'^»*»mtmf*mtiit*»tttiti4intt9mi'i^*'*t'^*"'**'"'*"^'^-' -"^'mtm Yale Universitv Library 39002004633229 BISTORTANDMEIHODS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Bought with the income of the D. NEWTON BARNEY FUND HISTORY AND METHODS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE COLOUR DECORATION OF ARCHITECTURE FRESCO PAINTING: Its Art and Technique FLORAL STUDIES FOR DECORA TIVE DESIGN PROGRESSIVE DESIGN FOR STUDENTS HISTORIC ORNAMENT: A Treatise ON Decorative -Art and Architec tural Ornament Volume i. — Prehistoric Art; Ancient Art and Architecture ; Eastern, Early Chris tian, Byzantine, Saracenic, Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance Architecture and Ornament. Volume II. — Pottery, Enamels, Ivories, Metal Work, Furniture, Textile Fabrics, Mosaics, Glass, and Book Decoration. COLOUR HARMONY AND CON TRAST. For the use of Art Students, Designers and Decorators Add. M^., B.M. BOOK OF HOURS OF BONA SFORZA, DUCHESS OF MILAN • ITALIAN, ABOUT A.D. 1490 HISTORY AND METHODS OF ANCIENT & MODERN PAINTING FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE BEGINNING OF THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD INCLUDING THE METHODS AND MATERIALS OF THE PAINTER'S CRAFT OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES BY JAMES WARD AUTHOR OF "THE PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENT,' "HISTORIC ORNAMENT," "COLOUR HARMONY AND CONTRAST," " FRESCO rAINTING," ETC. WITH 44 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON CHAPMAN AND HALL, Ltd. 1913 Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. PREFACE In this volume I have attempted to outline the History and Methods of Painting from the earliest Egyptian times to the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, and have endeavoured to explain and describe the materials used in painting in ancient and modern times. As this work is primarily written for the use of students, I have thought it best to treat of " Painting " in its broadest sense, which would include the use and application of colours and mediums in decorative and ornamental painting, as well as in other branches of this art, which are generally classed under the so-called " fine arts," where the word " painting " is used in a more restricted sense, and is popularly but inaccurately understood to be limited to the art of painting pictures. We may go further than this, and say that in the mpre modern sense of the word, painting, as an art, is more particularly applied to pictures executed in an oil medium. Even pictures in water-colours, however carefully or elaborately painted; are known to the public and to the auctioneer as " drawings." In the whirligig of time " the fine gold is changed." Some words in our language have entirely lost their original meaning, while the meaning of others is becoming more narrowed and restricted. vi PREFACE The mosaic designer and worker is a painter, and so is the embroiderer, although neither of them uses a brush in applying their colours to their pictures, but they both decorate or paint in colour. The former paints with his fingers, instead of a brush, and uses vitrified colours instead of moist pigments, while the latter paints with a needle, using coloured threads instead of paints. The oldest form of painting, from which the art of picture painting has been gradually evolved and developed, was a purely decorative or orna mental art, and therefore no attempt is made in this volume to divorce ornamental painting and decorative polyehromy from the art of picture painting, for it must be clearly evident that from the most archaic attempts in the ornamental polyehromy of the early nations to the great masterpieces of Michelangelo, Titian, RaffaeUe, Leonardo and Velasquez, we may trace the connecting links in the gradual and upward development of that particular art which we must consider under the comprehensive and general term of " Painting." I desire to thank the authorities of the British Museum for their kind permission to use the illustrations of miniature painting. J. Ward. CONTENTS CHAPTEE I PAGE Egyptian Painting and Colour Decoration . . 3 CHAPTEE II Chald^jan and Assyrian Painting and Decoration . 15 CHAPTEE III Ancient Persian Painting and Decoration . . 31 CHAPTEE IV Greek and Eoman Colouring and Painting . . 47 CHAPTEE V Later Eoman Art 71 CHAPTEE VI Mosaics 79 CHAPTEE VII Byzantine and Eomanesque Miniature Painting. Celtic Illumination 119 CHAPTEE VIII Technical Methods op Tempera, or Distemper Painting 143 vii viii CONTENTS CHAPTEE IX TAOS Encaustic, or Wax Painting 155 CHAPTEE X Wall Painting in Fresco 165 CHAPTEE XI Artist's Pigments: their Nature and Composition, Conditions op Permanency, and their Action on Each Other 179 CHAPTEE XII Varnishes and Oleo-resinous Media .... 215 CHAPTEE XIII Oil Painting 231 Index 245 The illustrations facing pp. 60 and 62 are reproduced by kind permission from Hirth's L'Art Pratique. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page Book of Hours of Bona Sforza, Duchess of Milan : Italian, about A.D. 1490 ....... Frontispiece Egyptian painting : in a royal tomb at Gournah : Amenhophis II and Goddess 4 Egyptian painting at Thebes 6 Egyptian painted ceiling decoration, Necropolis of Thebes : 18th dynasty 8 Painting on a mummy case : 18th to 25th dynasty ... 10 Egyptian painted ceiling decoration, Memphis and Thebes : 18th to SOth dynasties 12 Enamelled brick decoration and painting on stucco : Assyrian, from Nimroiid 16 Detail of enamelled Axohivolt : Khorsabad 18 Enamelled brick in the British Museum 22 The Lion's Frieze : coloured enamelled tiles, Persian, from Susa 36 The Archer's Frieze : enamelled tiles, Persian, from Susa . . 38 Fragment of decoration, from Tiryns 48 Decoration on fragment of a crater, from Mycense ... 50 Fragment of ceiling slab : Tomb of Orchomenos .... 52 Wall painting from Pompeii : Greco-Roman .... 60 Mural paintings in fresco from Herculanaeum .... 62 Wall painting from Pompeii 64 Wall painting from Pompeii 66 Wall painting : Ancient Roman, from Pozzuoli .... 68 Mosaic : Church of St. Pudenziana, Rome, 4th century . . 80 Mosaics : Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, 5th century . 84 Mosaics : St. Vitale, Ravenna, 6th century 86 Mosaic : St. Vitale, Eavenna, Empress Theodora, 6th century . 88 Mosaic in St. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, 6th century . . 92 Miniature mosaic : Byzantine, 11th century, in the Museo di St, Maria del Fiore, Florence 98 Miniature mosaic : Byzantine, 11th century .... 100 ix X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing page Mosaic in the Cappella Palatina of the Palazzo Reale, Palermo : Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, 12th century .... 106 Mosaic in St. Maria in Trastevere, Rome, by P. Cavallini, late 13th century : Birth of Christ 110 Mosaic in St. Maria in Trastevere, Rome, by P. Cavallini, late 13th century : The Adoration 112 Gospels : Codex Aureus, Franco-German, about a.d. 800 . . 120 Miniature : Charter of King Edgar to New Minster, Winchester, A.D. 966 122 Simeon Metaphrastes : Byzantine miniature, 11th to 12th century 124 Psalter of Westminster Abbey, late 12th century . . . 126 Life of St. Guthlac of Croyland, miniature, late 12th century . 128 Scenes from the Life of Christ : German miniature, late 12th century 130 Lindisfame Gospels, Anglo-Irish, about a.d. 700 . . . 132 Lindisfarne Gospels, Anglo-Irish, about a.d. 700 . . . 134 Gospels : SS. Luke and John : Anglo-Irish, late 9th century . 136 Miniature cut from a Psalter, 13th century 144 Psalter of Melissenda, Queen of Jerusalem, Byzantine : a.d. 1131-1144 146 Somme le Roi : French miniature, about 1300 .... 148 Psalter of Robert, Baron de Lisle: English, early 14th century , 150 Psalter of Robert, Baron de Lisle: English, early 14th century . 151 Apocalypse, in French, early 14th century 152 CHAPTER I EGYPTIAN PAINTING AND COLOUR DECORATION CHAPTER I EGYPTIAN PAINTING AND COLOUR DECORATION Painting, as we understand the word, in which is expressed the gradation of tones of colour, the juxtaposition of harmonious tints, perspective, and the rendering of light and shade effects, was never really understood by the ancient Egyptians. Painting in Egypt was not an independent art, as it consisted solely of outlines filled in with flat colours, and was therefore a kind of illumina tion, in imitation of the coloured decoration of the sculptured intaglios, cameos, or bas-reliefs, which generaUy covered the whole of the outside and inside of their great buildings. It was, therefore, more or less subordinate to sculpture. Our know ledge of Egyptian painting, apart from the colour decoration of their sculpture and other architec tural features, is chiefly derived from the wall decorations of their tombs and from the mummy cases. Considering the limitations of their colour range, the absence of haK-tones and of broken tints, and their methods of execution, it is wonderful how well they managed to obtain and preserve that fine sense and expression of colour harmony which is often found in their work. Some of their enamels, or coloured glass, and inlaid 3 4 HISTORY AND METHODS OF work in precious stones, some paintings on papyri and many of the sun-bleached decorations, where time has mellowed their tints, are very beautiful in colour, but at the same time it might be said, that the arbitrary use of certain uniform tints applied to surfaces, each of which had its own colour value, more than often prevented the Egyptian decorator from experimenting in colour harmony. On the other hand, we must not be unmindful that it was the Egyptians who first used certain combinations or arrangements of blue and green which is the key-note of so much beautiful Assyrian, Persian, and other decoration. This blue-green combination had its origin in Egypt, as far back as the prehistoric times, in the glazed beads and pottery. Even glazing in two colours dates from the time of Mena, the first king of Egypt (5500 B.C.). Scarabs, tiles and pottery were covered with green-blue glazes in the third and fourth dynasties, and a further development in this direction took place in the eleventh and eighteenth dynasties. The colour values for flesh tinting were — dark brownish-red for a man, lighter, or sometimes a light yeUow for a woman, and for natives of difierent countries the colours differed, such as a light yellowish colour for prisoners, or people of more northern coimtries ; Ethiopians were painted a very dark brown, and negroes black. Here to some extent nature was followed, though in a very arbitrary way. The colours used by the Egyptians were the pigments and tints of yellow, red, blue, green, EGYPTIAN PAINTING : IN A ROYAL TOMB AT GOURNAH I AMENHOPHIS II AND GODDESS ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 5 brown, black and white. The yellows, reds, and browns were obtained from the ochre earths, the bright blues were mineral colours, composed of copper, sand and a sub-carbonate of soda, powdered and roasted in an oven, and then finely ground. The beautiful Egyptian blue used on their pottery, and also as painting pigment in decoration, was a frit or copper glaze, a kind of blue glass pigment. Such a colour would there fore be a perfect one for enamel painting and fresco. In some Egyptian glass objects cobalt blue has been used to colour the glass, but it does not seem to have been used as a painter's pigment. These blues have kept their colour well through the centuries. Ultramarine blue, from the lapis- lazuli, was sometimes used, and was imported from Central Asia. Indigo was the only vegetable colour used by the Egyptians. The greens were mixtures of blue and yellow ; blacks were obtained from carbonaceous substances, and whites were made from lime, gypsum, and powdered enamels. Gold, in the leaf form, was also used in decoration, but was much thicker than the modern gold-leaf. Egyptian colour combinations have a distinct and almost unique character of their own, quite different from those of any other time or country. To account for this traditional system of colour ing, it is likely enough that they used in early times the brightest colours at their command in the greatest possible contrast, enhancing this contrast by dividing each colour from its neighbour by lines and bands of black and white. This would be done in order to mphasize the forms 6 HISTORY AND METHODS OF and, contours of their architecture, to distinguish the various members and mouldings, to keep the construction clear, and to give the necessary variety and value to surfaces, all of which would be confused and nearly undistinguishable, if it were not for the sharp colour contrasts, in the dazzling brilliancy of the Eastern sunshine. Strong and brilliant contrasts of colour are necessary in the decoration of buildings which are almost continually bathed in the sunshine of the East, and the same rule holds good as regards the colour decoration of gloomy and dark interiors, for in both cases the colours are partially " de voured," in one case by the brilliant light, and in the other by an excess of darkness. It is only in a clear, but modified light, like that reflected from white clouds, that broken colours and delicate half-tones show their fuU value. The above-mentioned startling combinations of contrasting colours, which the Egyptians foimd best suited to emphasize the different features of their architecture, were eventually used by them in the decoration of all other forms and objects where colour was employed. Although symbolism strongly permeated nine- tenths of their decorative art, it can hardly be said that they used colour to any great extent in a symbolic sense; two instances, however, may be mentioned, namely, in the flesh tints of nude figures, and in the case of the midnight blue sky colour, used on the passage and hall ceilings of their great temples, these blue surfaces being sometimes decorated with golden stars, and with EGYPTIAN PAINTING AT THEBES ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 7 vultures, the emblems of protection, displaying their immense outspreading wings. It is worthy of notice that the Egyptian decorators employed the neutral colours, black and white, to the greatest advantage, both in masses and in outlines, in the nature of dividing lines between other colours, and it is owing to the judicious use of these neutrals that their colour arrangements are refreshed and redeemed from the taint of sickliness, or rankness. No people ever excelled the Egyptians in their lavish use of colour in decoration; a building in Egypt was never thought to be completed until it had obtained its final colour finish. They generally concealed the limestone, sandstone, or granite surfaces of their walls by spreading over them a fine coating of white stucco in order to obtain a pure white ground, on which they could use their briUiant and startling combinations of colour to the greatest effect. The covering of sculptured forms with stucco was practised to a great extent in the twelfth dynasty (about 2500 B.C.), and was also very common during the Ptolemaic period (330-30 B.C.). This lavish use of colour was not without its defects, for however satisfying was the expression of dignity and serenity in their sculptured figures, and in their solemn architecture, yet in many instances the immoderate use of abrupt and daring contrasts of colour, so richly spread over the surfaces of walls, columns and other places, while producing gorgeous effects of fascinating briUiancy, became at the same time a disturbing element 8 HISTORY AND METHODS OF that in some cases marred the otherwise perfect unity of the architectural forms and masses. When judged in accordance with the practice of the Greeks, and of later nations, it must be said that the Egyptian decorator did not always hold the balance evenly between his treatment of the plain and decorated surfaces of his buildings. The value of plain spaces and reticence of colour application in decoration, are generally better understood by the Western than by the Eastern nations. The Egyptian methods of decoration consisted, as we have seen, in laying a stucco or gesso ground of lime, chalk, or gypsum either on the flat stone walls and other surfaces, or on the figures and other designs, which had been previously carved in low relief, or as intaglios. In the latter case the figures, and other work, were first outlined on the surfaces by the chief artist, and these outlines were afterwards cut into the stone by his assistants, with a chisel, or more likely with a knife; the extreme outer edges of the outlines were generaUy left sharp, and the inner portion of the incised lines were usuaUy softened off towards the central spaces. The decorator then foUowed the sculptor in laying on the colour finish in flat tints as prescribed by the chief artist. In the case of the wall paintings, found in the tombs, and the paintings on the coffins or mummy cases, and those on the cartonnage or outer mummy coverings, white gesso or stucco was also used as grounds for the colouring. Here again, the chief artist would outline the designs and egyptian painted ceiling decoration, necropolis of thebes i 18th dynasty ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 9 his assistants would apply the colours in flat tints. The Egyptian pigments and tints were used in most cases as water colours, or tempera, and with a vehicle or medium consisting of a tough size, thought to be composed of gum tragacanth and honey. Egg size may have also been used, and even gum-arabic, as this was a plentiful product of the native acacia trees, but it would not be so good or so lasting as tragacanth or egg size. Brushes were made of reed fibres, and their palettes were of wood, alabaster, or glazed pottery, having hoUows in them to hold the colours. The general method and nature of the painting was in distemper, as regards the wall paintings in the tombs, the decorations of the temples, and on some of the coffins or mummy cases, but on some of the latter objects the distemper colouring has been coated over with a resinous varnish, which has darkened with age, and destroyed in a great measure the original brilliance and purity of the colours. On some of the later mummy cases the paintings have been executed in a kind of encaustic method, where the wax used in the medium has been dissolved and diluted with naphtha spirit. This method of painting was practised and developed in Egypt during the Greek occupation of the country, and was doubtless introduced by the Greeks about 330 b.c. From the representations of artists at work, found in the tombs at Beni Hasan, we know that the Egyptians also painted easel pictures on wood panels. 10 HISTORY AND METHODS OF They had little regard for the principles of constructive decoration, as their figures and other designs usually covered walls, piers, columns, and pylons alike, some of the figures occupying three or four courses of masonry in upright measure ment, regardless of the joints and seams of the building. The figures generally occur in hori zontal rows, each row or series placed above or below each other, and separated by bands and fillets, on which are carved and painted the hiero- glyphical inscriptions and other designs of sym bolical ornament. Rarely, except in some cases of isolated or independent pieces of sculpture, were the figures cut out of one slab or block of stone. The colour decoration of Egyptian buUdings cannot weU be studied apart from the sculptured figures and other carved motives that covered their walls and other surfaces, as we must bear in mind tha,t almost all of their carved work was finished eventuaUy in colour, and even where the painter worked without the co-operation of the sculptor, as on the decoration of the waUs of the tombs, his work with the brush, where one might expect more elasticity of method and freedom in treatment, was characterized by the same monu mental style and rigidity of drawing as that of the sculptured bas-reliefs. This would suggest that the master-artist who designed and sketched out the sculptured forms was the same person who outlined the forms and shapes of the painted wall decorations. The Egyptians derived the motives of their decoration from five great sources, namely — i ¦¦¦ in. '¦¦«. .iiin. mmu ¦uni ¦m hhb' ¦¦¦ k PAINTING ON A MUMMY CASE : 18tH TO 25TH DYNASTY ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 11 Anthropomorphic, — where the human form was used to represent gods, goddesses, and other divinities. Zoomorphic, — in the sense of representing their conceptions of a god or man in animal form. Naturalistic, — representations of flowers, plants, feathers, animals, etc. Geometric, — such as lines, spirals, curves, frets, squares, circles, and interlacings. Structural, — decorative motives derived from weaving, basket-work, architectural con struction, carpentry, rope twistings and bind ings, palisading and reed fencing. Symbolic, — as the winged-globe, urseus, scarab, hieroglyphic signs, and some divinities. The Egyptian decorator was not at a loss in finding motives and material to express his fanciful ideas, and to multiply and immortalize the deeds and events in the life of his rulers and royal masters, and in the supposed state of their lives in the land of the hereafter. With all this wealth of decorative material to his hand he found delight in the embellishment of the eternal masonry of his buildings, with the added dignity of creative form and the gaiety of colour. CHAPTER II CHALD.