to Nature, such as Massaccio ( 1401 - 1428 ), Donatello ( 1386 - 1468 ), and the brothers Van Eyck in Germany (from 1366 to 1441 ), finally culminated in the glorious age _ of Leonardo, MichaeL. Angelo, Raphael and Titian. Who cannot re- member, on painted wall or panel, the sweet, pious, naive, every-day faces of winged angels (those of Benozzo Gozzoli [ 1420 - 1497 ?] for instance), that lend them that ineffable, childlike charm; or the life- like burghers, passive spectators of some great drama ; or the ani- mated busts of heroes and scholars, characterized even to ugliness ; or again, the spare legs and spider-like arms of a David ora Precursor? Yet all this realism was tempered by an inherited aptitude and respect for design and composition, as well as by a passion for the antique. Following this modified realism came the generation of the demi-gods. Never was there a nicer adjustment between the real and the ideal; and how difficult this adjustment! One step too far from the real — or rather the vulgar real — and there yawns the 134 MURAL TAINTING. ehasm of conventionalism, into which the successors of the demigods plunged. These god-like men give us the type rather than the individ- ual, except in the portrait (and even this is monumentally simplified) ; chosen, not haphazard forms ; nature, at her best, but always, always nature. However ideal the forms may be, they are founded on some suggestion, even though slight, from the real. One has only to look over the portfolio of a Raphael to be convinced. A little sketch from a fellow pupil will blossom as an exquisite angel; some bald- pated, ill-looking acquaintance, as a stately philosopher ; yet neither saint nor philosopher would have that life-like ring had they been evolved purely from the imagination, and certain vital characteris- tics been ignored. This constant reference to nature saved these great painters from the cold, plastic academism of later days, while their idealism, which is nothing more at its best than rendering nature in her choicest garb, rescued them from the naive, unselected, and some- times amusing individualism (which had its charm) of their predeces- sors. At the same time it made them the monarchs of monumental painting, which despotically exacts, ennobled, purified and rhythmical forms. And what does our unconventional rusticity, or our supreme faculty to immortalize the meanest thing in its meanest garb avail us for the wall? What our boasted neglect of balanced form and beauty of line for an art that especially calls for equilibrium of mass and harmony of contour? Of what advantage is picturesqueness to the artist whose chief aim is to avoid the accidental? Wherein does looseness of handling, or the broken line benefit the man who is ever striving to express himself with decision? For definition is as essen- tial to mural painting as the omission of it is to the truthful render- ing on canvas of variegated earth, mobile water, and glistening air. What does our photographic translation of nature’s complexities bring to monumental interpretation, which enforces suppression of detail? Our out-of-door sympathies give us one thing — light; for though decorative painting must always conform to its surroundings, which often necessitate rich and low-toned harmonies, yet, as a rule, circumstances more frequently exact light and airy, than heavy and sombre tones. Nevertheless it is the stern duty of monumental painting, even in rendering out-of-door effects, to suppress the count- less, incalculable, and often confusing eccentricities of direct, reflected or diffused light, and to give a strong — perhaps stronger — impression of plein air, by a discreet elimination. Thus the studio practice of the model n artist aids him but little THE EDUCATION OF THE MURAL PAINTER. 135 when he transfers his talents to the wall. He may have been thor- oughly exercised in monumental composition, but the chances are against it; neither has his school nor subsequent practice acquainted him with architectural and decorative forms. His knowledge of the chemical and physical changes to which colors are liable, of the con- structive details and necessities of walls and plaster is absolutely nil , From a Drawing by Raphael. and his technique is diametrically opposed to that of mural paint- ing. As a rule, his sporadic efforts on the wall have not been crowned with success ; for they have either borne the stamp of vast easel-pictures, or, as previously observed, have overstepped the mark, and been characterized by an almost primitive rudeness. I cannot refrain from quoting here some very pertinent lines by Eugene Muntz ( Etudes sur VHistoire de la Peinture, Paris, 1886): “It is to the amateurs that the modern painters address themselves; 136 MURAL PAINTING. it is by the refinements of drawing and coloring that they captivate us, rather than by the depth of their convictions. Individual fancy has replaced those emphatic rules that furnished to early Christian as well as to Mediaeval art the motive of its being and its striking air of neces- sity.” When it is remembered that the very best men in those days decorated church, palace, and public hall, while our best men paint for collectors, the sympathy between the former and their public, and the lack of it between the latter and our public can readily be comprehended. It may be supposed that a special training, less long, less laborious, and more special, might with advantage be substituted for the ordi- nary routine of the art-student. Perhaps for the lower and more mechanical phases of decoration, yes ; but not for the monumental painter, or for any decorator who hopes to stamp his work with his own personality, or to add one jot to pre-existent knowledge. The uninspired and shopworn decorative work — figure, floral or geometri- cal — that passes muster as art, is too well known to require elaborate condemnation. It is enough to say that such work is the result of a special, mechanical training, unsupported by those severe and labo- rious studies from life and nature which are the only true and pos- sible source of fresh inspiration. There is no short cut ; the decora- tor must be as conversant with vital form and color as the painter of the easel-picture, if he expects to create. That these studies, as usually conducted, can be amended and supplemented is true enough; for they are neither all-sufficient, nor at