My palace, situate on the summit of the upper mountain city, communicates with a magnificent summer palace, reached easily by a well lighted descent. The daylight in the internal palaces is peculiarly beautiful, almost unearthly. Pictures of life-like power are painted expressly for this light.
In my summer palace is a saloon of very great proportions, with a floor of ivory inlaid with pearls. This saloon contains more than 150 pictures, works of our great artists, representing the principal events of my life. In these the figures are large as life. Here are depicted extreme perils which I had undergone; here are the present times contrasted with the past; and thus the benefits conferred by my reign are presented in a manner which appeals at once to the heart.
SUNSHINE PICTURES.
Great discoveries had been made of the enormous resources afforded by the sun. By the aid of machines this power is greatly utilized in manufactures, sciences, and arts. The loveliest colours of our fabrics are those imparted by the action of the sun with the aid of instruments fitted to the purpose.
When we desire to produce in a painting the effect of sunshine, the rays of the sun are attracted and permanently fixed on the parts of the picture we wish to illumine. The effect produced is as though the sun was actually shining on the picture. The effects of sunrise or sunset— the effects of the most brilliant, as well as the least vivid, sunshine—can be produced at will, and are exactly those of nature. Some of these effects are so vivid, that it would dazzle the eye to look on the sunny parts of the picture for any length of time.
A preparation sympathetic to the sun's rays having been rubbed over the part they are intended to illumine, the rays are concentrated there by means of an attracting and concentrating instrument. Another solution is then thrown rapidly on the part illumined in order to fix the rays permanently. A brush was used at first; but, in spite of all care, this left its deep shadow, which greatly marred the effect. Even now much care is necessary, and the solution must be thrown from the side with considerable address, so that the sun's rays may not be intercepted. This solution serves also to fix the rest of the colours. The picture is painted on a fine material like linen, of great durability.
This art of using the sun's rays was much used on the paintings in my summer palace. The brilliant sunlight of the outer world thrown on the principal figures produced a greater effect in the subdued light of the internal city.
XVIII.
THE PICTURES.
"Let pictures speak to the eye, to the ear, to the taste, to the heart, to the head, to the concentrated light of the soul, to the imagination as well as to the understanding. If they do not rouse good aspirations, cast them into the fathomless ravine, there to perish, a fitting food for the poisonous fungi that cover its sides."