^AN AND ASSYRIAN PAINTING AND DECORATION CHAPTER II CHALDEAN AND ASSYRIAN PAINTING AND DECORATION Though the art of the two nations — Assyria and Chaldaea — was practically one growth, whose roots were first planted in the soil of the lower, or southern kingdom, yet it is to Assyria, rather than to Chaldsea, that we must look for the best evidence that would enable us to form a fair idea of the character and style of the painting and colour finish adopted by the ancient people of the land of Mesopotamia, in the interiors and on the exteriors of their great buildings. This is princi pally accounted for by the fact that very few fragments of the building materials, on which colour has been applied, have been brought to light from the Chaldsean ruins, up to the present date, compared with the number of examples of designs in colour found on glazed bricks and stucco, and the traces of colouring on the sculptured slabs that have been unearthed in Assyria. But from those remains that have been found in the former places, and from the Greek historians' texts, we know that the younger civUization — the more northern nation of Assyria — was indebted to Chaldsea, not only for her art, but for her language, religion, writing and science as well. is 16 HISTORY AND METHODS OF Just as Rome copied and assimUated the art of Greece, so did Nineveh adopt that of Babylonia. More examples of colour decoration have been found at Nineveh, Nimroud, and Khorsabad than at Babylon, Mugheir, Warka, and Borsippa, but we are not without hope that stiU more examples will be found at the latter places, and, as a good sign of this, it may be mentioned that a party of German explorers, in 1900-1902, found a finely- coloured painting of a lion, done in enamel colours on glazed bricks, in the ruins of the Kasr-mound, identified as the ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace, at Babylon, this lion being' almost simUar in design, pose, and colour, as the animals painted on what is known as the " Lion's Frieze," from the ancient Persian palace at Susa. The Babylonian lion was evidently the prototype of the later Persian lion, which was also executed in enamel colours on glazed bricks. In the domain of sculpture, however, the Assyrians excelled the Chaldaeans. This was mainly owing to the fact that stone was more plentiful in the more northern and mountainous country, whereas in Chaldaea there was no buUding stone to be found. Therefore the architects of the latter country were compelled to use bricks and tiles for their building material, which were made from the clay, or aUuvial deposits, that were brought down in great abundance by the rivers, and spread over the length and breadth of the lower Mesopotamian lands. Stone was too costly for use in Chaldaea, owing to the great distance from which it would have to be imported, con- FIGURES ON UPPER PORTION, ENAMELLED BRICK; LOWER PORTION, PAINTING ON STUCCO : ASSYRIAN, FROM NIMROUD ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 17 sequently there have not been in the lower country any important sculptural remains that compare with the great alabaster figures of half man and half buU or lion, that formed the mighty portal entrance features to the palaces of Nineveh. The student will be acquainted with these great colossi, and with carved wall slabs with which the Assyrian architect flanked his doorways, and used as the waU linings to the haUs and corridors of the palaces, many examples of which may be seen in the British Museum. Although stone was plentiful in Assyria its use in the buildings was confined to the portal figures, dadoes, plinths, lower wall linings, and pavements. The main structural mass of their buildings con sisted, like those of the Chaldaeans, of bricks and mortar. Cedar-wood from the forests of Lebanon, and metals, as gold, silver, iron, lead, and copper, were largely used by both nations as building, but more especially as decorative materials. Perhaps owing to the scarcity of stone as a building material the Chaldaeans seem to have made a great use of metals, by which, together with the extensive em ployment of enameUed bricks and tiles, they obtained a sumptuous style of decoration, that covered and enhanced the salient points, and all positions of importance in their buildings. Philostratus, the Greek historian, in his Life oj Apollonius, says that " the palaces of the King of Babylon are' covered with bronze which makes them glitter at a distance; the chambers of the women, the chambers of the men, and the porticoes are decorated with silver, with beaten and even 18 HISTORY AND METHODS OF massive gold instead of pictures," and Herodotus speaks of the " sUvered and gUded battlements of Ecbatana." The " exceeding great city of Nineveh," that had a circumference equal to the distance of " three days' journey " — sixty miles — as described by the prophet Jonah, embraced the sites of the palaces of Nimroud, Kouyundjik, and Khorsabad. The discoveries at the two former places by Sir H. Layard, and at the latter by MM. Place and Botta, the French explorers, have enabled us to form a good idea of the decoration and colour of those magnificent palaces, built by the ruthless race of Assyrian monarchs for their own use and aggrandizement; for the usual custom of these kings, like that of other Eastern rulers, was each to erect a palace for himseK, and so discard that which had been built by his father or predecessor, so when a new king came to the throne he signal ized his accession to power and gratified his pride of splendour by commencing to build, whether he lived to finish it or not, a new palace for himseK. The Ninevite palaces and temples served, not only for the residence of the monarch, or for the worship of the gods, but were also the depositories of the national archives, together with texts and prayers, or invocations to the spiritual divinities, not written on perishable materials, but carved on the lasting stone. These inscriptions were not arranged in any kind of a systematic order, or used in a decorative sense, like the hieroglyphical writing of the Egyptians, but were boldly carved across the sculptured forms of the human figures, DETAIL OF ENAMELLED ARCHIVOLT : KHORSABAD ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 19 bas-reliefs of gods, demons, animals, and chimerical creations evolved from the fertile imagination of the Assyrian artist. The lower parts of the palace walls were lined with the sculptured alabaster slabs, each slab being from eight to ten feet high, four to six wide, and about one foot in thickness, and on these slabs were carved the bas-relief decoration and inscriptions. The wall spaces above this bas- relief dado were either of enamelled bricks, or tiles, richly coloured, or were of sun-dried bricks, over which a thin coating of plaster was spread, and this surface, in each case, was usuaUy painted with figures and with ornamental designs arranged as borders, bands, or friezes. Although there have been no vestiges of a roof found in any of the ruins of the Assyrian or Chaldaean buildings, it has been conjectured by Layard that the roofs were fiat, probably made of cedar, and were panelled or coffered, while M. Place, Loftus, and some other explorers argue that the roofs were vaulted. Layard found a good deal of charred wood and wood ashes in the Ninevite ruins, and from this circumstance, and the authority of some texts, he came to the conclusion that flat roofs did exist, and that they have been destroyed by fire. Tiles, metal, and ivory, inlaid in some cases with lapis- lazuli, were used as panels, probably to fit into the cedar-wood coffers, and even tiles with a curved section have been found, which points out that they may have been made to fit the curved surfaces of vaulted ceilings. In either case the ceilings, as weU as the floors, must have been 20 HISTORY AND METHODS OF decorated with ornament, and the former especi aUy with precious metals, ivory, and coloured tiles, or enamelled bricks. Some floor pavement slabs have been found at Nineveh and Khorsabad, bearing a simUarity to the design of the Egyptian ceiling patterns, and such designs suggest what one would expect to see on the flat ceUing of an Assyrian building. Some ivory carvings were found by Layard in the interior debris of the chambers, parts of which were inlaid with lapis- lazuli, and some portions gilded — the gold-leaf still adhering to them — and in one instance a brick was found faced with gold. These ornaments must have formed parts of the decoration of either waUs or ceilings. The Egyptian-Uke designs on the ivory carving were evidently copies of others that had been brought from Egypt, but they had an unmistakable style in the workman ship that proved them to have been carved by Assyrian artists. The designs of the distemper-painted decoration on the walls, above the slabs of sculptured ala baster, in the Ninevite palaces, consisted usuaUy of representations of the king, foUowed by eunuchs and warriors, receiving prisoners and tribute, with other designs of animals, divinities, hunting scenes, geometric and floral forms. The colours of these designs were mostly blue, red, black, and white. When these parts of the walls were first uncovered the tempera colours were as vivid and bright as they must have appeared when they were first laid on, but they quickly faded and perished when exposed to the light and air. ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 21 In some cases, where the sculptured slabs were absent, a dado or plinth was imitated by a coating of black paint, as in certain chambers of the palace of Sargon at Khorsabad. The height of this dado varied in accordance with the height of the rooms. The wall space above this black painted dado was usually covered with a simple tint of unbroken colour, or the pure white stucco ground in some instances was left untouched. In several chambers, however, when cleared out by the explorers at Nimroud, the waUs were found to have horizontal bands of colour, alternately red, green, and yellow, painted on them, and in some instances, where the sculptured slabs were absent, and also the black painted dado, the lower parts of the walls were treated with alternating coloured stripes. The sculptured slabs, when uncovered from the mass of rubbish that had hidden them for centuries, showed clearly many traces of colouring, though, unlike the colour treatment of the Egyptian bas- reliefs, they were found to be only partially coloured. Whether this partial colour treatment was purposely done in order to bring these masses in harmony with the illuminated colouring on the upper waUs and ceilings, or only to relieve the monotony of their dark grey surfaces, is a matter of speculation. The fact remains that colour has been found on such parts of the sculptures as the eyeballs of the figures, which were painted white, and the pupil, iris, eyebrows, hair and beard, black. The head-dresses of kings and their chief ministers, rosettes as dress ornameritation 22 HISTORY AND METHODS OF belts, sashes, sandals, earrings, fans, sceptres, studs, weapons, horse and chariot trappings, and other parts where it was thought necessary to give emphasis, were generaUy painted red, though a bright blue was also used as an alternating colour with the red. These colours, though used sparingly on the sculptures, were as a rule strong and positive in their hues. Similar colours, as we have seen, were used in the distemper decorations, on the waUs above the sculptured slabs, but were purposely paler or lighter in their tints, as suited the general scheme of the colour decoration. These lighter tints would be made by adding white to the positive colours, or would be obtained by thin washes of transparent colour laid on the white stucco ground. There has been no trace of colour found on any of the isolated or independent statues, or rounded steles that were carved in very hard igneous stones — diorite and basalt — but the smaUer statu ettes which were modeUed in clay and sun-dried, or baked, have been coated over with a uniform tint, generally an azure blue, and in the case of representations of demons, black. The great love of colour, however, that characterized the people of ancient Mesopotamia, and which is the heritage of those who may be called their present-day representatives, through the old Persian nation, found expression in their distemper paintings, enameUed bricks, tiles, pottery, and embroideries, rather than in their sculpture. MM. Perrot and Chipiez, in their History of Art ENAMELLED BRICK IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 23 in Ghaldcea and Assyria, argue not without good reasons that Chaldaea was the birthplace of the art of enamelling on bricks and tiles, and that colour was used in the lower country to a greater extent than in Assyria, notwithstanding that up to the date of their writing there had been many more examples of coloured work found in the Assyrian ruins than in Babylonia. They based their conclusions mainly on the facts that a greater use of bricks and enamelled slabs for building purposes was made in a country like Chaldaea, that possessed no stone worth naming, and almost no wood ; also that the fragments of coloured and enameUed bricks, which have been found in the ruins of Babylon, are covered with a thicker and much superior kind of enamel than that which covered the Assyrian bricks, which they hold was only a poorer imitation of the Chaldaean enamel. The decorative motives on the enamelled bricks of Babylonia were first modelled in low relief, before the enamel colours were applied; this considerably enhanced the beauty of the colouring, and rendered them more effective as decoration. On the other hand, the surface of the enameUed bricks of Assyria were smooth and level, the colours being laid on in fiat tints. No previous modeUing of the ornament was attempted, before applying the colours, if we except the small raised bosses in the centres of the rosettes or daisy-like flowers, which the Assyrians used in great quan tities on the upper parts of the waUs, and around many of the doorways at Khorsabad, and other places. The recent discovery of the figure of a 24 HISTORY AND METHODS OF lion already mentioned, painted on enameUed bricks, and found in the Kasr-mound at Babylon, provides a further proof that Chaldaea was the cradle of the enamelled tile decoration, and that when Babylon was in the heyday of its greatness, the interiors and exteriors of its temples and palaces must have presented glowing pictures of brilliant and almost sensuous colouring, for it is reasonable to believe the parts of the buildings that were not already lined with the enamel coloured slabs, would hardly be left in the plain white tint of the stucco covering. Painting in distemper and fresco are older arts than enamel painting, it is therefore more than likely that these arts would be largely practised in Baby lonia, and that the stuccoed surfaces, which covered the bricks of the buildings, would have their proper share of coloured decoration. The larger enameUed friezes, or dado pictures, of the Babylonian palaces took the place of the sculptured slabs, which were found in simUar situations in the Assyrian halls and chambers, while in both countries, as we have seen, the walls above the dadoes were painted in distemper, on stucco grounds, with figures, animals, and orna ment. The ceiUngs, whether fiat or vaulted, of wood or of brick, were enriched with panels of metal, tiles, or ivory, and the colouring of these would in consequence be restful and more re strained than that on the waUs. The enameUed bricks of Assyria are extremely interesting from the pecuUar character of their colour arrangements, and afford sufficient proof ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 25 that in the majority of cases the colours schemes adopted were harmonious and refined. In their enamel decoration the Ninevite artists often aimed for a harmony of closely related tones, as distinct from the colouring of their sculptured forms, and more so than the Babylonians, who sought rather for a more decided harmony of contrast. The former kind of harmony was more apparent in their figure and animal motives of decoration, whUe, on the other hand, we find more decided contrasts of colour on the bricks, which have designs of simple patterns, such as rosettes, palmate forms, guilloches, bands, scrolls, and arcaded patterns. It wiU thus be seen that the nobler and more important motives of the decoration were treated in quieter and more subtle tones of colour than the purely geometric and less important units of the designs. This reveals a proper sense of the expression of fitness on the part of the Assyrian decorators, for in the higher forms of decorative art there is less obliga tion to use strong and violent contrasts of colour, while the lower we descend in the scale of decorative forms, and especiaUy when they are used with great repetition, a greater contrast of alternating colours of bright and positive hues is permissible. The colour schemes employed by the Assyrian decorators are generaUy harmonious, whether in the arrangements of low and broken tones, or of positive hues, for in no case could they be deemed rank or harsh. The pigments used by both nations in their enamel painting were derived from miinerals. 26 HISTORY AND METHODS OF The opaque, or stanniferous, white was an oxide of tin; the yeUow, an antimoniate of lead and some tin, similar to Naples yellow; the blue, an oxide of copper; blue from lapis-lazuli was also used; greens were derived from copper; dark brown, from iron; red is a suboxide of copper. The opaque white made from tin oxide used by the early Mesopotamian artists, was afterwards handed down through the Persians and Arabs to the Italians and modern Europeans. It forms the body of the beautiful white stanruferous glaze of the Persian and Arab tUes and pottery. The Saracens introduced it into Spain, where it was used on the Hispano-Moresque ware, and through the same people it found its way to Italy, where it is seen as the opaque white glaze on the Della Robbia ware and on the majolica faience. The French used it on the Rouen ware, and the Dutch on the Delft variety of pottery. In fact the term " glazed earthenware " postulates majolica, or any opaque tin-glazed ware that has a pale yeUow, or reddish-coloured, clay body. There was no attempt made by the Assyrian or Babylonian decorators to render the colouring of nature on figures of men, animals, or plants. They treated them all in a more or less conven tional way, as purely ornamental features, or as arrangements of form and colour, to please the eye, when placed in certain positions as in archi- volts, in dadoes, bands, or friezes running hori- zontaUy on the waUs, or around doorways. A human figure, a bull, a bird, a tree, or a plough might be all represented in one flat tint of colour. ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 27 say of blue, or yeUow. The tints used evidently did not matter much as long as the decorator attained his desired end of obtaining an agreeable colour finish on the waUs of the building. We have seen that the Egj^tians used their strong and warm colouring on almost every inch of their architecture and sculptured reUefs ; there was therefore little attempt to use it in a structural sense, but in the employment of colour on their buildings the Assyrians and Chaldaeans, as far as we can judge from the discovered fragments and other available data, never lost sight of the decorative and structural value of colour, and consequently they were more sparing and reticent in their use of it than the Egyptians. In their colour schemes as applied to large surfaces the general effect was a cooler arrangement without being positively cold, than that which obtained with the latter nation, owing perhaps to their greater employment of blue pigments than was the case with the Egyptian decorators. Blue was the dominant colour in Mesopotamian decoration, and still is with the present-day art of the Persians, If we consider the subject of colour decoration on the Chaldaean and Assyrian buildings in its broadest sense, we may come to the conclusion, that when the halls and chambers of the palaces and temples had received their final touches of colour finish, they must have furnished examples of one of the best systems of structural colour decoration, that has been known in the history of architecture. CHAPTER III ANCIENT PERSIAN PAINTING AND DECORATION CHAPTER III ANCIENT PERSIAN PAINTING AND DECORATION The architecture, sculpture, and decorative motives of Ancient Persian art were hardly indige nous to that country, which geographicaUy is known as the plateau of Iran, There is nothing to show that the art of Persia had any roots in the country, for nothing previously existed in the nature of native germs of art before the days of the foundation of the First Empire, under Cyrus (about 630 b,c.). The oldest Persian art is of a highly complex, or composite character, and mainly consisted of a mixture of borrowed forms and motives from Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Grecian sources, but skilfuUy selected and adapted by the Persian architects and decorators to suit the desires and tastes of the native rulers, when they began to build their palaces and tombs for their own glory and gratification. At Persepolis, Pasargadae, and Susa, which have been the three chief cities of the empire, mighty palaces have been built by Cyrus, Cambyses. Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes, who employed Assyrian, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Greek archi tects and artificers in the work of erecting and decorating these edifices with sculpture, enameUed tiles, ivory, and metals. Although the employ- 31 32 HISTORY AND METHODS OF ment of foreign artists in Persia is a matter beyond dispute, yet the excellent taste of the Persian kings, or of those who were the chief controllers of their architectural works, has been the means of creating a classical style of art that eventuaUy became national in its character. We say, became national, for in its early stages it was by no means so, seeing that it was not, in its inception, a native creation, or a spontaneous inspiration of her people, like the art of Egypt, Chaldaea, or Greece, but was the growth of exotic forms and motives, brought from the neighbouring and conquered countries, and being more or less engrafted on each other, developed and flowered into luxuriant grace and beauty in Persian soil, under the fostering care and attention of the powerful and wealthy lords of Asia, Nearly all the art of Ancient Persia was lavished on the palaces, great halls, and tombs of the kings ; nothing was wanting in these luxurious edifices, with aU their wealth of ornament, to render them magnificent, in order that they might minister to the glorification both in IKe and in death of the royal princes of a great empire. Persia as a nation may be said to begin its historic life under the rule of Cyrus, the first king of the Achaemenid dynasty, about the middle of the sixth century b.c. It was in his reign, after he had through successful wars become master of western Asia, that the Persians began to think of building the famous palaces at Pasargadae, Susa, and Persepolis, The countries of Assyria, Phoenicia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Asiatic ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 33 Greece had all in their turn succumbed before the victorious armies of united Persia under Cyrus and Cambyses, and not only did these nations pay enormous tribute to sweU the coffers of the Persian kings, but many architects and artists of the conquered countries were induced to enter the service of these monarchs, who could so well afford to recompense them for their labour, but also many sought employment in Persia in order that they might escape from political oppressions, and from the harder life they experienced in their own countries. It is then little wonder that there was so much in the cosmopolitan art of Persia, which reminds us of the decided character istics of the motives, forms, and colouring of the art of those nations that lay to the west and north-west of the Iranic table-lands. Therefore, in order to properly understand the beginnings' and subsequent development of Persian art in its best period, namely, during the sixth and fifth centuries b.c, we shall have to be mindful of the character and forms of the art that then existed in the neighbouring countries, and more particu larly of those that lay nearest — Babylonia and Assyria. To these countries Persia was indebted in a greater degree than to Asiatic Greece or Egypt for the models of her architecture, and for the motives and themes of its decoration. In the history of all art development it has generally been found that the art of a young nation has been strongly influenced by that of an older civiliza tion which happens to lie nearest it, and, as the dyer's hand is subdued to what he works in, it is 34 HISTORY AND METHODS OF not a matter of surprise to find that the art of Persia was in a great measure a continuance and development of that of the Mesopotamian schools. But other influences, both foreign and native, modified the character of the original Babylonian and Assyrian styles adopted by the Persians, which in the end produced a new, if somewhat complex, variety of national art. It is clear, however, that through all the ages and changes of dynasties and governments, down to the present time, the whole art of Ancient and Modern Persia has been, and is stiU, strongly reminiscent of the character, forms, and colour that have been transmitted down from its cradle-land of Mesopo tamia, Persia has often been at the mercy of the nations that have invaded and conquered her, yet from her infancy as a kingdom she has kept her individuality, and in a great measure her art, for none of her conquerors have yet succeeded in absorbing the character of her national IKe, nor the spirit and forms of her art; on the contrary, Persian architecture, decoration, and more especi aUy that of the design and colouring of the applied arts in pottery, tiles, metal- work, and textUes, have been immeasurably far-reaching in their influence on the industrial arts of Europe and of the East, The architecture of the First Empire was par ticularly distinguished by the great use that was made of graceful and ornate columns, which supported the wooden beams of the flat and paneUed ceiling. This type of architecture was therefore of a trabeated, or pillar and beam variety, but during the Sassanid dynasty (a.d. 226-652), ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 35 after the Greek and Parthian occupations of the country had come to an end, the Persians reverted to the use of another order of architecture, namely, the domed and vaulted style, a type which had been formerly used by the Chaldaeans and Assyr ians. That domed and vaulted buildings were erected by the Assyrians is proved by a bas-relief found at Nineveh, where groups of them are repre sented, and Strabo the Greek historian and geo grapher expressly teUs us that " aU the houses of Babylon were vaulted." Some remains of these domed and vaulted structures have been found at Feriiz-Abad and at Sarvistan, and one also at Ferash-Abad, where a portion of the domed roof still exists. The domes are elliptical in section, or ovoid in contour, as also are some of the arched openings of entrances and of window-heads, while some of the latter are circular-headed. In some cases the arched head of the openings turns inwards at the springing points on the tops of the piers and jambs, thus showing an early iUustration of the horse-shoe arch that is so very characteristic of Modern Persian and Saracenic architecture. The principal cupolas or ovoid domes of these buildings were supported by resting on the four walls, which formed the square haU or chaniber underneath. The centre of the principal facade was occupied by the large ovoid- arched opening, which was used as the chief entrance. This great doorway has always been, and still is, an important feature of Persian and Saracenic buildings, as may be seen in the huge vaulted portals of mosques, houses, caravanserais, 36 HISTORY AND METHODS OF and other edifices of Modern Persia, India, Egypt, Turkey, and Asia Minor, and in fact in all Mohammedan architecture. These domed build ings of the Sassanid period were built of roughly dressed stones and bricks, which were weU cemented together with lime mortar. The walls and surfaces of vaults and domes were plastered, and on the interior walls of the building at Feriiz-Abad, around the circular-headed niches and doorways there are mouldings, with the Egyptian "gorge " as a horizontal crowning feature, and superimposed decoration in low relief. Here we find that which was a very characteristic structural feature of the earlier Achaemenid buildings, as the doorways framing mouldings and the gorge-headed entabla ture of the palace of Darius at PersepoMs, copied in low relief as mere decoration in the vaulted and domed structures of the Sassanid period. From the circumstances that these buildings were undoubtedly copied from the Assyrian and Babylonian vaulted structures, and their secondary forms of decoration were borrowed from the architecture of the Achaemenid period, we must look upon them as a type of Persian renaissance. Though most of them belong to the Sassanid period, it is conjectured that some of the earlier ones were erected in the previous dynasty, by the Parthian kings ; it is indeed more than likely that buildings of this kind existed in Persia from its earliest period, and may have been transferred to Persia from Mesopotamia before the time of Cyrus, The problems of arch, vault, and of dome construction had been worked out, with progressive im/\\Mi h AlA A A A ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 37 improvements, throughout Persia and Asia Minor during the Sassanid period, and in later times culminated in the great domed structure of Santa Sophia, built at Constantinople by Greek architects (a.d,'^527-565), which served as a perfect model of the Byzantine domed-type of architecture for all later buildings of this description. The surfaces of domes, vaults, walls, and piers, in the buildings we have been describing, always have presented admirable situations, and large spaces, which lent themselves to decoration and colour, in such mediums as distemper, fresco, coloured tiles, and mosaics. The use of stucco, or plaster, as a superimposed decoration in Persian buildings began, as we have seen, in some of the earlier Sassanid, or perhaps Parthian, domed structures, and was a process which developed to such a great extent as a surface decoration in the subsequent Arabian, or Saracenic, archi tecture that it has become one of the distinguish ing features of the style. This decorative plaster work, it is hardly necessary to say, offered great opportunities for illumination in polyehromy, which has been carried to extreme limits by the Saracen decorators. The most precious remains of Persian painting, as applied to architectural decoration, have been found at Susa (now Shuster), once the strong hold of the Elamites, and for a long time the favourite residence of the Persian kings. It was for a considerable period the most important place in Asia, and is one of the oldest cities in the world. The Chaldaean art of enamelling in colours 38 HISTORY AND METHODS OF on bricks and tiles was carried on and greatly developed by the Susian artists. At Susa M. Dieulafoy, the French explorer, in 1884-1886, found sufficient fragments of enamelled bricks that enabled him to put together and restore the famous designs of the " Lions Frieze " and the " Archers Frieze," which are now in the Louvre, at Paris. The ruins in which these fragments were found have been identified, by the inscrip tions, to be those of the palace of Darius, son of Hystaspes. This building was anterior in date to another that had been erected on the same spot by Artaxerxes Mnemon, the latter building having been cleared out and identified by Loftus, the English explorer, in 1851. The art of the enameUist had its birthplace, as we have seen, in Chaldaea, and as the country of Susiana was geographicaUy a close neighbour of the former kingdom, and like it was almost devoid of stone as a building material, it is there fore a matter of no surprise that the Susians should build and decorate their palaces in the same style, and use the same processes as those which obtained in the older kingdom. The art of enameUing on bricks was known to the Susians centuries before it reached Persia proper, or at least before it was in universal use in the latter country. We mentioned formerly the striking similarity, both in the design and colouring, of the Babylonian lion on the enamelled bricks to that of the lions on the frieze found at Susa, which settles all doubts as to the origin of the enameUed brick and pottery decoration of Persia. The THE archer's frieze : ENAMELLED TILES, PERSIAN, FROM SUSA ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 39 " Archers Frieze," of Susa is somewhat similar in colour and in treatment to the decoration of the " Lions Frieze," and is extremely interesting, inasmuch as it shows that, although this kind of work has only been found at Susa, it is more than likely that a similar kind of decoration has been used at Persepolis and other places in Persia, seeing that the palaces at Susa and many other palaces and halls in Persia were built for, and used alternately as royal residences by the same Persian prince. Enamelled decoration was not used in Persia proper to the same extent as in Susiana; this was due to the fact that stone was more plentKul in the former country, and conse quently we find that the sculptured bas-reliefs and other limestone sculptures, were used in such positions at Persepolis as would be occupied in the Susian buildings by the coloured enamelled decorations. Some fragments of unglazed terra cotta animal and figure forms were found at Susa, which may have been used as wall decoration, but not to any great extent. The fragments found had the appearance of being made from soft red clay, which had been pressed in moulds and afterwards burnt in a kiln. Some of these fragments when put together by Dieulafoy repre sented figures of animals with and without wings, and which he supposed were placed on either side of the entrances of the Susian palaces. The enameUed tiles or slabs found at Susa have the figures of lions and men modelled in low relief on the surface made up of many slabs, after which the enamel colours would be applied, then 40 HISTORY AND METHODS OF the slabs would be taken down, after their posi tions in the general design were marked, and would be fired in a kiln in order to secure and fix the colours. Each separate colour in the designs was usuaUy outlined with a raised line in ceramic " slip." This slip line has been the means of protecting and preserving from injury the colours of the hoUows which it enclosed, besides giving great value, by means of a separating outline, to the various tones and hues. The colours used were yeUows, yeUow-greens, blues, mostly turquoise in hue, brown, and white that was sometimes toned to a pale warm grey. Red as a pure colour was hardly ever used in the Susian enamels, but may have been mixed with the yellows in some cases to give them an orange hue. Other decorative materials were used besides the enamelled slabs, which greatly enriched and added colour effects to the Persian and Susian palaces, among which may be mentioned the metals of bronze, silver, electrum, and gold, A great use was also made of ivory, various marbles, and richly coloured textile hangings and carpets. We may add that painting in distemper which must have been often renewed, also, plaster coloured in the wet state before it was spread on walls, and the natural colour of bricks, must aU be taken into account in the general colour scheme, Aristotle in The World's Treatise says : — " As historians teU us, the pomp and circumstance in the reigns of Cambyses, Darius, and Xerxes ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 41 reached a very high pitch of magnificence and majesty. Report says that the king had his residence at Susa or Ecbatana, behind waUs that hid him from the vulgar gaze, within a palace where the glitter of gold, of electrum, and ivory was seen everywhere." We know also from other ancient authorities that the Persians under Cambyses, who conquered Egypt, carried away with them immense quantities of gold, silver, ivory, and precious stones from her temples (as well as the Egyptian artificers), and with this rich booty of material wealth embeUished and decorated the magnificent palaces at Persepolis, Susa, and Media, which were built immediately after the Egyptian conquest. We have evidence from the bas-reliefs and the enameUed tile designs, supported by the authority of historians' texts, that the Persians used richly coloured hangings, portieres, canopies, and carpets, which were employed not only to shade off the rays of the sun, and as furnishings to the palaces, but also by means of their colour bestowed the finishing touches to the decorative beauty of the royal edifices. The floors of the palaces were composed of sectile pavements of various coloured marbles, and in design were not unlike the patterns of woven textiles, from which they may have been copied, but on the other hand the designs of the more elaborate hangings, of the patterns on the embroidered dresses of kings, and of the horse- trappings were similar to those of the Assyrian embroideries, which consisted of the same motives that were represented on the stone bas-reliefs, such 42 HISTORY AND METHODS OF as rows of walking lions, processions of warriors, hunting scenes, floral forms, and conventional ornament. The principal, or more common theme, however, was the design composed of two figures, chiefly of griffons, in the Persian textiles, one of which was placed on either side, facing each other, and in the centre between them appeared a conventional tree form. This design was an adaptation of the two divinities offering homage to the sacred tree which is so often seen in Assyrian art, a motive in which may be seen the origin of all the important pattern of textile design. The central form is usually a tree, plant, or flower, sometimes a vase of flowers, at other times the vase only, or even any kind of central object; but invariably there are similar objects or figures on either side, which may be each a divinity, demon, griffon, quadruped, or bird form. This design may be traced as the chief motive in diaper patterns of woven textile hangings from its first germ in Assyrian art down through the Persian, Arabian, Byzantine, Sicilian, Palermitan, Italian, French, to modern English designs, especially those of silks, velvets, cretonnes, and carpets. The beautiful colouring also of both mediaeval and modern Persian, Turkey, and other Eastern carpets and rugs had its common origin in the Assyrian and Ancient Persian textUes and embroideries. In the first chapter of the Book of Esther we read, that the " King Ahasuerus (the Xerxes of the Greeks), sat on the throne of his kingdom which was iu Shushan, his palace," and, in " the ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 43 third year of his reign he made a feast unto aU his princes and servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces being before him." And that " he showed them the riches of his glorious kingdom." And after wards he made another feast, this time to his people, " both great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble ; the beds (couches) were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue, and of white and black marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold (the vessels being diverse one from another) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king." The writer of the Book of Esther must have been an eye-witness of these feasts, and of the glories of the sumptuous palace which he describes. We can form an idea from his description, and also from other historians' texts, together with our knowledge obtained from the fragments of the architecture and decoration which have been brought to light in recent years, that the royal houses of the Persian princes could hardly have been excelled in any age for the magnificence of their architecture and furnishings, and for the richness and splendour of their decorative colouring. CHAPTER IV GRECIAN AND ROMAN COLOURING AND PAINTING CHAPTER IV GRECIAN AND ROMAN COLOURING AND PAINTING The polychromatic decoration of the Greek temples in the Classic period was a development of the earlier colour application to the buildings of primitive Greece. Many fragments of painted plaster and other evidences of colour decoration from the halls and palaces of Tiryns, Mycenae, and Thera have been brought to light during the excavations carried out by MM. Schliemann, Dorpfeld, and others in 1885. It has been found that not only the Megarons, or principal reception halls, but even the private apartments of the palaces had their walls, ceilings, and their floors also painted in coloured fresco. Both outer and inner walls of these buildings, whether the materials of their construction were of wood, stone, or of sun-dried clay, had their surfaces covered with a coating of clay over which a finer coating of plaster was laid, on which, especiaUy in the case of the interior waUs, the coloured decoration was executed in fresco, that is, while the plaster was still in a wet or damp state. On the exterior, and sometimes on the interior waUs and floors the plaster was coloured in the body before it was applied, and this was laid on some times in alternating bands of different colours, and sometimes in very large areas of single tints, 47 48 HISTORY AND METHODS OF The floor decoration consists usuaUy of carpet like patterns of linear ornamentation. The colours used in the fresco decorations did not exceed five in number, namely, white, black or dark brown, blue, red, and yeUow, The blue is of a bright hue, the red of a chalky kind, but of two distinct shades, light and very dark, the lighter shade being used for grounds and the darker for the ornamental patterns. In addition to the gay fresco tints employed by the primitive Grecian house painter, the structural decoration of the Mycenaean and Tirynthian palaces was rendered more complete by the aid of different coloured woods, gold, silver, electrum, and bronze metals, limestone, green schist, porphyry, and alabaster, as well as a vitrified blue paste, aU of which materials have been used in the decorations of the palaces, as testified by the fragments and remains that have been found in the ruins of the edifices. Though the decorator employed his colour chiefiy on the plastered surfaces, he did not hesitate to paint in colour the limestone, or the wooden parts of the structure, if he found it necessary in order to harmonize such parts with the brighter colour ing of the frescoed work. The portions that appeared white in the wall decorations were the untouched grounds of the white stucco finish, and were not painted in a solid body; some greenish tints have been found on the painted plaster fragments, but these have been due to the exposure of the original blue and yeUow colours to the action of damp, for no genuine green has been found on the archaic fragments. SNAaix Hoa>i 'NOixvaooaa ao XNamova.! ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 49 The forms and motives of the painted orna mentation used by the primitive Greeks were few, and of a simple character, most of which, though having distinctive features of their own, were more or less derived from the types of orna ment commonly found in Egyptian and Assyrian art. Volutes, spirals, chevrons, rosettes, or daisies formed the staple kind of their ornament, and aU these were arranged in bands, or in diapers. Plant and sheU-fish forms were also used, and sometimes figures, animals, and other designs of fanciful creation, crudely drawn, but painted with considerable directness of execution. The more geometric varieties of ornament, however, were used with greater frequency, of which spirals and rosettes appeared in endless repetition. The use of a coloured and decorated dado and the division of the walls above into panels, with surrounding borders or bands of colour, was common in the wall treatment of the early Grecian interiors, and this system of decorative colour application may be^ regarded as the origin of the more elaborated, but similar method of setting out by subdivisions the whole field of the waUs into dadoes, panels, and friezes. This system of space-divisions was followed out in later times in the interiors of the Greco-Roman houses, the best examples of which are those of the Pompeian and Herculaneum wall decorations. Not only were the paneUed spaces, borders, bands, and fiUets painted in strong tints of contrasting colours, but the superimposed decoration on these divisions was equaUy treated in the brightest colours at the 50 HISTORY AND METHODS OF command of the Mycenaean decorator. Our know ledge of the primitive Greek polyehromy has been further enriched by the discoveries made by Dr, A, J, Evans, who with Dr. D. Mackenzie and Mr. Theodore Fyfe, the architect, excavated the ancient palace of Knossus, in Crete, in the years 1900- 1902, where they found many remains of fresco decorations, consisting of fragments of painted plaster. In the entrance corridor of the palace were found the remains of a great processional wall painting, where figures of men were repre sented, dressed in long robes, and of boys, or youths, carrying vases of tribute, etc. One fine example of a male figure, painted life-size in fresco, was part of the internal decoration of the Pro- pylaeum. Other subjects were, wingless griffins with peacock's plumes, also remains of frescoes showing zones of figures, and others showing groups of warriors, male and female figures engaged in lively conversation. In addition to the remains of the important figure work there were found many examples of purely ornamental designs, composed of running bands of spiral ornament, rosettes, interlaced fret patterns, chevrons, tooth-ornament, and triglyph motives on painted plaster. Fragments of ceiling decoration in modelled and coloured plaster were also found, consisting of the spiral and rosette ornamentation, all of which motives, both in design and colouring, bore a strong family likeness to those of the Mycenaean palace decorations. Apart from the love and lavish use of briUiant colours, which characterized the primitive Greeks, ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 51 in common with the people of all sunlit countries, both in their dress and decoration of their houses, it may be mentioned that they used paint also as a protective covering to wood and plaster, when the former was not sheathed in plates of bronze. This protective paint, which was most likely a wax composition diluted with naphtha and applied with the brush, was used extensively on the wooden entablatures and other parts of the Mycenaean palaces and houses, the wooden architecture of which was the prototype of the later Greek Doric. The colours on the exteriors of the wooden edifices were therefore used in two senses, namely, to preserve the wood from the weather, and to please the eye by their strong colour harmonies. The most positive hues at the command of the decorator were used, for rarely, if ever, has there been found among the fragments of coloured de coration any examples or arrangements which could be described as low-toned, or subordinate schemes of colour harmony. This practical and at the same time artistic use of colour on the wooden entablatures of the Mycenaean structures was never lost sight of by the architects of the Doric temples, when subsequently stone took the place of wood as a building material. We shall find that the " protective " painted decoration of the wooden structures was copied more or less faithfully on the later stone buildings, just as the original wooden construction was copied in stone ; and when in the later Classic period the Doric temple of the Parthenon was reared as a sublime 52 HISTORY AND METHODS OF structure of white and glistening marble, its severe beauty was enhanced by the discreet use of a veil of traditional colouring, not suf&cient to obscure, but on the other hand, just enough to make clear and intensify the manifold charms of its proportion, constructive features, and the more delicate beauties of its carved decorations. Remains of colour have been found on mouldings, entablatures, and other parts of many of the earlier Doric temples at Selinous, ^gina, and Paes- tum, as well as on the Propylaea and Parthenon at Athens. Traces of colouring, though in a lesser degree, have been found on the ruined edifices of the Ionic order, on such temples as those of Halicarnassus, Priene, Didyme, Ephesus, and Athens. We are indebted to the researches and examinations made in the light of this matter by Hittorf , F. C. Penrose, Maxime CoUignon, O. Rayet, Newton, and others, who have given much atten tion to the subject of Greek polyehromy, and from the result of their labours we are enabled to glean much valuable information, which wiU enable us to trace with some clearness the development of Greek colouring. The colours used by the Greeks on their edifices were prepared in a wax medium and known as " encaustic," so called because that in order to make them flow evenly under the brush, or spatula, heat had to be applied, or when painted on the warm marble or stone the hot sunshine would melt the mixture quite as effectively as any appli cation of artificial heat. Encaustic or wax-paint ing wUl be more f uUy treated in a separate chapter ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 53 in this volume. The great advantage of using encaustic colours consisted in the pigments being rendered waterproof, and also the natural hue of each pigment would be extremely lasting, as it would be locked up in the wax medium and there fore weU protected from the bleaching effects of the sunshine and atmosphere. It is owing to this wax medium, and also to the circumstance that the Greeks usually carved, or incised, their patterns before painting them, that any traces of colour have remained on the edifices through the past ages to the present day. On many parts of the structures the delicate incised lines of the patterns, and the good preservation of the marble under neath the spaces, formerly occupied by the decora tion, were the proofs, clear enough, that on such places the encaustic paint had been applied shortly after the building had been finished. About the time of Pisistrates {circa 500 B.C.), the columns of the temples appeared to have been painted a pale yeUowish transparent colour, which was spread over the stucco covering of the stone, and Penrose, in The Principles of Athenian Architecture, says that although it is a matter of conjecture how far the plain surfaces of the corona, architrave, and columns of the Parthenon were painted in flat colours, still he found that the columns of the west front had been coated with a peculiar yellow tint which was not the result of the oxidation of iron contained in the Pentelic marble, and that this slight yellow tint was probably applied to reduce the high light of the marble when it was new, without obscuring 54 HISTORY AND METHODS OF its crystaUine lustre, but to bring it into harmony with the brighter colours introduced elsewhere on the building. It is not known whether the general practice was to colour the capital, but M. CoUignon mentions the case of the palmate leaf decoration, which must have originally existed on the capitals of the portico columns of the temple at Paestum, where the salient painted portions were in a good state of preservation, while the unpainted portions had been decayed and corroded by the action of the wind from the sea. From the traces of colouring found on the Doric temple of ^phaia at .iEgina, it has been proved that the architrave was painted red, of a uniform tint. This served as a ground for the gilded shields on which votive inscriptions were placed and executed in metallic letters. Above the architrave the frieze presented an alternation of triglyphs and metopes, the former being painted blue, while the ground of the sculptured metopes was red, which relieved the sculptured decoration, the latter being left the natural marble colour, only that the accessories of the figures were in gilded bronze. The mutules of the cornice were painted blue. The tympanum of the pediment was also blue, serving as a backgroimd to the sculptures, which were possibly tinted a pale yellow. The surrounding mouldings were decor ated with leaf patterns in red and green, or red and blue, and the gutter, or crowning member, received a similar treatment of lively colouring. We have here an idea of the archaic polyehromy with its positive tones, which was in accordance with the ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 55 colour system of the primitive Greeks, and also in perfect harmony with the austere lines of the old Doric order. When the proportions of the temple became more elegant, when marble was substituted for the commoner stone, and the work accordingly de manded more finish, the colours were used more sparingly. As regards the colouring of the Parthenon, Penrose found faint traces of red, blue, and green on the ogee, hawksbeak, and on some fiUet mould ings. The hawksbeak moulding and the decora tion on it, which is found in Doric architecture, are borrowed from the Egyptians. The great simplicity of the broad Doric mouldings was no doubt an intentional feature in their design, for the purpose of receiving the finished colour decorations. On the edges, and soffits of the mutules of the Parthenon traces of a deep blue colour were found, while the soffits and vertical spaces between the mutules were painted red; this colour also extended to the narrow fiUet underneath the mutules. The soffit of the cornice at each angle of the buUding was in each case adorned with painted honeysuckle ornamentation. Positive traces of a well-preserved deep blue colour were found inside the channels of the triglyphs, and other but fainter traces of the same colour on the face above the triglyphs, A capital of one of the northern antae has preserved some traces of colour, a restoration of which, according to Penrose, is given in his work on Athenian Architecture, No authority for the gUding has 56 HISTORY AND METHODS OF been found in this case, but it has been introduced in this illustration by Penrose, as it must have been necessary in order to give the required harmony, and we know from the mention made of gUding in decoration by the Greek authors that it must have been used on the Parthenon, as on other Greek temples. Some authorities are in clined to the belief that the background of the sculptured Panathenaic frieze was painted blue, but there is no positive evidence of this. Many fragments of the ceiling of the Propylaea at Athens have been found, on which distinct vestiges of colouring still remained; the blues, especiaUy in some cases, were quite positive, red, and bright green were also common colours. It will be remembered that a decided green was in common use in the Classic period (a colour that was unknown to the decorators of Archaic times), and was probably derived from a copper base. All the colours used in Classic Greece were much brighter, and more positive in hue than those of the Archaic period. The soffits of the coffered panels in the ceUing of the Propylaea were ornamented with stars and conventional flowers in various colours. The plinth of the central hall is composed of black marble, and the wall above is white, on which subject paintings may have been executed, but if they ever did exist, no traces have been found of such. Analogous colouring to the Athenian methods has been found on the Lycian tombs and on some marbles from Lycia, now in the British Museum, ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 57 The Grecian Ionic order of architecture had also its proper scheme of colour decoration. This order above all demanded a discreet and refined polyehromy. We can understand that the delicate leaf ribs of those exquisite marble carvings which run like lace around the neck of the capitals and under the voluted abacus would be obliterated under a coating of paint. Colour was therefore sparingly applied to underline them, in order to give them their proper value on the whiteness of the marble that would be inundated with the bright sunshine. The colours used here, as in the Doric order, were lively tones of red and blue to which was added the lustre of the gilding. That gold leaf was used by the Greeks in the decoration of their buildings is proved by an inscription of the 92nd Olympiad, about 410 B.C., relating to the building accounts and expenses of the Erectheion, where mention is made of " a hundred and seventy leaves of gold, one drachm to the leaf," which were used to gild the eyes of the volutes of the capitals, and the floral designs on the ceiling coffers. We must be mindful that here, in the Ionic order, as in the Doric, the colouring was not an absolute system, but was determined in accordance with the variations of taste, and the traditions of the Schools. From examinations that have been made of the ruined Ionic edifices of Priene, of Didyme, of Ephesus, of Halicarnassus, and of Athens we can form an idea of the measure of polyehromy that is associated with the Ionic order. Two colours, above all others, red and 58 HISTORY AND METHODS OF blue, have been in common use, the first was reserved for the backgrounds and parts in shade, to which it gave value by its intense tint ; some times red was also employed to underline the darts between the eggs on the carved ovolo moulding, and those also on the rais de coeur, or ogee moulding. Blue was applied to the surfaces that were more in light, as on the eggs of the ovolo moulding, which showed in full light, whUe the more salient lines and edges were left white. By this colour treatment a harmony was obtained that was at once discreet and gay; the shaded parts of the hollows warm and transparent, the blues softened by the bright sunshine, while the fine and delicate carving of the more prominent edges and outlines conserved in all its purity the whiteness of the marble. The acquired knowledge of Greek polyehromy up to the present, clearly proves that it conforms to the severe requirements and taste of the Greek genius, so contrary to our modern tastes and prejudices as to the division of the arts, for it shows to what point in the mind of the Greeks the arts blended in the finished building. If we are inclined to think that the Greek colouring was too strong, or too barbarous, we must not forget that it was the conditions of the climate which rendered such colouring necessary. A unKormly white building in the glare of the sunshine would not only be blinding to the sight, but aU the deU cate carvings would be monotonous or would hardly be seen if they had not been relieved, or brought out by the aid of colour. GeneraUy ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 59 speaking the mouldings in the Doric order were decorated with painted ornament, while those of the Ionic were carved, so that in the latter case the colour was used in a more discreet and re strained sense. Colour was seldom employed on buildings of the Corinthian order. Greek Painting. Although no remains of Greek painting have been found either on the interior walls of the temples, or in private houses, yet there is evidence enough from the historians' accounts that the Greeks practised the art of painting on walls, panels and canvases, and the names have come down to us of such Greek painters as ApoUodorus of Athens, Zeuxis, Parrhasius, the founder of the Ionic School, and Eupompus, who with Pam- philus founded the Sicyonian school. The latter school was brought to its climax of perfection by ApeUes, who was Court painter to Alexander the Great. ApeUes painted decorative pictures for the Temple of ^Esculapius, in the isle of Cos, and for the Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, as weU as many other portable pictures, the greatest of which was his celebrated picture of Venus Ana- dyomene. Polygnotus of Thasos was another celebrated painter, who decorated the public porticoes of Greece with subjects illustrating the Trojan wars. He was first trained as a sculptor, a training which helped him considerably as a designer of monu mental painting, for he was essentially a great 60 HISTORY AND METHODS OF decorator of wall spaces. He was noted for his " disposition of deUcate drapery," and it is related that he placed his figures, especially in the more distant parts of his compositions, in rows over each other, with no attempt at perspective. Polygnotus was a great favourite with the Athen ians, and winning their confidence and respect he was entrusted with the work of decorating many of the new temples which were erected in Greece immediately after the end of the Persian wars — 449 b,c. — when Greece " rose up in beauty from the ashes of the Persian fires," ApoUodorus, who flourished in the latter haK of the fifth century b,c,, was, according to PUny, the first painter who painted easel pictures, and is also credited with the invention of Ught and shade, Timanthes, a contemporary and rival of Parrhasius, painted the " Sacrifice of Iphigenia," a copy of which was found on a waU at Pompeii, Pausius is mentioned as the first encaustic painter, and was also noted for the foreshortening of his figures, Nikias was a painter who was employed by Praxiteles, the sculptor, to colour his statues, and has been named by Overbeck as one of the Greek artists whose original works were often copied on the walls of the interiors at Pompeii, Protogenes, Aetion, Euphranor, Timonachus, and Theon are the names of other notable Greek artists whose works have been freely copied in the wall decorations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Besides the paintings found in the houses of these two provincial outposts of Greek civilization a few other examples may be mentioned, which WALL PAINTING FROM POMPEII Copy of a Greek Painting ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 61 were executed about this period, and which are either of Greek workmanship or infiuence, namely : the pictures in the garden of the Villa Farnesina, which represent scenes from the Odyssey, the landscape, with birds, of Li via' s ViUa at Prima Porta, the " Aldobrandini Marriage " on the Esquiline, the pictures in the house on the Palatine, the painted tombs at Paestum and Etruria, and the important ceiling decorations of the Baths of Titus. The vase paintings and those on the Corinthian pinakes afford further proof that the Greeks were consummate masters of the arts of design and painting, as they were equaUy so in sculpture and architecture. The Greek wall- paintings were quite likely to have been as definite and clear in their composition as their relief sculpture and their vase painting, for confusion and vagueness were foreign to the Greek artist's mind. A small collection of Greek pictures in the Museo Borbonico, in Naples, are good in drawing and composition, beautiful in colour and definite in the precision of their execution. These pictures are small, but they enable us to form a good estimate of what the larger decorative wall paintings must have been like. The Greek authors when speaking of painting only mention the large paintings that were executed on the walls of public buildings, and a few of the portable or easel pictures. We have little or no evidence as to the general colour schemes of the important edifices, or the character of the ornamental painted decoration, but for tunately we can judge from that which has been 62 HISTORY AND METHODS OF preserved in the interiors of Pompeii and Her culaneum how the Greek interiors must have had also their elaborate schemes of coloured decoration which embraced the representation of