times rational ; yet, as I have before observed, it is not my purpose, at least for the present, to examine seriatim the educational methods now in vogue. There is, however, one defect in them so apposite to the matter in hand that it cannot be blinked. We all know how much time and inge- nuity are spent on elaborate life-drawings. Such exercises in moder- ation are not fruitless; yet many a clumsy hand can stump or scrub his way up to a highly-finished representation of the cast or life with a week’s labor, who cannot possibly translate the same in a few sug- gestive, logical, and inerasable lines. In other words, such work, however useful it may be, is not enough, and unless fortified by other exercises, it would never teach a pupil to draw. Now what the mural painter most needs is the power to delineate objects, at rest or in action, promptly, broadly, and intelligently. He must not only be able to portray what he sees, but he must know what he sees. His sketches must be rapid and to the point, his final draw- ing and brushing decisive and significant. Plis life is too short for THE EDUCATION OF THE MURAL PAINTER. 137 tentative outline and modelling. Those wonderful drawings, the lega- cies of the old masters, tell the whole story far more eloquently than I can. Besides these things, they teach us that the faculty for repre- senting objects, animate and inanimate, from the imagination should be cultivated. Not only is this faculty requisite in order to improvise, 'The Glorification of the Law.’ Ceiling by Paul Baudry. to fix on paper or canvas the “ first thought,” untainted by models, but very frequently, also, to supply their deficiencies and limitations, both as to form and action. An artist who is dependent on his model for suggestions cannot hope to excel in an art whose corner-stone is fertility of invention and expression. The model is but the means — the precious means — that saves us from wearisome, stereotyped con- ventionalism. And what shall be said of the use of the photograph 138 MURAL PAINTING. as an auxiliary ? Assuredly, it has its purposes ; but that will be a fatal day to artistic expression, when the photograph supplants skil- ful and. inspired draughtsmanship, and becomes the symbol of our im- potence. Would it be an act of supererogation to say that the mural painter should assiduously glean fresh suggestions from nature? that he should stock his sketch-books with memoranda of artistic expression, as well as with the countless and unexpected revelations of the Mfe about him ? that his memory should be an encyclopaedia of decora- tive motives? Would it be superfluous to state that he should be gifted with imagination, with the power of seeing clearly, simply and beautifully, heroic compositions, and that he should be born with a feeling for rhythm? Is there need to emphasize the necessity of familiarizing himself with the immortal works of the great decorators? For in truth there are no masters equal to those whose reputations have been consecrated by time. Without some knowledge of them no education is complete. Those who can, should travel intelligently and observantly, in the land of mural painting — in Italy. It is dis- couraging to think how many of our students halt in Paris, at the portals of that fair country, rich in artistic treasure ; or if by chance they visit her, draw inspiration merely from her superficial pictu- resqueness. None better than the French themselves recognize the supreme importance of a careful study of the great Italian decora- tors. Did not Baud -y live with them before girding himself for his life- work in the Opera? Did he not fortify his natural talents by their example, without in the least enslaving them? And, finally, it is but too evident that men who are suddenly called upon to suggest fitting themes for given places, widely differing in their purposes, should en- rich their minds, if not with many — and the more the better — at least with a few, well-chosen, literary masterpieces. Good literature promotes good style. In no department of the fine arts have professionals studied and practised more intelligently and successfully than in that of archi- tecture. The very nature of their work has constrained our architects to pursue a methodical course of instruction. They have profited by the lessons of the past, without being trammelled by them, and have proved that a respect for tradition is not prejudicial to consistent de- velopment. They have distinctly added something to art, and to our honor be it noted that their efforts have just begun to attract the merited attention of their foreign confreres. Not that they are always guiltless of solecisms and eccentricities; not that they have THE EDUCATION OF THE MURAL PAINTER. 139 yet adapted themselves satisfactorily to their bewildering environ- ments; nevertheless they are working systematically in the right direction. Their brothers of the brush may well take a hint from their methods if they hope to keep pace with them. On the other hand the architects can do much to encourage the painters, and at the same time adorn their own art by giving them the opportunity that church and state gave in past times, and in other lands whose greatest pictorial triumphs have been on the wall. We may, for the nonce, be ill-provided with practitioners, but the occasion will surely raise them. If the training, aims and technique of our art- ists do not particularly fit them for monumental painting, these can readily be amended without antagonism to the spirit of the age. There is no reason why we should not greatly profit by our new. born aspirations and methods, if they be consistently controlled and developed; for the field of art itself and the means of expres- sion have of late years been greatly enlarged. Our feeling for refined and delicate combinations of color, for instance, or, more succinctly, our tone perceptions (acquired, perhaps, from the Eastern nations, who have always been gifted with them), are infinitely more sensitive than they were in mediaeval or Grecian days, and are a precious addition to our artistic repertory. No one can have failed to note the great and increasing sympathy for decoration that obtains to-day; misguided and illiterate at times, imperatively exacting the new-fangled products of artist and artisan, morbidly craving startling combinations, yet withal genuine. This untutored demand and