Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/811

FRESCO 77;> grettcd that tho old masters generally were not satisfied with the effect of pure fresco-painting. Masaccio trium phantly illustrated its true powers. In "the Brancacci chapel at Florence tho perfection to which tho noble art may be carried without extraneous aid is amply illustrated. In the efforts made to give fresco the richness of colour and force of chiaroscuro of oil-painting, its finest qualities were in fact destroyed. In the attempt there is a manifest con fusion of ideas. Fresco-painting is in a special manner the hand-maiden of architecture, with which it harmonizes and to which it adapts itself in a manner from which oil- painting seeks to escape. Oil-painting asserts itself, fresco aims rather to adorn and complete the architecture with which it is associated; but its history shows that not all artists understood its true limits or its real mission. Some lessons taught us by the results now ascertainable of the technical processes of the old masters may be summed up. The importance of careful construction of the wall so as to prevent the action of damp is evident. Undoubtedly the best walls are those of brick with facings in the ancient Roman manner. The ruinous consequences of badly con structed roofs have been shown by the state of the mural paintings at Assisi. That pure fresco is a much more durable art than the mixed method of fresco and distemper- painting is obvious. Of distempers used, those containing animal matter are the worst, especially that prepared from eggs, for when they are assailed by damp, black fungi spread over such pictures and ruin them. It is needless now to point to the disastrous results which must follow tho use of white lead ; for as a pigment in tempera-painting its great defect is known to all artists. The employment of pozzolana in the preparatory coats of plaster may appear to be favourably supported by ancient examples. Pozzolana is a volcanic ash, which, mixed with lime, forms the famous Roman cement, and has admirable qualities ; but it must not bo forgotten how Michelangelo suffered from using it, and how mould spread on his frescos. The ancient masters prepared intonaco in two ways, with lime and sand, and with lime and marble dust. If the sand used is quartz, the mixture is insoluble, and the fresco painted upon it will be permanent. If marble dust, on the contrary, be preferred, as it was by many old masters from its beauty, it is soluble, and it facilitates the formation of sal nitre on the surface, a common enemy and a dangerous one of frescos, for it destroys the colours. It is important that lightning conductors should be provided ; as at Assisi the action of the electric fluid on the frescos of the vaults, where it has played over the surface, has blackened them. The Germans, who have done much for tho restoration of fresco in the present century, have added to the list of colours formerly in use, and in doing so have been aided by modern chemistry. They have also experimentally fixed the time requisite for the preparation of the lime for the intonaco, and have greatly improved the structure of walls intended to be painted. They have restored the ancient method of lining walls internally with brick ; they have in terposed sheets of lead between the bases of those walls and the foundations, and prevent the descent of damp from above in the same way. They consider it enough to keep the lime to be used for from ten to twelve months, whether for the intonaco or for painting with ; and the following is a list of the colours which they have added to those em ployed by the old masters : Raw and burnt terra di siena, all kinds of burnt ochres, a lake-coloured burnt vitriol, a purple burnt vitriol, raw and burnt umber, Cologne earth burnt forming an excellent black, chrome green, cobalt green, and for blue cobalt as now prepared, or imitations of it. The frescos of the Venetian masters, and those of Antonio Allegri da Correggio, add little to our knowledge of the technical processes of mural painting. As might be ex pected, tho works of the Venetians, which are compara tively few in number, show more attention to colour than to form, and they are slight in execution. The most brilliant are those by Paul Veronese, whose ideas of colour and effect in a special manner fitted him to deal with the conditions of monumental art. Correggio illustrates, as might be expected, the magic effects of sunlight alternating with shade, and the beauty of form and feature which dis tinguish the immortal artist. Technically, his processes resemble those of other Italian masters, and his works have suffered in the same manner and from the same causes. Enough, it is hoped, has been said to explain the pro cesses of fresco-painting as practised by the greatest masters of the art. Some of these have led to their decay, but a combination of ignorance and carelessness on the part of the Italians themselves has been the chief cause of tho widespread ruin of the greatest examples of the art of painting which the genius of any nation has produced. Modern Fresco-Painting. The practice of painting in fresco lias been continued to the present time in Italy ; it has been employed not only for the decoration of churches, public buildings, and private residences, but also for painting exteriors. The traditional habit of painting the exteriors of houses prevalent in Genoa and its neighbourhood for centuries, and less frequently in other parts of Italy, still continues, although in an incompetent manner and by painters of a much more ordinary class than formerly. For the execution of interior work excellent fresco-painters are readily found, and the Italians of the present day arc in no respect inferior to their predecessors in practical skill, however little they may equal them in the high characteristics of art. Modern Italian masters paint in pure fresco with much force of colour, satisfactory execution, and excellent finish ; they repudiate the old system of retouching with distemper colours, whilst npart from the practice of fresco they are probably the best painters iu distemper in Europe. In this art they paint like tho old masters with the egg vehicle, but as a separate art of mural painting, and never as an adjunct to fresco. Towards the commencement of the present century several German artists resident in Rome studied tho art of fresco with much zeal, and laid the foundation of the modern school of fresco-painters in Germany. Some of them acquired a great amount of technical skill, and followed the system of the old masters, by training pupils as assistants with satisfactory results, and thus were enabled to undertake public work with comparative facility and at a reasonable expense. As already noticed, they improved the art in important technical respects, as well as the structure of edifices to be painted, and settled the best methods for preparing the lime for plastering with, and for painting. In France the art of fresco-painting has not been successfully developed. French artists who practice mural painting with great ability prefer oil or wax-painting, an ancient method which they as well as the Italians and Germans have with much care and ingenuity endeavoured to revive. They have not been able to restore the ancient encaustic, but they have devised useful and beautiful modes of mural painting and decoration. A zealous attempt was made in England to promote tho art of mural painting in fresco, in connexion with the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament in London. Careful inquiries were made in Germany and Italy, and a valuable amount of information was gathered and published ; and, after various experiments, artists of distinction and ability were employed to paint in fresco in the House of Lords and in other parts of the new national edifice. Notwithstanding the difficulties which beset them in tho practice of an art so new to their experience and so different from their usual habits, a considerable amount of success was achieved, highly creditable to them and to their zeal and perseverance. But fresco-painting has not been domiciled in Great Britain, nor has any great school of mural painters been formed. The excellent artists employed did not form schools as in Germany or in Italy, or as in France in a different branch of art ; and without the aid of trained assistants public painting is impossible at a cost which can be brought within reasonable limits. Before the revival of fresco-painting in London, Mr Zephaman Bell a Scottish artist, who had studied the art in Italy, painted some clever and forcible frescos at Muirhouse, near Edinburgh, which after the lapse of about forty-five years are still, with the exception of the yellows, fresh and in excellent condition. second Itfvort of the Comminioveri of the. Fine Arlt, London, 1843, and the same author s Life and Works of Michelangelo Buonarroti, 187G; also the JbjPOrtf Of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts, London, from 1842. (C. 11. V .)