figure subjects, ornamental, and landscape compositions. The artists of Pompeii and other Roman cities formed themselves into guilds, and the master, or chief artist, of each guild was a Greek, who was responsible for the design of the work, and who executed the more important parts. It is well known that many of the designs for the wall paintings were copies of Greek examples, although the greater part of the grotesques, arabesques, and other ornamental details are quite likely to have been the work of the native Italian assistants. In connection with this kind of decoration it is interesting to note that the painter AntiphUus of Egypt is credited by Pliny as the originator of Grylli — the grotesque combinations of animal, human and foliated forms of ornament. Pom peian art may therefore be classified as Greco- Roman. At Herculaneum four monochrome paintings were found that were signed by Alex andres of Athens. We have already mentioned that the Pompeian method of decoration had its origin in that of the primitive Mycenaean interiors, as the system of dividing the wall-spaces were almost identical in both cases, only that the Pompeian decoration iUustrates a more amazing wealth of idea, is richer in colour, is more elaborate in the space- divisions, and displays a greater power of artistic skill than is found in the work of the primitive MURAL PAINTINGS IN FRESCO FROM HERCULANJEUM ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 63 Greek decorator. It is a far cry from the art of Mycenae to that of Pompeii, but at the same time the latter is only a development of the former, and although the links between the two are missing, it is fairly proved, from what we have seen, that they must have existed in Greece during the Archaic and Classic periods of its history. The waU spaces at Pompeii are usually divided into panels or fields, either by painted borders, lines, or bands, or by an elaborate system of painted architecture, where columns were repre sented of a very attenuated, but graceful appear ance. These columns often carry airy and fan tastical superstructures through which perspective glimpses of landscape and distant buildings are seen. Many of the enclosed panels are occupied either by single decorative figures, or by com positions or scenes, both of realistic and idealistic types, such as children playing, animals, satyrs and fauns, landscape, objects from still life, also idyUic, historical, and mythological compositions. Some of the fioating, or lightly-poised female figures, clothed in delicate draperies, and also the figures of Cupids, that are painted in the centres of the panels, for charm, grace of pose, and move ment, as weU as for directness of execution in the painting, have never beenequalledin decorative art. In the later period of Pompeian art the painted decoration is characterized by the in creased employment of fantastic and grotesque motives, coarse in execution, bad in drawing, and garish in colour, which clearly showed that the Greek influence was waning, that the artisan 64 HISTORY AND METHODS OF had occupied the place of the artist, and finally, that the period of decadence had already set in. Marble and mosaic were also used as decorative materials in these interiors, although in Pompeii there was an extensive employment of veined and coloured plaster, or stucco, which was made to imitate marbles. Mosaic, however, was exten sively used both for the fioors and for wall de coration. The mosaic pictures were wonderful examples of craftsmanship and were undoubtedly copies of Greek paintings. The weU-known frag ment of the great mosaic " The Battle of Issus," representing the victory of Alexander the Great over the Persian king, Darius, is an exceUent piece of workmanship, and from all accounts is a copy of a Greek picture which the Emperor Vespasian brought to Rome. It was found in the House of the Faun, at Pompeii, in 1831, and is now in the Museum at Naples. The colours used in painting at Pompeii were found to be of mineral extraction ; white of chalk, or lime, yellow ochre, red chalk, minium, and vermilion, as reds, blue from oxidised copper, burnt ochre for brown, and charcoal black. The greens were mixtures of blue and yeUow. A rosy purple was sometimes used, which was probably derived from the sea-snail, but this was only em ployed as a tempera colour, or in the encaustic paintings. The decorative paintings on the larger wall spaces were executed in buon fresco, but the more important figure compositions were done in fresco-secco, or tempera, a space being left in the centre of the wall panels for these paintings r WALL PAINTING FROM POMPEII ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 65 which was afterwards filled in with a plaster ground, in which marble dust was mixed with the chalk or lime, so as to form a hard and firm surface for the tempera paintings. Both fresco and tem pera paintings were covered with a solution of wax, or with a resinous varnish in order to fix and preserve them. Pompeian colouring is generally bright and lively with strong contrasts. Black, white, red, blue, yeUow, and green are effectively used in their full hues and in a great variety of combinations. It may be reasonably imagined that such colouring appeared garish and almost barbarous, as it cer tainly would in a medium light, but the Pompeian interiors were not well lighted, and this system of colouring would naturally in such situations appear much subdued, and therefore was extremely appropriate for dark interiors. In regard to the architectural polyehromy of the Ancient Roman temples and other public buildings of Ancient Italy apart from the Pompeian examples, the data we possess is very meagre, Roman art was in its inception an apphcation of the Etruscan, to which it owed the adaptation of the round arch in architecture, but about the time of the Scipios, about 200 b.c, the Romans culti vated a taste for the Grecian forms of art, and subsequently Roman architecture became merely a mixture of Etruscan and Greek forms in its aesthetic aspect ; but on the other hand it expanded on the lines of a practical materialism, which developed in accordance with the new requirements of such a powerful and progressive nation. 66 HISTORY AND METHODS OF The designs of the Roman buildings were characterized with a magnificent impress and grandeur, which reflected the might and unlimited ambition of the Roman people. The expression of magnificence in the Greek temples was due to their beauty of style, and not to their size, for they were smaU in comparison with Roman buildings, but in the latter the same effects were produced by their vaster proportions and greater dimensions. The Romans used the Grecian column in some of their buildings in conjunction with the Greek entablature and pediment, but more often only as a decorative feature rather than an essential and vital element of the construction, and when the column was frankly employed as a distinctive feature, selected the more ornate Corinthian as the type of their choice, rather than the Doric or Ionic. The two latter were seldom employed by the Romans, possibly from the reason that sim plicity and plainness did not appeal to the Roman mind so effectively as the wanton luxuriance of the Corinthian capital. But this capital in com mon with aU the sculptured decoration and carv ing which the Romans borrowed from the Greeks, deteriorated in their hands from the original purity of style, when they sought to obtain rich ness of effect by overloading these architectural forms with an incrustation of heavy and IKeless ornamentation. Although this corresponded to the desire of the Romans for magnificence and splendour, we have to acknowledge that they reached a high point in construction, and in the technics of building. This was due to their skil- f^.rz-rtr%.^ WALL PAINTING FROM POMPEII ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 67 ful use and adaptation of the round arch, which became the most distinctive expression of the Roman style. Consequently we find that the two methods of construction, namely, the Grecian column and the Etruscan arch, are combined in most Roman buUdings, but the round arch, from which the simple arch-vault and cross-vault are developed, is the essential element which mainly constitutes the most ingenious and original expression of Roman architecture. The use of the arch and the various applica tions of semicircular and segmental lines, espe cially in later Roman work, led to the modification of the internal architecture, where the ceilings of many buildings were constructed on the cylin drical arch, or barrel-vault, the cross-arch, and the dome-arch. These arches were generallj'^ orna mented with sunken moulded panels, carved with ornamental decorations, sometimes in marble, and in some cases they had bronze decorations attached in the centres of the panels as in the Pantheon at Rome, In some cases the vaulted roofs were entirely painted with coloured arab esques, and with small figure medallions, but with out having moulded panels. Among the latter may be classed the decorations of the Baths of Titus and Diocletian, and those of the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine HiU, all of which were similar to the " grotesques " of Pompeii and Herculaneum, As regards the more important figure compositions and landscapes, that we know must have decorated the walls of the Roman buildings in the period of the Empire, 68 ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING we can form a good idea of their importance from three sources, namely, the Pompeian paintings, the earliest paintings from the Catacombs (which were likely to be modified copies of the motives and composition of older Roman frescoes), and from descriptions of such work as related by Pliny and other historians. WALL PAINTING : ANCIENT ROMAN, FROM POZZUOLI CHAPTER V LATER ROMAN ART CHAPTER V LATER ROMAN ART Roman art was already in its decadence before the end of the Empire, and Christianity itself, together with the invasion of Italy by the Germanic races, were the chief factors in the transformation and decline. In the beginning of the Christian era art was too much impregnated with Paganism to find favour in the eyes of those who had embraced the new faith, though it must be said that in many instances the work of the early Christian artist was strongly influenced by the form and technique of Roman art. At first, however, as the outcome of the early Christian's antagonism against heathenism and all its works, symbolic forms, cyphers, and mono grams were used instead of figure decoration, lest the followers of Christ should see anything that would remind them of the idolatrous similitude of the heathen gods ; but later on, when the principles, doctrines, and practice of the new religion were more firmly estabUshed, it was found by the teachers in the Church that the pictorial repre sentation of sacred personages, and of scriptural subjects and scenes, would in some measure help, rather than retard, the spread of Christianity. Accordingly we find that single figures representing 71 72 HISTORY AND METHODS OF Christ, and the saints, apostles, and prophets, and also aUegorical scenes were depicted, which bore a spiritual relation to doctrinal truths. Also sacred and historical events from the Old and New Testaments were represented, and treated in a symbolical manner ; for example, the Lord's Supper was symbolized by a representation of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, and of the Water turned into Wine; the Resurrection by the Raising of Lazarus, and the Deliverance of Jonah; Christ as the Guide of the Church, by a figure of the Good Shepherd with the Lamb upon his shoulder. The Church was typified by a ship carrying people, or souls, Christ was also represented by the Lamb that was sacrificed, and sometimes by the figure of Orpheus, with his lyre, surrounded by animals, signifying His power of drawing aU men, and nature, unto Him. We see in this early symbolism the fundamental essence and forms of aU subsequent Christian art. These early attempts of Christian iconography were represented on the waUs of St, CaUixtus and other places in the Catacombs at Rome, some of which are stiU in existence. The new religious requirements of the early Christians demanded another kind of buUding than that of the temples which served the older Pagan religions. At first they were obliged to hold their services in the Catacombs and underground crypts, where the altar was erected over the tomb of a saint, or martyr, but when persecution abated, and they were permitted to worship openly, and to build churches, the early Christians found in ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 73 the existing basilicas, or " kingly haUs," a type of building which might be adapted or copied in the designs of the new buildings which they deemed suitable for the devotional meetings of their in creasing congregations. The Roman Basilica was therefore, according to many authorities, the model on which the early Christians erected their build ings, consecrated to Divine worship, and the name, " basilica," was henceforth adopted as that of the early Christian type of church in Italy, The long accepted theory, namely, that the ancient Roman basilica afforded the model on which the early Christian churches were built, has been questioned by some German and other archaeologists, in recent years. These authorities argue that the Christian basilica was merely an elongation, or enlargement of the proportions, of the ordinary Roman dweUing-house, where, at first, the members of the new faith assembled together for wofship. If we accept this theory, we must at the same time admit that both the heathen and Christian basilicas had much in com mon not only in plan, but also in the ornamental details of the architecture. GraduaUy, certain changes and modifications took place in the plan and design of the early Christian basilicas, due more to the ritual and requirements of the Church service than to artistic development, though in the main, the beautiful simplicity of the principal architectural features has, as a rule, been preserved in the churches of this type in Italy, so that hardly any change is noticeable in the basilicas built from the fourth 74 HISTORY AND METHODS OF to the tenth centuries. The principal modifica tions in the plan consisted in the addition of a transept, which was in later buildings introduced in front of the apse and extended some distance on either side of the main structure, thus giving the cross-like form in plan; and another addition was the narthex, or scourge, which was divided by a barrier from the main building, at the west end entrance, and was equal in length to the whole frontage. This was the place reserved for penitents who had regained the right of access to the sanctu ary. At the east end, generaUy in the transept, stood the altar, frequently covered by a balda- chino which rested on four pillars ; in front of the altar, at the end of the nave, was a central space, enclosed by a low marble panelled screen, which was occupied by the lower clergy who formed the choir, hence the name of choir given to the place itself. A marble pulpit, caUed the ambone, was placed, one on either side of the choir, and from one the Gospel was read, and the Epistle from the other. These ambones were often richly decorated with mosaics. Behind the altar, in the middle of the tribuna, was the cathedra, or seat of the bishop, raised on steps, and around the semi circle on either side were the seats reserved for the higher ecclesiastics. The rafters of the roofs were sometimes left open, without a casing, but in other instances they consisted of beams with a fiat panelling, and were invariably richly decorated with ornaments in colour and gold. The columns of the Christian basUicas, which divided the naves and aisles from each other, were. ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 75 especiaUy in the earlier buildings, as they also were in many Byzantine churches, generally of the Corinthian order, and were actuaUy taken from the ruined temples of antiquity, and, as may be imagined, they were often of dissimilar dimensions, differing in material, colour, and workmanship; in fact, the builders of the early Christian period simply used the heathen temples as quarries from which they obtained the greater part of the costly marbles, which were ready-made buUding material, and which they did not scruple to use in Christian buildings. The crowning glory, however, of these churches was their splendid mosaic decorations, for the embellishment or ornamentation of the basilica corresponded with its architectural form, inasmuch as it did not consist of plastic sculpture, but of surface decoration in painting and mosaic. The apse, which formed the east end termination of the church, was considered the most important part of the building and always received the principal mosaics, although the side walls of the nave, and the triumphal arch, which divided the nave from the transept, were generaUy decorated with mosaics or paintings. The mosaics had blue or gold grounds, and the figures, especiaUy in the apse, were large in scale, with bold and simply designed drapery, the whole effect resulting in a monumental dignity of colour and composition, thoroughly in harmony with the architectural lines of the building. CHAPTER VI MOSAICS CHAPTER VI MOSAICS From the fourth century, or even earlier, mosaic became the chief decoration of all religious edifices, but aU the picture subjects of these mosaics were not of the sacred order, for we find that from the date of the early Christian buildings, through many subsequent centuries, the influence of antique art both as to subject and technique is clearly apparent. Even as late as 1516 RaffaeUe designed the mosaic decorations of the Chigi Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo at Rome, which were carried out by Luigi della Pace, and which consisted of representations of the heathen deities, such as Mercury, Venus, ApoUo, Mars, Jupiter, etc., symboUzing the planets, and domi nated by a figure of the Creator, surrounded by angels, a strange mixture, or association of heathen gods with angels and the Eternal Father of mankind. Among the examples of the oldest mosaics in the churches of Italy, are those on the wagon-roof of the ambulatory of Santa Gonstanza, near Rome, and those on the apse of Santa Pudenziana, at Rome, both of which date from the fourth century. The mosaics of St, Gonstanza belong to the school of ancient art, and consist of representations of 79 80 HISTORY AND METHODS OF little genii, animals, and birds, disporting among branches and tendrils of the vine, other little figures being engaged in treading out the wine from the grapes in the wine-presses, while others are driving bullocks harnessed to wagons. The whole compositions are in natural colours on a white ground and surrounded by ornamental borders. These mosaics are almost identical with the decoration in the Catacombs of St, Calixtus, which shows that both had their origin in ancient art, and also afford an illustration of the orna mental style of the ancient ceiling decorations of the Roman dweUing-houses, of which Pliny speaks. The pagan character of these decorations led to the supposition, which was maintained for many centuries; that this building was erected as a temple to Bacchus, but it has long since been thought that it was either built by Constantine as a baptistery to the neighbouring church of St. Agnes, or later as a monumental church to his two daughters. The Church of Santa Pudenziana, which has the reputation of being the oldest Christian church in Rome, was erected on the spot where St. Pudens and his daughters, Praxedis and Pudentiana, who entertained St. Peter, are said to have Uved. It has a most interesting mosaic as the decoration of the apse of the tribune. This church has often been restored, the first restoration being as early as the latter end of the fourth century, and the mosaic in question has suffered much by later restorations, although the design and composition of the work stiU warrants ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 81 it to have been executed, in its first state, in the days of Constantine. The background of the figures is occupied by a semicircular portico, above the roof of which, on the horizon, are grouped a gUttering row of antique buildings, and in the purple and gold-edged clouds are representations, on a colossal scale, of the four emblems of the Evangelists, namely, the Lion, Bull, Eagle, and Angel. In the centre is the great figure of Christ enthroned, and directly above is a large and richly decorated gold cross. On either side of the central figure are figures of St, Peter, St. Paul, and the two female saints, St, Praxedis and St. Pudentiana, which project haK-length above the row of eight haK-length male figures, all of which are dressed in Roman costumes, and looking to wards the spectator. The figures on either side shghtly overlap each other, not occupying isolated positions, which was the common arrangement in the later Christian mosaics. The antique costumes, the buildings in the background and the general freedom of the whole composition, distinguish this important work from the more formal and stiff compositions of the later Christian, Roman, and Byzantine mosaics, which marks it as an isolated example of later Roman art that is