supply, this yearning to satisfy untrained de- sires, may account in part for the dangerous tendencies of our deco- rators-, to glorify the material at the expense of art. The Greeks took care to make their Yenuses beautiful; we should do well to fol- low their example. Barbaric splendor can never be a fit substitute for art. May we soon, too, throw off the malarious garb of “ aesthet- icism ” that we have borrowed from our cousins across the seas, who, in turn, borrowed it from a dead past ; for however well it may become them, it is not for us. Strange that a young and vigorous people — a people that avowedly abhors the unreal, that professes a sincere cult for wholesome nature — should people their canvases with such sickly creations ! Yet, notwithstanding these defects — and they are defects — I feel inclined to hazard the same remark about our decoration which I made with confidence on our architec- ture, that in certain departments of it, at least, we have added some- thing new to art. 140 MURAL PAINTING. No effort has been made in these chapters to draw the line of demarcation between monumental and the lower phases of decora- tive painting, since they fay into each other. The latter, moreover, are the almost constant auxiliaries of the former, and the same brain must conceive, even though the same hand does not execute both. If expense, perchance, should not always permit the gratification of our taste for painted epic, we can at least indulge in less lofty, but thoroughly artistic and grammatical prose. 'Entombment of St. Catharine.’ Fresco by Bernardino Luini. 1460-1530. NOTES. CHAPTER I, PAGE 1. “It came to pass that these Franks, whom the Italians continued to treat as barbarians, without having succeeded in arousing an artis tic culture comparable to that of Theodoric’s time [455-526], at last eclipsed their ultramontane neighbors, thanks to the influence of Charlemagne [742-814]. We especially know that the great emperor of the Franks made it obligatory by law to paint the whole interior surface of churches. His emissaries were charged, while inspecting religious edifices, not only to examine the condition of the walls, pave- ments, and other essential features, but also that of the paintings ( volumus itaque ut missi nostri per singulos pagos prcevidere studeant . . . primum de ecclesiis , quomodo slructce aut in iectis, in maceriis, sive in parietibus, sive in pavimentis , nec non in pictura , eliarn et in luminariis, sive officiis'). Statutes, several times reenacted, settled the manner of contributing for their decoration. If for a royal church, the clergy and neighboring abbes were to provide the means ; if for a beneficed church, the incumbent. When the emperor caused an ora- tory to be erected, even in the midst of the camps, the whole surface of the walls was covered with pictures. A church was not deemed completed till it had received this kind of ornamentation. Accord- ing to the French doctors, the paintings had a two-fold object — to instruct the people, and to embellish the monument. Charlemagne meant that they should have a third : to obliterate from the Saxons’ view, by an extreme magnificence, the richness of their ancient altars ( Emeric-David , Histoire de la Peinture an moyen age , dd. de 1863, p. 67, 68). Thanks to this enlightened protection, Franco-German paint- ing soon surpassed the Italian.” “But the superiority of Franco-German art did not last. France, Switzerland, and Germany were in turn engulfed by the rising wave of barbarism ; the artificial culture created by Charlemagne disap- 142 MURAL PAINTING. peared without leaving a trace ; in the second half of the ninth, and during the whole of the tenth, there were still, perhaps, artists, but assuredly no art.” [Muntz, Etudes sue VHistoire de la Peinture.'] CHAPTER I, PAGE 2. To convey some idea of the esteem in which monumental painting was held in Italy during the Renaissance (and still is 'held), I give an extract from the “ Aretin ” of Lodovico Dolce [1508-1568], who ranked high among the literati of the age of Clement VII, both for his learn- ing and taste. “And who does not know how much painting contributes to the beauty and elegance, to the enriching, embellishing, and ornamenting palaces, and other noble edifices, though adorned with statues, busts, basso-relievos, and other ornaments of architecture, cabinets, glass mirrors, slabs, and tables of curious marble, porphyry, and other precious stones, Persian carpets, and other rich and elegant furniture? These appear as nothing without historical and other paintings and pictures of the best masters. And how easy is it to discover how much superior, and how far more pleasing, the grand fronts or faij- ades of palaces are, when painted by the ablest hands, than those in- crusted with the richest marbles or porphyry, though variegated with veins of gold. The same may be said of churches and other public edifices ; for which reason the popes I have named as patrons of Raphael, employed him in painting the hall and chambers of the pal- ace above mentioned, and Michael Angelo, in decorating the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome. And for the same reason, the best masters of the time had before been ordered to decorate the Grand Council-Chamber (Venice) with their paintings, to which were afterwards added two pictures by Titian ; and it is much to be wished he had executed the whole. Had it happily been so, it would now have been one of the most admirable and beautiful spectacles in Italy. The same reason also prevailed when George da Castelfranco [Giorgione, 1477-1511] was employed in adorning the German office; but that part which respects Mercury was painted by Titian when yet a youth. Of this I shall take occasion, before I conclude, to speak further, and only observe here that the neighboring barbarous and injldel nations are by their religion, the fountain of all their laws, customs and manners, strictly forbid all representations of nature, whether by painting or sculpture, or any other device whatever.” [English translation, London, 1770.] NOTES. 143 The frescos on the exterior of the “ German office ” by Giorgione and Titian have almost entirely disappeared. CHAPTER III. There is no pretension in these pages to archaeological lore. MM. Cros and Henry’s solution of the encaustic enigma has been pre- ferred and given, not only because it is the latest, but because, in the judgment of a practitioner, it is the most complete and plausible yet offered. Their erudition may, or may not, be on a par with their technical ingenuity ; but it must be remembered that the passages on which scholars rely for the true explanation of the mystery are pro- vokingly insufficient, and until something more definite has been un- earthed we must accept the interpretation that best accords with the technical revelations of authentic monuments and the spirit of extant texts. Recent, and experimental, applications of polychromy to stat- uary made in Berlin, have re-opened such knotty questions as how much or how little, and in what manner, did the ancients color their statues, questions that do not concern us here. It has sufficed to quote only that passage which is relevant to our subject — the very explicit statement of Vitruvius, that the ancients cauterized their marble statues, to protect them from atmospheric corrosion. CHAPTER IX, PAGE 88. “ THE ENGLISH DELIGHTFUL POETS.” “Some one has remarked,” says Winkelmann, [1717-1768], “not without reason, that the poets on the other side of the mountain speak through images, but afford few pictures.” [History of An- cient Art; B. I, Chapter III.] The following extracts from the notes by the English translator [London, 1770] of Dolce’s Aretin are appended as literary curiosi- ties, certainly not for their critical acumen. The closing paragraphs — -ludicrous as they now seem — augmented as they might be by an infinitude of cruel, perverted, and (in their day) honored judgments are eloquently and pathetically suggestive. Will our most solemn and authoritative verdicts be quoted for the merriment of posterity ? Does man ever see his contemporaries face to face? “ And what is next to be lamented is (which from physical causes hath been endeavored to be accounted for), that true genius in the liberal arts (as well as the sciences and the art of government) hath hitherto been confined within very narrow bounds, and seems inca- 144 MURAL PAINTING. pable of being extended much farther than that part of Europe and its confines which lies between thirty and forty-five degrees of North latitude, or fifty-two at the most, and between eight and fifty- seven degrees East longitude; that it hath never extended its influ- ence farther to the North, nor nearer than twenty-five degrees to the Line. Painting and sculpture have been so far from making any progress towards the North, that they have been neglected and even despised in proportion as we advance northward, to the fifty-eighth degree of North latitude only ; ‘ insomuch that the most valuable pieces of Correggio served only for blinds to the windows of the royal sta- bles at Stockholm.’ ” “ ‘And tho’ the English climate hath been warm enough to pro- duce a number of eminent men in most sciences and professions ; and notwithstanding the great munificence of Henry the Eighth, Queen Elizabeth, and Charles the First during the first fifteen years of his reign, and the great value they had for pictures, and the encourage- ment given by Queen Elizabeth to all sorts of arts, during a reign of near fifty years ; and although it is acknowledged by foreigners that there are no workmen in the world that have greater beauty in tbe execution than the English, or know better how to manage their tools ; and though England hath given to the world eminent poets, yet it hath not produced painters who have been able to attain to that taste in design which some foreign artists have brought over with them to England.’” “ The same hath been observed of France ; that ‘ although Fran- cis the First was one of the most zealous protectors that the arts and sciences could ever boast of, and notwithstanding the friendship and regard he shewed to Roux, to Andrea del Sarto, to Leonardo da Vinci (who died in his arms), and to every one that was illustrious for tal- ent or merit, and the profusion with which he paid for the pictures he ordered to be painted for him by Raphael ; and through his lib- erality and kind reception drew numbers of eminent men into France, and his bounties were bestowed continually on the possessors of this art during a reign of thirty-three years; yet they could never form an eminent painter among his own subjects.’ Vide Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks , translated from the German original , of the Abbe Winkelmann, p. 1, 2, and Du Bos’s Reflexions Critiques Sur la Poesie et la Peinture .” 1 “But notwithstanding the above observations upon the climates of 1 “ France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme .” — Matthew Arnold. S MR CARET A S THEODORA S MARINA S AFFRA CORTONENSIR S AGLAEA S MARIA HEtlOTrFE PRINTING CD, BOfTON. NOTES. 145 England and France, and the seeming discouragements to the artists of London and Paris in particular, yet since the time Du Bos speaks of, France hath produced many eminent masters, both in painting and sculpture.” After mentioning Nicholas Poussin ( 1594 - 1665 ), and Le Sueur ( 1617 - 1655 ), he cites “ Charles Le Brun,bornat Paris, in 1619 , whose painting of the Family of Darius , which is at Ver- sailles, is not surpassed by the coloring of the picture of Paul Ver- onese, which is placed over against it ; but is greatly superior to it in design, composition, dignity, expression, and the justness of the cos- tume. The prints from his pictures of the Battles of Alexander are even more esteemed than the Battles of Constantine , by Raphael and Julio Romano. He died in 1690 .” “ It is very remarkable, also, that even in countries capable of in- spiring every kind of genius, there have been barren ages, in which the liberal arts, and the genius that produced them, declined to such a degree as to seem in the course of the next to be wholly lost.” “ History mentions only three ages in which they have arrived to a degree of perfection : That to which we owe their first rise, and commenced ten years before the reign of Philip, the father of Alex- ander the Great, in which they obtained their highest perfection; the age of Augustus ; and that of Julius the Second and Leo the Tenth; unless that which commenced with Poussin, and continued to the end of the reign of Louis XIV, he reckoned as a fourth , which it justly may, though not so general as any of the former. And we have reason now to flatter ourselves with the pleasing hope that the