distinguished by the best traditions of the antique — a fine and rare example of the art of the fourth century, that rising clear above the nebulous gloom of deterioration, which in this century had almost extinguished the power and beauty of ancient art, shines like the peak of a high mountain reflecting the last rays of the setting sun, when 82 HISTORY AND METHODS OF the darkness of the night has already covered the valleys. The finest mosaics which were executed as church decorations during the fifth and foUowing centuries in Italy are found at Rome and Ravenna, The bishopric of Rome was the principal seat of the hierarchy, and the churches there were richly decorated by the Emperors and also by private individuals, while at Ravenna, which became the residence of the Emperors of the West, the succes sors of Theodosius, and afterwards of the exarchs appointed by the Emperors of the East, when the north of Italy was in possession of the Longobards, we find the most superb examples of mosaic, particularly those of the monumental chapel of the Empress Galla Placidia, a,d, 425-450, and St, Vitale, A,D, 547, The Italian mosaics of the sixth century have been ascribed by some to the Byzantine School, chiefly from the fact that Ravenna was occupied by the Byzantians in a.d. 539, The style of these works, however, show the traditions and char acteristics of the later Roman mosaics too clearly to warrant this conclusion, but on the other hand, it may be admitted, in the case of some of the mosaics executed towards the end of the sixth century, a decided Byzantine influence is apparent in the technique, and in the barbaric richness of the ornamental patterns which decorate the dresses of the figures, the various borders, and other surface ornamentation. In the octagon-shaped baptistery of the Duomo at Ravenna we see examples of some of the earliest ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 83 mosaics of the fifth century, about a.d, 430, The spandrels of the lower row of arches are occupied by mosaics consisting of the figures of eight prophets alternating between finely designed gold arabesque ornaments, on a blue ground. The draperies of these figures are similar in drawing and motive to those of the later types of antique art. In the upper arches, stucco decorations in relief take the place of mosaics, which consist of figures of saints, peacocks, sea-horses, rams, stags, and griffins, chiefiy in white on reddish-yellow grounds. In the centre of the octagonal cupola is the circular mosaic picture representing the Baptism of Christ. The head of Christ is similar to the Catacomb type, having long hair, and with out a nimbus ; a cross is placed between the Saviour and John the Baptist, whUe the river Jordan is represented as a river god, presenting a cloth, all the design being treated in the feeling and spirit of antique art. At the base of the cupola is a circle of rich mosaics consisting of thrones, altars, tables, and little monuments or tombs, each surrounded by a framework of architecture, Pompeian in character. The grounds of these mosaics are blue as in the case of the early work. In the section next to these are the twelve Apostles, colossal in size, standing upon the green earth, above which is the blue background, and a white drapery, decorated with gold. The garments of the Apostles are of gold stuff, and are designed in a free and flowing manner. The whole circle of the cupola is divided into compartments by gold acanthus ornament. The general decorative effect is in 84 HISTORY AND METHODS OF complete accordance with the architecture, the colouring is rich, yet delicate, and the whole scheme of the decoration affords some idea — or if we are permitted to say, an echo — of what the world has lost in the destruction of the numerous and richly decorated buildings of the later Roman Empire, The Mausoleum of the Empress GaUa Placidia, widow of the Constantine II, was buUt about A.D. 440, and the mosaics which decorate this building were executed a few years later than those of the baptistery at Ravenna, This monumental chapel is generaUy known as the church of SS, Nazaro e Celso, and is built in the form of a Latin cross. The centre elevation is square in form, being arched over with the segment of a cupola, and the aisles and transept have wagon roofs. The cupola, arches, and vaults are entirely covered with mosaics, chiefly in gold on a dark blue ground. The subjects of the mosaics consist of figures, emblems, animals, birds, and conventional orna ment, and the whole effect of the decoration is beautiful in the extreme. It affords the best known example of the fifth century, where the beauty of the antique decoration is mingled with the forms of the early Christian art. The dresses of the figures of the apostles are of flowing robes of white ; golden stags are represented advancing between gold-green arabesques, on a blue ground, towards the baptismal fountain, doves are drinking out of a vase. The cupola is decorated with a large golden cross, stars, and the emblems of the EvangeUsts. In the chief lunette over the altar PfictJ Alma. I MOSAICS : MAUSOLEUM OF GALLA PLACIDIA, RAVENNA, 5tH CENTURY ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 85 the figure of Christ appears with the flag of victory or a cross in one hand, and in the other a book of heretical writings which he is about to commit to the flames. Some critics identify this figure as that of St. Laurence. Some of the mosaics of the vaults are composed of circular flowers or rosettes, which point to Persian or Eastern in fluence, as indeed the general colour effect of this superb scheme of decoration owes more to the East than to the West for its incomparable colour harmony. Another famous church at Ravenna is that of St. Vitale, built about a.d. 534. This church is octagonal in plan, and is remarkable for the beauty of the carved Byzantine capitals and precious mar ble shafts of the columns. The walls below the springing of the vaults are sheathed also in precious marbles and alabaster slabs of great beauty. This interesting church has in a great measure been disfigured by paintings of cherubs, angels, festoons, etc., of seventeenth century work, and is one of the many examples where a noble building has been spoUed by the added ornamentation of a later and decadent age; but here, fortimately, a few of the sixth century mosaics have stiU been preserved. These consist of the decorations of the semi-dome of the apse, of the principal tribune, and of the quadrangular arched space before it. The design and style of these mosaics are of a highly dignified character, and are in harmony with the architecture of the building. In the semi-dome of the apse is the youthful figure of Christ seated on the globe of the world, angels 86 HISTORY AND METHODS OF are on either side and the figures of St. VitaUs, the patron of the church, and the Bishop Ecclesius as the founder, carrying a model of the buUding. These mosaics are on a gold ground with purple clouds. On the perpendicular waU of the apse, also on gold grounds, are the celebrated mosaics representing the Emperor Justinian and the Empress Theodora, accompanied by their great officers of state and ecclesiastical dignitaries, about to enter the church. The figures, Ufe size, are aU dressed in richly embroidered robes, the royal personages with diadems, nimbi around their heads, and dressed in purple robes with gold embroidery. These mosaics are highly valuable in affording examples of the ceremonial costume of the period, apart from their splendour as waU decorations. The mosaic decorations of the Church of Sant' ApoUinare in Classe, near Ravenna, and those of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, a basiUca within the city of Ravenna, both dating from the sixth century, are well known, and rank among the best examples of interior decorative art in Europe. The basilica of St. ApoUinare Nuovo was erected early in the sixth century by Theodoric, the Gothic king of Italy, as an Aryan church. Later in this century it was converted into a Roman CathoUc church, and was then caUed St. Martin in coelo aureo — ^from its original " golden roof," which, however, was destroyed, as the present paneUed roof is a modernized restoration, dating from 1611. The upper walls of the central aisle, or nave, of this church are resplendent from the ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 87 arches up to the roof with their original mosaics on gold grounds. On the waUs just above the arches on either side of the nave are represented two long processions of martyrs, saints, confessors, male figures on the right, and female on the left. The dresses of the figures are in various light colours, and each figure carries a wreath or crown. The procession is advancing in a solemn way through an avenue of palm trees, a tree being placed between each figure. The starting-point of the male procession is indicated by a glittering representation of Theodoric' s palace in the city of Ravenna, with its upper and lower arcades, domes, and corner towers. At the end of the procession there is a representation of Christ upon a throne surrounded by four noble figures of the archangels. On the left side the procession consists of the figures of female martyrs and saints advancing from the town of Classis, as is supposed from the representation of its harbours and fortifications, and the goal of this procession is the scene of the Adoration of the Three Kings. The Madonna is represented seated on a throne with the dressed figure of the Saviour, as a child, upon her lap, each with a hand raised in bene diction, and around the throne are four beautKul angels. This group represents one of the earUest known instances where the Madonna is represented as an object of reverence. Between the windows, above these processional friezes are single figures of apostles in niches, clad in white garments, and stiU higher, above the windows, on a smaU scale are the subjects of the Miracles, and compositions 88 HISTORY AND METHODS OF from the New Testament, The execution of these mosaics is very careful, the shading and drawing of draperies are dignified and refined, while the general colour scheme is rich and harmonious. The Church of Sant' Apollinare in Classe, erected a.d, 535, is the largest and best preserved basilica in the district of Ravenna, although nearly all of the beautiful marble slabs, if not mosaics also that once lined its walls, were stripped off by that enemy to art, Sigismund Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, in 1449, The waUs of the nave and aisles were left bare from that time until the eighteenth century, when the system began of placing portraits of the Archbishops of Ravenna in rows of circular medaUions above the arches, and arranged as a frieze on either side of the nave waUs. The portraits embrace all the archbishops from the earliest known down to the present day. The mosaics of the apse date probably from the sixth century, but the greater portion are of the seventh, and have been very much restored in modern times. In the semi-dome of the apse, with its background of gold, on which appear some light blue and light pink clouds, there is a large circular space in the centre having a blue ground studded with gold stars and jewels; within this circle is a large golden cross richly decorated, and at the crossing of the arms is a haK-length figure of Christ, The haK-length figures of Moses and Elijah appear as K coming out of the clouds, on either side of the central circle; and below is a meadow with trees, in the centre of which is the figure of ApoUinaris, the PJioto AIi)uiyt MOSAIC ; ST. VITALE, RAVENNA, EMPRESS THEODORA. 6tH CENTURY ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 89 Scholar of St, Peter, with hands uplifted, preaching and surrounded by a row of fifteen sheep. The sheep are emblematic of Christian congregations. Twelve sheep symbolizing the apostles, are re presented advancing upwards on either side of the arch of the tribune, while two palm trees occupy the spandrels below. At the extreme top of this wall is a broad band with a blue ground, in the centre of which in a circle is the head of Christ, and on either side are the emblems of the Evangel ists. The chief part of the composition of the semi-dome is emblematic of the Transfiguration. The lower walls of the apse have illustrations from the Old Testament, and four Ravenna bishops on a blue ground, standing under canopies with draperies. This church is remarkable for its iUustrations of sacred symbolism, not only in its mosaic pictures, but contains an almost complete collection of the earliest symbols of Christian art, from simple monograms to pictorial representations of Christ as the Good Shepherd, among which may be mentioned, after the sacred monograms, the Lamb, the Fish, the Vine, the Ship, the Anchor, the Hart at the Brook, the Brazen Serpent, the Sheaf, the Ark of the Cove nant, the Seven Branched Candlestick, the Phcenix, the Peacock, the Dove, and the Cross, as the most sacred emblem. AU these and others occur in the spandrels of the arches in this church. Some of the finest mosaics of the early Christian period in Rome are those which decorate the apse of the Church of SS, Cosmo e Damiano in the Forum. This church was built, a.d. 526 to 530, 90 HISTORY AND METHODS OF and dedicated to the two Arabian doctors who suffered martyrdom under the Diocletian persecu tion. The mosaics are therefore of the sixth century, and though much restored in many parts, may still be considered as examples of the highest excellence as mosaic decoration. On a dark blue ground in the centre of the apse of the tribune is the colossal figure of Christ, of which the countenance, attitude and the noble design of the drapery, combine to produce an intense feeling of reposeful majesty. The right hand is raised in benediction, and the left holds a written scroU, On each side of the Saviour, below, are the apostles Peter and Paul, leading St, Cosmo and St. Damiano towards the central figure of Christ, followed by St. Theodore on the right, and the Pope Felix IV, a modern figure, on the left; at the extreme sides are palm trees, and the phcenix, the emblem of eternity. The draperies of the figures, though severe in design and late Roman in style, have nothing of the Byzantine stiffness, and the colour is remarkable for its rich and glowing harmonies of violet, red, and gold, on the background of deep blue. The heads of the figures are individual in type, which suggests attempts at portraiture. Below the figures there is a representation of the river Jordan with its water plants, sparkling with touches of gold, and under this composition is a secondary scheme of design on a gold ground, in which may be seen the Lamb on a hiUock, from which runs the four rivers of Paradise, and twelve naturaUy drawn sheep are represented on either side. ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 91 Owing to the wars and disastrous events of the seventh and eighth centuries, art in Rome and Italy was almost at a standstiU ; at any rate very little remains to us of even the few works in mosaic painting that were executed in those centuries. Another thing which accounts for the stagnation of art in the eighth century was the destructive measures of the " Iconoclast," Leo the Isaurian. It is well known that this ruler of the Eastern Empire issued an edict in a.d, 726, against the sup posed worship of images, which was confirmed by the council of three hundred and thirty-eight bishops at Constantinople in a,d, 754, and these coercive measures, which militated against the production of not only sculpture, but in a lesser measure against mosaics and monumental paint ing, were continued until the death of the last iconoclastic Emperor in a.d. 842. Although a great check was given to the advancement of art, and many important works were destroyed, stiU the practice of painting and the production of mosaics were continued by many of the monks who were in agreement with the Popes Gregory II and III, namely, that " the various scenes of the Passion of our Lord were feasible and praiseworthy subjects for the waUs of churches." The Eastern Empire and Church did not submit to the icono clastic edicts without resistance, while Italy re volted against them successfully. The Byzantine Emperor sent a Greek army to take Ravenna, because the inhabitants had killed the Exarch when he tried to enforce the law against images, but his army was vanquished by the ItaUans, 92 HISTORY AND METHODS OF and to this circumstance we possibly owe the preservation of the mosaics now existing at Ravenna and Rome, for it is known that many important mosaics were, in those days of religious controversy, scraped off the walls of the churches, especially those that were representations of sacred personages. The mosaics of Rome and of Italy in the ninth century were fairly numerous, and covered great spaces of the walls of churches, but in artistic quality were much inferior to those of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, and in many cases were copies to a great extent of the earlier works, more especiaUy in the composition and scheme of the decoration. All these mosaics have a decided Byzantine influence, as expressed in long attenu ated figures and unmeaning disposition of drapery, together with a rudeness of execution which became more marked in the later works of this century. One of the best examples of this period is the Church of St, Prassede on the Esquiline HiU at Rome, which is decorated with mosaics of the ninth century. The composition of those in the semi-dome is an exact copy of that in the Church of SS. Cosmo e Damiano, sixth century, mentioned above, only that the saints are differently named. The execution of the faces and drapery is rude and barbaric. Similar compositions of this period are to be seen in the mosaics of St, CecUia in Trastevere, and in the tribune of St, Maria deUa NaviceUa, Rome. The two latter churches are remarkable for their rich decoration of ornamental ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 93 designs in colours and gold, consisting of rich foliage between medallions, and wreaths of flowers growing out of vase-shaped vessels, which testify to the survival of the purely ornamental side of Byzantine art at a time when human figure- drawing and figure-composition were in a state of decadence. Owing to the internal troubles, coupled with the inroads of the northern nations, mosaic and other forms of art practically ceased in Italy during the tenth century, and after this time, when art again blossomed in the country, it was due to the aid of Byzantium. Mosaic workers and artists were brought to Rome and Italy from Constantinople to execute works at the end of the tenth century, and they instructed many ItaUan pupils especiaUy in mosaic work, so it is not to be wondered that this art in Italy was subsequently strongly infiuenced by the Eastern Greek ideals. The republic of Venice was politically connected with, and was under the protection of Byzantium, and so enjoyed comparative tranquiUity when the rest of Italy had more than its share of trouble, and it is owing to this circumstance that from the tenth up to the thirteenth century, Byzantine architecture, painting, and mosaic work became rooted, and fiourished vigorously in the Venetian republic. The basilica of St, Mark's, Venice, with its great wealth and witchery of Byzantine colour — a complete expression on Italian soil of the glow and glamour of the East — ^is a ninth century semi-Byzantine church, which was begun in the 94 HISTORY AND METHODS OF year 830, but rebuilt after a fire in 976, the date of the founding of the present church. It is well known that the rich and precious marbles with which the fioors, the piUars, and the waUs haK-way are incrusted, similar to those of the Church of Santa Sophia at Constantinople, were brought from all parts of the Western and Eastern Empires, The crowning glory of St. Mark's, however, is its glow of rich colouring, chiefly due to its wealth of mosaics on gold grounds, which, uniting with that of the poUshed marbles and transparent alabaster, combine to produce a perfect chromatic effect, that has been described by Ruskin as " the most subtle, variable, inexpressible colour in the world." The cupolas, haK-domes, and upper waUs of the interior are everywhere covered with mosaics, dating from the eleventh, and perhaps the tenth century, to the sixteenth, many of them being restored, or re-made, covering a space of over 45,000 square feet, the church being a veritable museum of mosaics and other works of art. The domical style of building, with its barrel-vaulting and curved surfaces, is eminently adapted for showing to the greatest advantage the sparkling and sumptuous qualities of mosaic decoration, with aU its richness of transparent colouring, its sheen of silver, and magnificent lustre of gold. The mosaics of St. Mark's give us some idea of what has been lost in the destruction of this form of decoration in Santa Sophia at Constantinople, where the only existing remains are some of the colossal seraphim, and a trace of ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 95 a figure of the Madonna, with angels. Yet we know that Santa Sophia furnished the model for aU the subsequent colour decoration of the churches of Western Europe, and not only that, but the Byzantine Emperors may be said to have founded