reign of his present Majesty will be the era of the fifth , and distinguished by the Age of George the Third. True Genius in the liberal arts seems now to have visited this island, and taken up her residence among us, which we apparently owe, and may justly be ascribed (physical causes, of which we can only judge by the effects, perhaps conspiring), to a Liberal Society formed among us, for the encourage- ment of Arts , and for other laudable and very valuable purposes, and the patronage and munificence of our truly amiable Monarch.” [Who preferred Benjamin West to Joshua Reynolds !] In his preface the translator remarks : “Altho’ I wish to avoid men- tioning living artists by name, that I may not give umbrage to any, yet, lest those who have not seen our exhibitions should esteem this only to proceed from partiality, and a desire of making the state of the Arts here appear other than it really is, I cannot help producing, as instances, the Regulus, Jacob blessing Joseph’s children, Oleom- brotus, &c., of Mr. West; an artist whose works would have done 146 MURAL PAINTING. honor to Rome, even in the time of Raphael and Titian. The ap- peal might safely be lain with any person of taste and judgment, whether these and many other of our modern works do not fully prove this assertion.” I LLUSTRATIONS. 1 . THE ‘ MUSE OF CORTONA ’ (ENCAUSTIC). A description of this painting will be found in chap. Ill, p. 20. 2 ‘THE RESURRECTION’ (FRESCO) BY GIOTTO (1276-1437), ARENA CHAPEL, PADUA. “ The advent of the gothic style resulted in the overthrow of the Byzantine school and its congeners, and to substitute the study of life for the quest of pomp or grandeur. The master who stamped the new tendencies with the seal of perfection was an Italian, Giotto. This revivalist of genius, the greatest painter of the Middle Ages, based his reform on the imitation of nature. No more conventional scenes, no more pompous and empty formulas ! Without yet pushing realism so far as to give to Christ, to the apostles, to the saints, the features of his contemporaries, Giotto regenerates his types by a spirit of observation which forms a complete contrast to his prede- cessors’ spirit of abstraction. He is the first to rediscover the struc- tural laws of the human body, and those of its movement. We are no longer confronted by conventional figures, but by men, living the life that is peculiar to them. Landscape resumes its rights. Finally, the representation of the episodes of sacred history abounds in snatches from life, now spiritual, now pathetic. So many conquests would have sufficed to immortalize the name of Giotto. But the founder of the Florentine school has still greater claims. His compositions reveal a dramatic feeling which ought to have made Michael Angelo and Raphael jealous. Force of expression, eloquence of attitude and gesture have never been carried further. What could be more moving than Saint Francis defying the false doctors, than the sisters of Lazarus at the feet of Christ 1 ” “ Giotto was philosopher as well as dramaturgist ; I mean that he was an artist who knew how to translate into his own language the most 148 MURAL PAINTING. abstract ideas. Through his instrumentality allegory enters into reli- gious painting, and regenerates it. His frescos open the series of those grand compositions which for more than a century are to make the reputation of Italy, the Triumph of Faith and Poverty, the Triumph of Chastity and Fame, the Triumph of St. Francis, of St. Thomas Aquinas, of Charlemagne, etc., etc. By the power of their concep- tion, the beauty of their arrangement, the richness of their details, these noble pages, that can be admired even to-day at Florence, Siena, Pisa, Assisi, Naples, Avignon, etc., etc., remained as inimita- ble models till the moment when Raphael created the Dispute of the Holy Sacrament and the School of Athens.’' “ In this ensemble , half theological, half philosophical, so vigorously conceived and elaborated under the direct influence of Giotto’s friend, Dante, there was no place for secular representations ; so that in the work of Giotto we must neither look for scenes borrowed from ancient or contemporaneous history, nor for genre subjects, nor for portraits. Even his easel pictures are rare. Such grandiose conceptions demand the repose and breadth of fresco.” — Eugene Muntz, Etudes sur VHis- toire de la Peinture. After this succinct and comprehensive estimate of Giotto’s genius scarcely anything remains to be said. As a mere matter of detail, one cannot fail to be impressed by the beauty of the women in the Arena frescos. How sweet, in the accompanying illustration, is the woman-faced angel in the centre! Considering their age, these frescos are remarkably well preserved. 3 . 4 A£NEAS PICCOLOMINI CREATED CARDINAL BY POPE CALIXTUS III’ (FRESCO) BY PINTURICCHIO ( 1454 - 1513 ). LIBRARY, SIENA. This fresco forms one of a series by Pinturicchio, representing the principle events in the life of Pius II (iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini). Like many other Sienese frescos, they are still wonderfully fresh and sound, as the heliotype testifies, though it is less perfect than the photograph. [See chap. IX, p. 87 .] 4 . 4 ERYTHRjEAN SIBYL ’ (FRESCO) BY MICHAEL ANGELO ( 1474 - 1564 ). SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME. The genius of Michael Angelo and the Sistine frescos have been exhaustively treated by brilliant pens. Wilson, who has already been quoted several times, gives in his 4 Life of Michael Angelo ’ a ILLUSTRATIONS. 145* luminous technical description, most valuable to the student, of the Sistine vault. This illustration is introduced, not only as a specimen of a giant’s craft in the palmiest days of mural painting, but also to exemplify that nicety of adjustment between the real and the ideal, to which reference has been made in chapter XII. The forms are monumental — simple, rhythmical, and heroic — yet fundamentally true, and instinct with life. The head in particular is full of calm majesty, very broadly painted, but thoroughly natural and unconven- tional, almost a portrait. [The term conventional is used sometimes in a good, sometimes in a bad sense. In its former acceptation all art is conventional ; but the word is often employed disparagingly to indicate a stilted, false, and lifeless phase of art, generally the academic phase.] 5. 4 THE TEMPTATION ’ (FRESCO) BY RAPHAEL SANZIO (1483-1520). STANZE OF THE VATICAN, ROME. It would have been possible to illustrate Raphael more compre- hensively by such monumental compositions as the 4 Jurisprudence’ of the Vatican, the 4 Heliodorus,’ or the 4 School of Athens,’ which eloquently reveal his loftier and more stately moods. But these have been so frequently reproduced and can so readily be consulted that I have given the preference to a less familiar fresco, less completely illustrative of the master’s widely-ranging genius, yet entirely char- acteristic of one side of it. Xotwithstanding her “length of limb” could anything be more sweetly, divinely, peculiarly Raphaelesque than the Eve? In all his moods Raphael is supremely harmonious : he is the musician of the brush. For mere melody of line he has no peer, unless it be Andrea del Sarto (148 7-1531), when he painted the 4 Madonna del Sacco ’ in the cloister of the Annunziata — a fresco that I had hoped to include in my repertory. Such men as Raphael and Michael Angelo — if men they can be called — seem to give all the majesty of the best Byzantines and a great deal more, too. For the student who would study 44 composition,” they are the authorities. 6 . ‘MANSUETUDO’ (OIL-PAINTING) BY F. PENNI (1488 ?-1528), AND GUILIO ROMANO (1492 ?-1546). HALL OF CONSTANTINE, VATICAN. This illustration is given to show the deterioration of oil painting on plaster, of which a description is given on p. 103, chap. X. The 150 MURAL PAINTING. figure of Mansuetudo alone is painted in oil. The greater part of the back-ground, and the arm, drapery, book, and hand to the right are executed in fresco. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in assigning the motives that induced Raphael to substitute oil for fresco, remark that, “ there was evi- dently an impression in Raphael’s mind that Sebastian’s revival of a system which had failed at Florence in the days of Alessio Baldo- vinetti, might now be attended with advantages which it would be 7 o o desirabie to try.” Life of Raphael, vol. ii, p. 449. “ Alessio Baldovinetti. Born in 1422, he lived to the very close of the century [1499], gaining a name for the minuteness with which he studied still life in nature, the boldness, more than the success, with which he introduced the old tempera varnish amongst the mediums employed in wall painting.” Vasari says of his wall paint- ings, that they were “ sketched in (abbozzato) in fresco and retouched a secco, the colors being tempered with a mixture of yolk of egg, and heated vernice liquida. Baldovinetti thought that this tempera would guard the painting against wet, but it was in such a measure strong, that when too heavily laid on, it scaled off” [C. & C. Hist, of Paint, in Italy, vol. ii, p. 372]. There is but little left of these paintings to-day. They have greatly suffered by abrasion, darkening, blister- ing and scaling. Cennini is silent concerning the nature of vernice liquida. See Mrs. Merrifield’s notes thereon, page 159. She thinks it “ highly probable that the varnish consisted of some resin dissolved in linseed oil.” Cennini gives the following directions for painting in oil on walls: “ Cover your wall with mortar, exactly as you would do when painting in fresco, except that where you then covered but a small space at a time, you are now to spread it over your whole work. Make your design with charcoal and fix it with ink, or verdaccio [a mixture of white, ochre, red and black — a quiet greenish tone] tem- pered. Then take a little glue much diluted, — a whole egg well beaten in a porringer, with the milky juice of the fig tree, is still bet- ter. You must add to it a glassful of clean water. Then either with a sponge or a pencil without a point, very soft, go once over the ground on which you are going to paint, and leave it to dry for one day at least.” “Vasari, in his Introduction to the Three Arts, teaches, in chapter XXII, how to paint in oil on walls, but in a very different manner from this, for he requires that the wall should be dry, and that it should have a coat of linseed oil, and then a mixture of resin, of mas- ILLUSTRATIONS. 151 tic, and of fat varnish. He also teaches another method, which he had tried and approved of, in which it was necessary to give the wall two coats of the intonaco, but he always recommends that the wall should be perfectly dry. Here, on the contrary, Cennini points out a very simple method of painting in oil on damp walls, which may be painted on the next day. It concerns the modern artist to determine by experiments which is the best mode.” [Tambroni : from Mrs. Mer- rifield’s translation of Cennini’s Treatise , p. 141]. What may be the actual condition of wall paintings executed in either or both of these methods, I am not in a position to ascertain, but it has certainly fared very ill with oil mural paintings in general, for the reasons given in chapter X. 7. 4 JUPITER AND JUNO ’ (FRESCO) BY ANNIBALE CARRACCI (1560- 1609). FARNESE PALACE, ROME. This is another specimen of a well preserved series of frescos. Though nominally executed by the Carracci and their pupils, by far the larger portion of the work is attributable to Annibale. Here and there it betrays symptoms of academism, which grew apace and subsequently proved so baneful. The generation of immortals had passed away, and art was on the wane. But propinquity to the great epoch, the vitality of its traditions, and inherited faculties gave to their successors all that can be given — save genius. (And yet the church was as influential, as prodigal, and far less pagan than in the days of Julius and Leo). Among their successors the Carracci took their stand as reformers. Even during the life-time of Michael Angelo, anatomical exaggeration and the pedantic “mock heroic” were rampant. It was the aim of Ludovico Carracci (1553-1619), assisted by his kinsmen Agostino (1557-1602), and Annibale, to neutralize these bombastic tendencies by reverting to the best models of the past, to the works of Leonardo, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, Correggio, etc., to extract their peculiar essence from each, and to combine them in a faultless whole. On these principles they founded their celebrated academy at Bologna. The result of this learned eclecticism, though a great improvement on what it sought to antagonize, was naturally convictionless academism. Of the three Carracci, Annibale was the most independent and ablest. At one time, and before his style was definitely formed, he leaned towards the sect then known as naturalisti. The composition 152 MURAL PAINTING. of the ‘Jupiter and Juno’ is irreproachable — rythmical, well-bal- anced, and scholarly. 