a centre at their capital from which aU the arts fiowed. They found the architect, Isidore, for St, Mark's, and the mosaic for the mosque at Damascus, as well as for the Kaabeh at Cordova, and we are not at aU certain when Byzantine art was at an end before the final extinction of the Roman Empire by the Ottoman Turkish conqueror, Mahomet II, in 1453, The splendour, too, of the courts of the Caliphs had afterwards its influence on the minor arts and crafts of both East and West, for the splendid Byzantine silk stuffs, tapestries, metal-work, and pottery, found their way into all European countries. If we inquire into the origin of the great love for rich colouring in decoration which so suddenly leapt to light in the early Byzantine period we shall find it due to two great causes ; one was due to the actual style of the architecture, for the Byzantine buildings were expressly designed so as to receive a colour finish by an incrustation or veneer of precious marbles and mosaics, and the other was the result of a Persian influence. The early Christian basUicas, built for use as churches, were of a strictly utiUtarian design, and were devoid of the heavy architectural features and ornaments which characterized the later temples, and other Roman buildings. The 96 HISTORY AND METHODS OF same principle was carried out in the Christian basilicas of Byzantium, with a domed-roof con struction. The domed roof of Persia, built of brick, was therefore the chief characteristic, if not the key-note, of Byzantine architecture. Not only were the Byzantine builders indebted to the Persians of the Sassanid dynasty (the third century) for their system of domed and vaulted building, but, as we have said, for their love of colour, and even for their system of veneering the waUs of their buildings with coloured materials of a permanent description. The Persians used coloured tiles or enamelled bricks in the nature of slabs of veneered or incrusted decoration to decor ate their rough brick walls, a system which they in their turn had learned the methods from their Assyrian and Chaldaean ancestors, or neighbours. Even when enamelled tiles were not used for this purpose and the walls of Persian buUdings were merely plastered, these bare surfaces were hung with coloured carpets or embroideries in order to satisfy the Asiatic eye, that has always loved colour and decoration. It must also be borne in mind that the Persians hardly ever constructed their decoration, but as a rule applied it to their rough walls in a veneer of coloured tiles, or of veined stones, that were afterwards polished. Instead, therefore, of using enameUed tiles like the Persians to decorate the interiors of their buildings, the Byzantine builders, like the earlier Romans, used the thin slabs of beautifully coloured marbles, from material which they found con veniently at hand, and so adopted the system of ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 97 applied colour decoration that obtained among the Asiatic people from the earliest days of Mesopotamian civilization. The great nave of the Church of Santa Sophia is an immense clear space obtained by the adoption and ingenious construction of the central dome. The lower ring of this dome is supported by the end semi-domes, which are below it, and abut against it, and the portions of the domes at the angles made by the right-angled walls are supported by four pendentives, which are really quarter-domes, or four sections of a great sphere. Thus the central dome, which is in section some thing less than a semicircle, is supported on the east and west by the lower semi-domes, on the north and south by the great arches of the walls, and in the corners by the four pendentives or quarter-domes. It is on these pendentives that the colossal six-winged seraphim, the remains of the Christian mosaics, are still found. The dome system as expressed in Byzantine architecture usually postulates a rectangular or octangular haU, or nave, below the dome ; in this it resembles the system adopted in the Sassanid Persian buildings of the third century, only that the Byzantine dome is in section a semicircle or part of a circle, while the Persian or Asiatic dome is in section a part of an upright ellipse. In the domed buildings of the Romans, as seen in the Pantheon and in some of the Thermae, the hall or chamber below is usually circular in plan, following the plan of the dome. The beauty of the general effect of the Santa H 98 HISTORY AND METHODS OF Sophia interior is enhanced by the refined sculptured decoration of the capitals, spandrels, arches, bands, friezes, and mosaic. Any mosaic of a Christian character has either been destroyed by the Turks, or has been plastered or whitewashed over, but many beautiful bits of a purely ornamental kind, inasmuch as they did not offend the Moslem faith, have been allowed to remain. The eleventh century in Italy and the near East was not remarkable for great works in monumental coloured decoration; the art of mosaic, especially, was in a state of decadence. More attention was given to the creation of smaUer objects of art, such as ivory-carvings, metal-work, enamels, miniature-painting, and smaU portable mosaics which reflected in their restrained dimensions a dwarfed and also a mummified kind of art, denoting absence, rather than the presence of the vital principle. It was the age of the artisan and hardly that of the artist. Where the human figure was represented, the body was thin and lifeless, the expression very morose and severe, the draperies rendered in straight and parallel folds, as if the breath of life had gone from the gaunt bodies and their draperies had become their shrouds. The Romanesque Period. After what may be called the dark winter of the eleventh century, came the spring of the twelfth, which, although it has not been appreciated l/tutj Aliitan MINIATURE MOSAIC : BYZANTINE, 1 ItH CENTURY, IN THE MUSEO DI ST. MARIA DEL FIORE, FLORENCE ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 99 enough, was really the veritable dawn of the coming Renaissance. Quite a host of mosaicists, whose names have not come down to posterity, have produced many important works in the twelfth century, which in point of figure drawing, colour, and composition have hardly been equalled and certainly not excelled by the first known Tuscan masters. For a hundred years before the days of Niccola and Giovanni of Pisa, and for more than that time before Cimabue and Giotto, these old rude and brilliant mosaicists of the twelfth century, together with the miniature designers of this and earlier centuries, were supply ing motives and compositions which were boldly adopted by the primitive frescanti of Italy, when painting almost entirely took the place of mosaic decoration. The mosaic artists of the twelfth century were therefore the true harbingers of the Renaissance in Italy. The basilica of St. Maria in Trastevere at Rome has still some mosaic decorations of the twelfth century, as weU as others of the fourteenth. The first-named mosaics were executed to the orders of the Popes Innocent II and Eugenius III (1139-53), and are considered to be among the first important Romanesque works in Italy ; this appUes to those within and around the tribune of the choir, which are of the highest interest, on account of the work being one of very first pro duced that is essentially western in character, being in a great measure, but not wholly, removed from Byzantine infiuence. In the vault of the apse Christ and the Virgin Mary are seated side 100 HISTORY AND METHODS OF by side, here represented for the first time in this position, on a magnificent throne, and on either side are six saints with the Pope . Calixtus I, or Innocent II, while on the band below are the twelve sheep, and the towns of Jerusalem and Bethlehem represented on a blue ground. Above the tribune, on the triumphal arch which separ ates the apsidal end of the church from the nave, are the signs of the Evangelists, the seven candle sticks and other symbols, and next to these, and below them, are the Prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah unfolding their scroUs, and below are two genii lifting drapery that is filled with fiowers and fruit, while two doves are fiying round a vase. The latter decorative work is reminiscent of the Pagan Roman style. It is worthy of note that in the sacristy of this church there is preserved a fragment of an ancient Roman mosaic of ducks, grasses, and fishermen, which, expeciaUy in the representation of the birds and grasses, is a most lovely arrangement of colour; the ground being of a creamy white, with reds of various tones, yellow ochre and umber tints, cobalt blues, grey- greens of yeUowish and bluish tones, together with small portions of a very dark grey, complete the beautiful and rich harmony. Although several parts of the mosaics, that are easily recognized, have been badly restored, the work presents on the whole a simple grandeur ; the poses of the figures have a dignity and freedom of action, their forms are round, not of the usual angular type, and the drapery, especially that on the figure of Christ, is remarkably good in the arrangements of the MINIATURE MOSAIC : ST. Photo Ahnitn BYZANTINE, IItH CENTURY, IN THE MUSEO DI MARIA DEL FIORE, FLORENCE ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 101 folds. On the fa9ade of this church there are some mosaics, the design of which dates from the twelfth century, the subject being the Virgin and Child in the centre of the composition, with five virgins or female saints standing on either side. This work has been very much restored, and is not so important as the mosaics of the interior. The apse of the tribune of the upper church in the interesting and beautiful basUica of San Clemente in Rome is decorated with a purely ornamental mosaic of the twelfth century, chiefly composed of a foliated scroll-like pattern which covers nearly all the surface of the semi-dome. The design in character is thoroughly Romanesque, without any trace of Byzantine feeling; on the contrary, the vine-like foliated scrolls with the little figures, birds, and conventional floral forms interspersed, are strongly reminiscent of the Western Roman decoration of the grottos and catacombs. The ground is gold, the scroU- foliage green, in the centre is a dark blue crucifix on the arms of which are twelve white doves. On either side of the crucifix are the standing figures of the Virgin and St. John, and below are the four streams of Paradise, with stags drinking, peacocks, other birds, and little figures. Through the branching scrolls are many small human figures, and birds — four of the figures represent the fathers of the Church. Below the semi-dome, on a blue ground, are the thirteen lambs. The whole is surrounded by an extremely rich border of foliage, fruit, flowers, and figures of boys. On 102 HISTORY AND METHODS OF the upper part of the waU of the choir tribune is the figure of Christ, the symbols of the Evangel ists, and those of saints, apostles, and prophets, but these mosaics have been altered and restored in the early part of the fifteenth century. The purely ornamental mosaics of the semi-dome are particularly interesting, as they foreshadow the use of this kind of arabesque decoration which RaffaeUe and his pupils developed so much in the sixteenth century. The Cathedral at Torcello, a deserted island in the Venetian lagoon, contains some important mosaics of the twelfth century. Those on the west wall are arranged in bands or tiers and occupy the whole of the wall space, the subjects being the Last Judgment, Christ in Hades, and the Crucifixion. In the tribune is a fine example of a Byzantine mosaic on a gold ground, represent ing a great blue-robed Madonna, with the Infant Christ and the Apostles, remarkable for its fine and simple treatment of colour, and for the monumental and dignified rendering of the figures. In the centre of the lower part of the apse is the bishop's throne with the circular row of priests' seats on either side, and at the back are the original alabaster slabs, the natural veining of which makes a chevron-like pattern as they are placed in juxtaposition. This is the only instance of this kind of structure that still remains in its original state. On the pulpit steps and on the choir screen are some beautiful carvings of birds and foliage, designed and executed in the Byzan tine style, while the conventional vine and ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 103 acanthus foliage on the capitals are carved with more than usual spirit and delicacy. Many of the finest mosaics in St. Mark's, Venice, were executed during the twelfth century, namely, those iUustrating the history of the patron of the church in the Zeno Chapel; the Christ, Madonna, Solomon, David, and the Prophets in the cupola of the choir; the Eternal Father and Saints in the apse; the Holy Spirit in the first cupola, the Evangelists, and the rivers of Paradise in the angles of the great cupola, and the figure of the Saint Clement in the chapel of that name. Most of these mosaics have been very much restored or re-made, but in the parts that are original there is sufficient proof to warrant them to have been of Byzantine workmanship. The inlaid marble floor of St. Mark's dates from the tweKth century. Some important mosaic decoration of this century is found in the churches of Sicily. In the thirteenth century numerous Latin churches were decorated with mosaics, and even in the latter half of the previous century the workshops of the mosaicists in Rome were in full activity. Vasari, in his Lives of the Painters, has given the names of many of these old mosaicists. The basilica of St. Peter's at Rome, and that of San Paolo fuori le Mura, were decorated with mosaics in the early part of the thirteenth century, but in the case of those in St. Peter's of the thirteenth century and earlier periods, aU have disappeared, after suffering incessant repairs, until the time of Nicholas V, who in 1450 took over the 104 HISTORY AND METHODS OF entire reconstruction of the fabric. And as regards the mosaics of St. Paul's, the greater part perished in the fire of the building in 1823. The general design, however, and some portion of thirteenth century mosaics still exist in the tribune; they represent Christ in the centre, and a smaU figure at his feet, supposed to represent the Pope Honorius III, who ordered this work (1216-1227). St. Peter and St. Andrew are on the right, and St. Paul and St. Luke on the left, and under this composition are the figures of the twelve apostles, represented perhaps for the first time, instead of the traditional twelve sheep. Florence, in the year 1225, began to decorate the baptistery with mosaics. The vault of the tribune, the cupola, and the gaUery of this octagonal church, were covered with a world of saints, archangels, patriarchs, and people, and a colossal figure of Christ, aU actors in the scene of the Last Judgment, which is the subject of the mosaics. This decoration can now hardly be seen even on a bright day, on account of its decayed state and the dimness of the interior. The general design is not well set out or spaced agreeably, and the drawing of the figures is of an exaggerated stiffness and barbarous enough, with perhaps the exception of those of the gaUery, which are less so than the other parts of the work; this would suggest that the best available artist was entrusted with the gallery decoration; for according to Vasari, many mosaicists collaborated in this work. Vasari mentions that the decoration was entrusted to Andrea Tafi (1213-1294), who. ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 105 embarrassed with the technique, went to Venice to engage the services of some of the Greek mosaicists who were then decorating St. Mark's, and succeeding in securing the services of a Greek named Apollonius, he brought him to Florence. ApoUonius taught Andrea the method of manu facturing the small cubes, and of making the cement. The recipe for the enamels was good, but that of the cement bad, for towards the middle of the century following, less than fifty years afterwards, the mosaics detached themselves from the walls and their restoration was confided to Agnolo Gaddi, the grandson of Gaddo Gaddi; the latter, according to Vasari, was one of the mosaicists who worked with Andrea Tafi in the baptistery. Another collahorateur in this work (1225) was a Franciscan monk, named Jacopo da Turrita, who is not to be confounded with the later, and greater mosaicist, Jacopo Torriti, the author of the celebrated mosaics (1287-1292) of the tribufies of St. John Lateran and St. Maria Maggiore in Rome, although Vasari states that the artist who executed both the Florentine and Roman mosaics was the same person. Not only the distance in point of time between the signed dates of the Florentine and Roman mosaics, but the superiority of the design and style of the latter in comparison to the former, and also the great noticeable difference in the technique, clearly prove that Vasari has come to a wrong conclusion in his statements when he ascribes the works of two mosaicists to one artist, and this in spite of his acknowledgment of the great inferiority of the 106 HISTORY AND METHODS OF Florentine baptistery mosaics to those of SS. John Lateran and Maria Maggiore at Rome. In the design and workmanship of the mosaics, by Torriti, of the apse in St. John Lateran, there is seen a general animated action of the figures, which shows the designer was strongly influenced by the older mosaics of the fifth and sixth centuries. In the uppermost portion of the apse the head and shoulders of Christ, on a large scale, is placed in the centre among clouds, and above are nine angels with outspread wings; below this are six saints and apostles, with whom are some smaller figures representing St, Francis, St, Anthony of Padua, and the Pope Nicholas IV, all of which are advancing with their hands raised in adoration towards a large cross in the centre, at the foot of which are sheep and stags, and the river Jordan, On the wall of the tribune, below and between the four urched window openings, are the mosaics representing Christ and the Apostles, on a smaller scale, and on either side of these figures are palm trees. The ground of these mosaics is gold. The reveals of the window openings are decorated with conventional foliage, flowers, and ornament in greens, reds, white, and blues, on alternating grounds of blue and gold, the general effect being extremely rich and appro priate as a foil to the surrounding figure decora tion. Torriti' s masterpiece, however, is the decoration in mosaic of the tribune of St. Maria Maggiore at Rome, which he finished about the year 1300, or a few years later. No contemporary work exists which surpasses or equals the beauty Pfioto Lroji MOSAIC IN THE CAPPELLA PALATINA OF THE PALAZZO REALE, PALERMO, 12tII CENTURY ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 107 and grace of this composition in decorative design and colour. The centre of the apse is occupied by a large gold-starred circle with a blue ground, on which Christ is represented seated on a magnifi cent throne, with the Virign on his right. The Saviour is placing a crown on his mother's head, while she lifts up her hands expressive of adoration. On either side and at the lower parts of the large circular panel there are the choirs of archangels on their knees, and beside them are the kneeling Pope Nicholas IV and a cardinal; behind these on either side are the six figures of saints and apostles. On the ground above the latter an extremely rich design of double scroll-work is seen interspersed with various kinds of birds, which is so like the decoration of the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, that it is conjectured this portion of the work probably dates from the fourth century, or if not, it is an adaptation by Torriti of the purely decorative scroll-work of the fourth century on the wall of the tribune, and on a band which is pierced by the tops of the windows, are a series of seven small mosaic subjects representing scenes in the life of the Virgin. These were executed by Gaddo Gaddi shortly after the year 1307. On the fa9ade of this basilica there are some important mosaics of the fourteenth century by an artist who has signed the work " Philipp Rusuti," but who is otherwise unknown except as being the friend of Cimabue. The style and general character of these mosaics reminds one of Cimabue's semi-Byzantine manner; the design 108 HISTORY AND METHODS OF may have been possibly made by the latter painter, who may have employed Rusuti to execute the mosaic work. On the same fa9ade there are a series of mosaics by Gaddo Gaddi, in four compartments, illustrating the history of the foundation of the church. Each compartment has only a few figures, but a great deal of archi tectural forms, consisting of slender piUars and arcading, supporting canopies and entablatures. These mosaics, though interesting, are too fuU of detail and accessories, and lack the simplicity and grandeur of Rusuti' s and Torriti' s excellent work. The large conventual church of San Miniato al Monte, south of Florence, is a late Romanesque building, founded by Bishop Hildebrand in 1013. Its fa9ade is a fine example of exterior structural colour decoration in marble, consisting of smaU slabs and bands of grey-white and dark green marble. The interior vertical