8 . ‘recompense’ (oil painting) BY PAUL VERONESE (1528-1588). CEILING, SALA DEL COLLEGIO, DUCAL PALACE, VENICE. No colorless reproduction can adequately represent this sumptuous painter. Not that his forms are without dignity or style ; for his draughtmanship is both easy and noble, and his figures have a grand mien; but the Venetians were not the champions of form, as were the Florentines; they were the apostles of color. Veronese was neither “deep thinker nor moralist,” and therefore less heroic than Michael Angelo, Raphael, or even Titian, but he was essentially a painter. Couture ( Entretiens d’ Atelier) in estimating Veronese, says : “ Let us speak of his method of painting. It is not that of Titian. I do not hesitate to say that it is the painting par excellence; there is nothing beyond it; it is the apogee. He paints with a full brush (En pleine pate) and alia prima ; he employs the so-called Venetian processes only for certain draperies, and with so much frankness that there is no doubt about it.” He is not only a great painter, but a great decorator as well, — some hold the greatest. His color is blonde and splendid ; his effects are obtained by a learned distribu- tion of the local colors — the true decorative method — not by chiaro-oscuro. In his time when Italian painting was moribund, the Venetian school was still vital. Nevertheless the germs of deca- dence are apparent even in Veronese. The accompanying illustration is not subject to the reproach made in page 106, chapter X, that many of the Venetian mural paintings have the character of easel-pictures. 9. CEILING IN CHURCH OF S. MARIA DEL ROSARIO, OR ‘i GESUATI,* VENICE, (FRESCO). TIEPOLO (GIOVANNI BATTISTA, 1697-1770). There is a descent from Veronese to Tiepolo. The former, sump- tuous and luxuriant in his mise en scene , is contained withal. His foreshortenings are bold, but less violent than they were subsequently, for he lived in the grand era. Tiepolo is all execution, all chic , all scintillation. His color is not splendid and learned like Veronese’s, but rather commonplace, though sparkling. He depended largely ILLUSTRATIONS. 153 for bis effects on liis brilliant, sharp, and scenic touch. (See p. 125, chap. XII.) His handling was that of the theatre. Yet in spite of his startling foreshortenings, his agitated forms, and his barocco taste, we cannot but admire his consummate facility, his inexhaustible fancy, his splendid bravura . This unlicensed reveler, this violent masquerader of the brush paints as his people sing, as other people talk. Tiepolo once made a wager — and won it — that he would paint in ten hours the twelve apostles receiving the communion from Christ, the figures to be half the size of life. [For a scholarly esti- mate of Tiepolo, the reader should consult Charles Blanc’s Venetian Painters .] Tiepolo has made many converts among modern painters. For- tuny, who was unmoved by the Sistine Chapel, greatly admired him. I once heard a group of the Roman- Spanish artists discuss the paint- ings of the Vatican. They preferred the 1 Communion of St. Jerome,’ by Domenichino to all others. 10 . OIL PAINTINGS FOR THE DECORATION OF THE LUXEMBOURG PALACE (NOW IN THE LOUVRE) BY PETER PAUL RUBENS (1577-1640). These compositions are intended to illustrate a statement made on page 106, chapter X. But whether or not, from the quality and dis- tribution of their light and shade, they are rather easel pictures than mural paintings, they testify that Rubens was gifted with that exu- berant creative power, that broad and generous handling, that feeling for ample and eloquent forms which are the requisites for decorative painting. His work is a striking exemplification of native genius, strengthened and developed by a free and intelligent study of Italian precedent. 11 . ‘ MINERVE ELEVANT LE GENIE VERS L’EMPYREE.’ DRAWING IN BLACK AND WHITE FOR A CEILING, BY PRUD’HON (PIERRE, 1760-1825). This simple, poetic, lovable artist was a contemporary of David and the classic school. In the words of Charles Blanc, “he observed this great movement with a smile,” though protesting against the methods of the men who studied statues till they forgot how to paint. Enabled to travel in Italy by a prize gained at Dijon, “ he under- 154 MURAL PAINTING. stood Raphael, loved Leonardo, but studied Correggio by preference,” as his works clearly evince. He was not uninfluenced by the classi- cism of his day, but extracted only the good and the assimilable from the antique. He is a sort of Greek Correggio ; but not merely that, for his own pure, sad, and tender soul, which shunned the garish light of day, and sought expression in a subdued atmosphere, is embodied in his creations. He is a chiaro-oscurist, sees by light and shade, and therefore not a great decorator in the strict sense of the word ; yet the nobility, purity and simplicity of his style, eminently fitted it for the wall. 12 . ‘ LES SAINTES PENITENTES.’ CHURCH OF S. VINCENT DE PAUL, PARIS. BY HIPPOLYTE FLANDRIN (1809-1864). Flandrin left Lyons, where he was born, in 1829, and entered the atelier of Ingres at Paris. The relations between the two were as close as that of master and pupil in the days of Cennini. Flandrin admired and venerated Ingres, who was sincerely proud of his eleve. The Italian masters most sympathetic to him were Giotto, Angelico, and Raphael. “While the stanze of the Vatican [were] to his mind the most absolute expressions of pictorial perfection ; while, as he repeatedly would affirm, Giotto’s frescos in S. Maria del Arena, or those of Fra Angelico in the Chapel of Nicholas V, ought to be ‘ the very breviary’ of the painter of religious subjects, Flandrin none the less sought daily to study on his own account, and adapt the lessons of the past to the requirements of his personal feeling and the wants of the present day.” ( Life of Flandrin, London, 1875.) His rever- ence for the antique, and an inborn feeling for the beautiful tempered the expression of Christian austerity with grace. Flandrin did not resemble other men ; so sweetly patient was he, so serene, and even humble, yet by no means devoid of character or convictions, for he stoutly championed the tenets of his school. The reply of a sharp- tongued female model to the fellow student who asked why she spared Flandrin is all significant. “0 in quanto a lui, pare proprio la Madonna .” (Oh, as to him, he appears to be the very Madonna herself). “He neither attained the masculine grandeur of Poussin (1594- 1665) nor the profound and pathetic tenderness of Le Sueur (161 7— 1655) ; but if the extent of his works is considered, their character ILLUSTRATIONS. 