portions of the waUs, arches, and spandrels are also beautifully decorated with inlaid and carved marbles, chiefly in patterns of squares, lozenges, circles, lines, and other devices. It has a very fine marble pulpit in the upper choir, and an elegantly designed canopied altar in the centre, on the ground-fioor. The floor is of " opus sectile," a kind of inlaid marble in dark green and grey -white, with various designs, including the signs of the zodiac, similar, but even finer than the floor of the baptistery at Florence. The interesting mosaics of the choir tribune were executed about 1297. The figure of Christ is here represented enthroned on a green ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 109 meadow, between the boldly-rendered signs of the four Evangelists, and on either side of the Saviour are the Virgin and St. Miniatus. A general stiff Byzantine feeling clings to the figures and draperies, but the trees, plants, and especially the birds in the meadows, are more than usual naturaUy rendered. The draperies are delicately hatched with gold, and the general execution is careful. Altogether these mosaics form a stately diapason of dominant colour harmony, into which the gathering force of the general organic colouring of the rest of the building is finally united, to complete a rich and effective scheme. Many painters of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in Italy designed, even when they did not execute the mosaics as well, but gradually, during the latter century, the old mosaicist gave place to the painter, and the latter, when he did design the more durable decoration, seemed to forget the true function and limits of the material, and, especially after the time of Giotto, the grand style of decorative mosaic completely disappeared, and instead we see imitations of frescoes and wall paintings elaborately worked out in mosaic. On the other hand, as we mentioned before, mosaic design provided many of the motives, and was responsible for the monumental compositions and dignified style of the early Italian fresco painters. It may be said, with the exception of some over lapping, however, that the rise of Italian painting in the early Renaissance period synchronizes with the decay of mosaic as a magnificent form of decorative art. 110 HISTORY AND METHODS OF The Roman family of Cosmati were distinguished as excellent mosaicists of the thirteenth century. This family consisted of the father, Laurentius, and his two sons, Luca and Jacobus. Laurentius and his son Jacobus decorated the porch of the Cathedral of Civita Castellana, a place not far to the north of Rome, where the waU spaces, friezes and borders are all worked in mosaic, with re presentations of the Saviour, the Lamb, and symbols of the Evangelists. These decorations are signed with the name of the Cosmati, and are characterized by a pleasant freedom of execution and are good in colour. The father and his son Luca, executed some good mosaics in the Church of St. Scolastica at Subiaco, as proved by an inscription, and also in the dome of the Cathedral of Anagni. There is a votive picture in mosaic which decorates the tomb of the Cardinal Gonsalvo Rodrigo in the Church of St. Maria Maggiore, and another to the memory of G. Durante, Bishop of Mima, in the Church of St. Maria Sopra Minerva, both of which bear the inscriptions, " Jacobus, son of the master Cosmas, Roman citizen." The mosaics of the arch of the tribune and those of the lower part of the same tribune in Santa Maria in Trastevere are ascribed to School of the Cosmati, but are more than likely to be the work of Cavallini, as stated by Vasari. There is nothing positively known of the exact date of the birth of Pietro CavaUini, but his authentic works were executed in the first half of the fourteenth century. Vasari says that he was the disciple of Giotto, and also, that " he Phcto AUnari MOSAIC IN ST. MARIA IN TRASTEVERE, ROME, BY P. CAV.iLLINI. L.iTE 13tH CENTURY ; THE ADORATION ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 111 mixed the Greek manner with that of Giotto." It is more likely, however, that Giotto met his contemporary, Cavallini, in Rome in 1298, and found him flourishing then as a Roman artist of great power. He assisted Giotto in some mosaics which once adorned St. Peter's at Rome, but of which there are no traces left, except the celebrated mosaic picture of the Navicella, which is in the vestibule. This work, designed by Giotto, for the ancient basilica of St. Peter's, has frequently changed its position, and has been restored so often that nothing of the original is left except the outlines of the design. Cavallini was an artist of great power; he practised as a mosaicist, fresco painter, and sculptor, and recent research tends to show he was a more important artist than Vasari, or Crowe and Cavalcaselle state of him in their notices of his life and work. These authors agree in crediting Cavallini with the execution of many mosaics that are in the style of Giotto's paintings, which assertions may be based on the knowledge of the known friendship of these masters, and the assistance of Cavallini to Giotto in various mosaic decorations. Many, however, of Cavallini's so- called Giottesque mosaics, if not absolutely of his own composition, or if they are reminiscent of Giotto, as for example, those of Santa Maria in Trastevere, which are given to him by most authorities, are of the same traditional design and composition found in the Greek Menology, an old Byzantine miniature in the Vatican (No. 1613), a work of the tenth or eleventh century. From 112 HISTORY AND METHODS OF this work and other early miniatures the majority of the Italian artists were indebted for many of their fresco and mosaic compositions, as we shall see later in the chapter on miniature painting. When CavaUini did adopt Byzantine compositions, or even when he helped Giotto, his work showed the traces of a virile style of the older Roman drawing which gave a vigour and robustness to his efforts that was deficient in Byzantine art, and even in Tuscan art, at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Some excellent fresco paint ings by Pietro CavaUini were discovered in 1900 in the organ loft of the convent chapel in the Church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, with subject of the Last Judgment. These fine frescoes clearly illustrate the Roman classical manner of CavaUini, and have nothing in common with the Tuscan art of the period; they also afford further proof that Cavallini was the greatest artist in Italy prior to the advent of Giotto. From the fifteenth century and onwards mosaic became more and more transformed into close imitations of painting. Many mosaics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which decorated the Churches of St. Peter's at Rome and St. Mark's at Venice, are merely large easel pictures transformed into the more lasting material. Titian, Tintoret, and Pordenone de signed many pictorial mosaics for St. Mark's and St, Peter's, while both frescoes and oil-paintings of numerous Italian artists have been faithfully copied in mosaic on the waUs of the latter church, since the days of Urban VII (1623-44), no doubt MOSAIC IN ST. MARIA IN TRASTEVERE, ROME, EY P. CAVALLINI, LATE 13tH CENTURY ¦ BIRTH OF CHRIST ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 113 with the laudable desire to render the compositions of the great masters imperishable by incrustation in mosaic, and at the same time to provide a permanent colour finish to the great basilica ; but in the majority of the mosaic copies of paintings in St. Peter's the interpretations of the originals are imperfect, for it is not an easy matter to find a mosaicist with enough abstraction of his personal temperament, that would enable him to adopt completely that of the artist who produced the original work, in order to make a facsimile reproduction of, or even a spirited interpretation of, the original. Wonderful as the modern mosaics of St. Peter's are in their tedious technique and polished smoothness they are entirely out of place as the decoration of a great building, inasmuch as they have not been designed for the places they occupy, and are altogether at variance with the grand decorative role of mosaic. The colour decoration of churches, palaces, and other public buildings in Italy was principally carried out in fresco and tempera mediums, after Giotto and his contemporaries had, in their work, cast off the fetters of Byzantine conventionalism. The brilliant period of Italian art from 1300 to 1550 was a time of unparalleled activity in painting, sculpture, and in the minor decorative arts, and the very best art of this period was applied to the decoration of aU descriptions of public build ings. Notwithstanding the great zeal and activity in decoration manifested in this period, there are very few examples existing of church or other interiors where the general colour scheme has 114 HISTORY AND METHODS OF been arranged to harmonize, or to make it one with the architecture of the building. Where we find one instance of the latter, we also find dozens of elaborately designed colour decorations, which in their various divisions as different and separate frescoes in the one interior do not fulfil the legiti mate purpose of decorative harmony, which should assist, rather than confuse, that sense of repose which ought to be aimed for in aU good decorative expression. That it is not necessary to aim for austerity or simplicity in colour in order to obtain the needed repose, we may mention two notable examples which illustrate rich splendour of colour, and are yet extremely reposeful in their general effects, namely, the Borgia apartments in the Vatican, Rome, decorated by Pinturicchio, and the Riccardi palace at Florence, the work of Benozzo Gozzoli. Both of these great works are glowing with rich colours and gold, and yet both constitute fine examples of architectural repose. The decoration of the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, with its large frescoes iUustrating " Good " and " Bad Govern ment," by the Lorenzetti, and that of the Church of St. Francesco at Assisi, by Giotto, are also examples where the design and colouring are in good harmony with the architecture and materials of the building. Other examples might be mentioned where the sense of repose is happUy expressed in the colour schemes, but in the great majority of instances the architectural unity and proportion of Italian buildings are not always assisted by the colour decoration. This, of course. ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 115 is unavoidable, in consequence of the employment of artists belonging to many and different schools, and of the different periods in which the various works were executed, many of which, though found in juxtaposition, bear little relation to each other, either in colour or in subject, and often less to the main forms and structural lines of the architecture. In many cases the different artists seemed to take a delight in making their work as antagonistic as possible in form, feeUng, and colour, to the work already executed in the same building. This we know is perfectly natural, and what we expect when artists are free to act independently of each other in the decoration of the same interior, and it cannot be denied that in these circumstances, we are often treated to an exhibi tion of a most interesting and varied collection of works of art on the walls of the same edifice, which, though important individually, can hardly be called legitimate decoration of the archi tectural features. Many of the Italian churches, apart from their sacred uses, are veritable museums of decorative and pictorial art, and often in the same church there are found examples of painting and sculpture sufficient enough to illus trate the historical development of art from the early Christian days to the decadent periods of the late Renaissance, CHAPTER VII BYZANTINE AND ROMANESQUE MINIATURE PAINTING CHAPTER VII BYZANTINE AND ROMANESQUE MINIATURE PAINTING In the previous chapter we have pointed out that the veritable dawn of the Renaissance, as far as painting is concerned, was the beginning of the twelfth century, the vernal spring that foUowed the dark winter of the eleventh. The latter century was chiefly noted for the production of plentiful work in smaU objects of art, such as miniatures, ivory carvings, enamels, metal-work, and small portable mosaics. But wherever the human figure was used in the illustration of the subjects which formed the decoration of these minor works its general type was that of an ill- drawn or modelled, gaunt, and lifeless image of humanity, clothed in an extremely conventional way, with straight, parallel, and inorganic folds of drapery which had little or nothing in common with the surface forms of the body it was in tended to clothe. The tweKth and thirteenth centuries witnessed, as we have seen, the creation of many large and important works in mosaic as the decoration of churches, before fresco painting in a later period was universaUy adopted as almost the chief occupation of the Italian painters. Miniature painting has been mentioned as one of the minor arts largely, practised in the eleventh J19 120 HISTORY AND METHODS OF century, and of course was so much earlier, and continued as the decoration or illustration of manuscripts until the date of the invention of printing, when coloured woodcuts took its place as book illustration. Many of the compositions of large and important mosaics and frescoes during the whole period of the rise and development of painting in Italy and other countries were derived from, if not actuaUy copies of, earlier miniatures. During the period of the Middle Ages, until the time of Giotto, and even after this, it was a common enough practice to enlarge the designs of earlier miniature paint ings and use them as wall decorations, just as on the other hand the illustrators of manuscripts in Italy, Germany, France, and England adopted the designs of the wall paintings as subjects for the decoration of their own books. As far as colour, composition, and technique go, there is no reason why a miniature, if it be distinguished by excellence in these qualities, should not rank as an important example of art. Miniature painting has in the past been of undoubted service in helping the advancement of the larger forms of monumental painting, and for centuries in the so-called darkest ages it was the only kind of painting practised. We must therefore regard it as an important link in the development of modern art. Miniatures were the illustrations of the text of illuminated manuscripts, or rather the more elaborate part of the decoration of the writing, sometimes occupying only a smaU portion of the Barley MS., B.M. GOSPELS : CODEX AUREUS, FRANCO-GERMAN, ABOUT A.D. 800 ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 121 written page, but sometimes more than the half, if not the whole page, the writing in the latter case generally occupying the opposite page of the vellum. In some instances, especially in the case of the more sumptuously illuminated manuscripts, the miniatures and decorative ornament occupy by far the greater amount of space in the volume. Perhaps the oldest example of an illuminated manuscript is the Egyptian Booh of the Dead, made for Ani, about 1500 B.C., which consists of a volume written and decorated on papyri leaves, and is now in the British Museum. There are three very interesting examples of classical manuscripts which have miniatures painted on vellum that have survived to the present day. One of these is a copy of the Iliad of Homer, or rather fragments of the original manuscript, now in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. This is a Greco-Roman work of the third century. The other two are the smaller VirgU and the Godex Romanus, both in the Vatican Library. The smaller one, dating from about the fourth century, is known as the Vatican VirgU, and is much superior as an artistic produc tion to the larger one, which is feeble in drawing and coarse in execution, and may have been produced any time between the fourth and sixth centuries. The smaller Virgil has fifty miniatures, six of them being of the full size of the page : nine of the subjects are illustrations of the Georgics, and forty- one of the Mneid. The paintings vary in merit, showing the whole to be the work of two or three 122 HISTORY AND METHODS OF illustrators. The Georgics pictures are the best of the illustrations; they display great freedom in the pose and drawing of the figures, and exhibit a masterly directness of touch in the execution. The landscapes, buildings, and animals show an advanced and intimate knowledge of painting from nature, which goes to prove that the art of the period had not yet reached the lowest depths of the decline towards which it was hastening. The colouring, like the execution, in these minia tures is unequal ; in some cases, however, it is rich and harmonious, though as a rule the flesh-tints are of a bricky red. Black, white, green, blue, red, yeUow, and gold are used, and each miniature is enclosed in a border of red, black, and white lines, and also gilt lozenges. Gold is used to heighten the soft draperies and accessories. Some of the poses of the single figures and some whole groups, are paraphrases of Greek statuary. The Ambrosian Iliad is an older work than the smaller Vatican Virgil, and is quite different to it in style and treatment, being less pictorial in design and having more of a decorative or monu mental character, especially in the composition of its best pictures. This would suggest in the case of some of its fifty-eight miniatures that comprise the fragment left of the book (which has been conjectured to have originaUy consisted of 240 leaves), that they have likely been copies of Greek wall paintings; as the style of the designs is of a spacious and dignified character, more suited to wall painting than to smaller work. For example, the page which has the ^^;^>.'^;; c^^*^'- ¦'::M§^-^v^^ ^.^ Ci.lton MS., B.M. CHARTER OF KING EDGAR TO NEW MINSTER : WINCHESTER, A.D. 966 ANCIENT AND MODERN PAINTING 123 subject of " The Trojan Women Sacrificing to Minerva," might have well been a copy of a Greek or Greco-Roman wall decoration. Here is shown a tall and dignified woman at an altar, accom panied by five maidens, who form the left group of figures, and to balance this group there are figures of two soldiers disputing on the right, all being arranged in a symmetrical manner in front of a background of classical buildings. The colouring has a good deal of red, with white, purple, and a bright yellow. There is no gold used in the Iliad pictures. Although there are some isolated examples of very fine work in these manuscript illustrations, the greater part shows the feebleness of the state of art in the third and fourth centuries in Italy, but a much greater degradation is shown in the third remaining classical manuscript, the larger Virgil in the Vatican Library, the Codex Romanus. This manuscript consists of 309 vellum leaves, and the designs, colouring, and execution are coarse and chUd-like, some of them being crude copies of wall paintings. The origin of this Codex is not exactly known, but it has inscriptions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, showing that it belonged to the Abbey of St. Denis, near Paris. The portrait of Virgil occurs three times in this book, copied from the old mosaic portrait of the poet, recently found at Susa. The Joshua Roll, a Roman work, originally consisting of a large parchment thirty feet long by one foot in width, but now divided, and in a volume of fifteen leaves, is also in the Library of 124 HISTORY AND METHODS OF the Vatican. It represents scenes from the life of Joshua painted in the manner of the early Christian art at Rome. The figures and details are somewhat similar to the reliefs on the Trajan Column, and the designs are in brown outlines. The colouring is executed in parts in transparent rosy tints of water-colour in a sketchy manner, recalling the Pompeian wall decorations. Spirited groups of soldiers with classical uniforms, graceful goddesses personifying cities, rivers, and mountains, are all rendered in a lively and spontaneous manner. The date of the Joshua Roll is a subject of great controversy, the ninth and tenth centuries being generaUy suggested, but if any one of these dates is correct the design and drawing provide a strong reason to infer that it is a copy of a much older work, perhaps of the third or fourth centuries. As a proof of this, we may point out that some of the subjects are copies of, or may have providedj^the designs for, some mosaics of the fifth century, in the Church of St, Maria Maggiore, It is quite likely, however, that this interesting coUection of designs comprises one of the many sets of miniature pictures so often used as patterns for mosaics and waU paintings. Wherever the figure of Joshua appears in this work, he is dis tinguished from the other figures by his greater height and^also by his nimbus. The Greek Menology, an iUustrated calendar made for Basil II, (a,d, 976-1025), is preserved in the Vatican Library, It consists of a volume of 215 leaves, and contains many designs executed by the best Byzantine artists of the period at 'B.:^-v^ .'¦/*ixV,4i, jte,V'.5ai- & .^i\./i,U fH tr.:-;cix.wm:if- m ^ ml ^ fe' i •''H: -f V'^'; ^ sSBBBIH i : a 'DC ^