155 and their unity ; if a comparison is made of a labor so vast and a fervor so sustained; if the number of churches he has decorated and glorified is reckoned, we cannot but justly call the artist who has decked his country in such attire, the religious painter of France.” (Pierre Larousse, Dictionnaire Universel). The frieze of St. Vincent de Paul was christened by his contem poraries the “ Panathenees Cliretiennes.” A HANDBOOK OF LEGENDARY AND MYTHOLOGICAL ART. By Clara Erskine Clement. Profusely illustrated. Eighteenth edition, revised and enlarged. Crown 8vo, cloth, $3. Half-calf, $5 ; tree-calf, $7. PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, ARCHITECTS, Engravers and their works. A Handbook, with many illustrations. By Clara Erskine Clement. Ninth edition, revised and enlarged. Crown 8vo, $3 ; half-calf, $5 ; tree-calf, $7. ARTISTS OF THE NINETEENTH CEN- TURY. A Handbook of Two Thousand Biographical Sketches. By Clara Erskine Clement and Laurence Hutton. i2mo, $3; half calf, $5; tree-calf, $7. A full encyclopaedia concerning the lives and works of modern artists. “It is the most valuable book of its kind in the English language.” ■ — Art Amateur. Christian Symbols and Stories OF THE SAINTS. By Clara Erskine Clement, and Katherine E. Conway. i2mo. Red edges. Fully illustrated. Cloth, $2 50. Half-calf, $5.00. Jean - Francois millet: Peasant and Painter. Translated by Helena de Kay, from the French of Alfred Sensier. With a portrait of Millet, and numerous illustrations from his works. Square octavo. $3. Eugene fromentin: painted and writer. From the French of Louis Gonse, by Mrs. Mary C. Robbins. Copiously illustrated. $3. The life and letters of the greatest modern French art-critic, with the original French illustrations. The Old Masters of Belgium and Holland. Translated from the French of Eugene From- entin, by Mrs. Mary C. Robbins, i vol, 8vo, illustrated. $3. “The most perfect book about pictures ever written in any tongue.” — American Architect. Parisian Art. and Artists. By Henry Bacon, i vol. 8vo. Very copiously illus- trated. $3. “An immense favorite in art circles.” — Traveller. TICKNOR & CO., Boston, Mass. ARTISTIC HOMES In Town and Country. By Albert W. Fuller, Architect. Oblong folio, 7 6 plates, $4.00. A new and very much enlarged (fourth) edition of this admirable work on modern domestic architecture. HOMES AND ALL ABOUT THEM. By E. C. Gardner. 710 pages, illustrated, $2.50. Invaluable instructions and suggestions as to interior decoration, exterior finish, and varied forms of architecture. ART FOLIAGE. By J. K. Colling. From last London Edition. 1 vol. Folio. $10. THE ELEMENTS OF HAND-RAILING. By R. J. Sherratt. Small folio. With 38 Plates. $2.00. HOUSEHOLD SANITATION. By William E. Hoyt, C. E., S. B. Paper, 15 cts. Cloth, 30 cts. An address delivered at the annual meeting of the Academy of Sci- ences, in January, 1886, and printed by special request. Mr. Hoyt speaks as one having authority, and is sure to be listened to with respect. VIOLLET-LE-DUC’S Discourses on Architecture. Translated by Henry Van Brunt. With 18 large Plates and no Woodcuts. Vol. I. 8vo. $5. The Same. Vol. II. With Steel Plates, Chromos, and Woodcuts. 8vo. $5. HANDBOOK OF GREEK AND ROMAN SCULPTURE. By D. 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It is beautifully and elabo- rately equipped with over 300 illustrations, which include many of the most curious and interesting chimney-pieces of ancient or modern times ; among the most fascinating and instructive are those contributed by our American architects. The designs, even of the most unimportant accessories are made with the same careful study and refined taste, as those of the more impor- tant features. The book will therefore appeal as well to the scientific and artistic, as to the practical mind and will serve either as an ornament for the par- lor or as a text book for the builder. LECTURES ON THE PRINCIPLES OF HOUSE DRAINAGE. Delivered before the Suffolk District Medical Society (section for Clinical Medicine, Pathology and Hygiene), and the Boston Society of Architects, at Mass. Institute of Technology, by J. Pickering Putnam, Architect. With numerous plates and diagrams. 1 vol. i6mo. 75 cts. Portions of these lectures have been reprinted in some of the lead- ing sanitary journals of this country and Europe, and they have received flattering notices from many of the leading sanitary engineers in both countries. In the Century Magazine they are said to “mark a very im- portant step forward in Sanitary Literature.” Col. George E. Waring, Jr., the well-known authority on sanitary drainage in this country, writing on the papers on Traps, says: “They are the best thing of the kind I have seen.” TICKNOR & COMPANY, 211 Tremont St., Boston, Mass. THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT AND BUILDING NEWS. AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILDING- ARTS. Each number of the Regular Edition contains six, or more, fine quarto illustrations, while illustrative cuts are liberally used in the text. “One of the most artistic periodicals in this country.” — Boston Herald. “This journal, in its modesty, does not call itself an art journal, but for all that it is the most serious and learned periodical dealing with art published on this side of the ocean.” — Magazine of Art. “ The American Architect and Building News , published by Ticknor & Co., is the only really intelligently conducted journal relating to art mat- ters in America, and one of the few in the world. It keeps well ahead of the average intelligence of its readers and the public in all respects. It ought to be read by every person who is interested in art, and every- body ought to be interested.” — New-York Times. SUBSCRIPTION PRICES (IK ADVANCE.) Regular Edition. — $ 6.00 per year ; $3.50 per half year. 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