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Plate 25.—Example of Diaper Ornament, largely used in Italian, German and English Decoration of the Sixteenth Century.
We might extend these observations on the colouring of architecture in Germany with a brief description of a few examples of modern work of the art which has engaged our attention.
The Teutonic love for the Gothic style and for its auxiliary colour and ornamentation is manifested in the decoration of almost every public building in modern Germany. This is even apparent in the fittings and decorations of the luxurious saloons of their great and latest-built passenger ships, where the dining-rooms and drawing-rooms of the modern liners are often, as in the case of the Imperator, designed and decorated in the style and true spirit of Medieval Gothic, so that the passengers might almost imagine that they were living in some castle or baronial hall of the fifteenth century instead of being on board the ship.
The staircase walls and ceiling of the Museum at Cologne present a fairly good scheme of modern German decoration. The walls have fresco paintings by Steinle, which are important examples of this modern German painter. The ornamentation that surrounds the frescoes, and that on the lower parts of the walls are not so good in colour or form as that of the vaulted ceiling. The work on the latter is good in colour and successfully carried out. The vaults have crimson-red, and blue background alternating, on which are painted a well-designed scroll-like ornamentation in lighter shades with some gold introduced on the mouldings and other parts, the whole effect being rich and pleasing.
Richly coloured carved wood ceilings, in low relief, which contain numerous heraldic shields arranged in panels, and set in suitable ornamentation of foliage forms and ribbon-work, are found in nearly all of the more important rooms in the German town-halls. One of the finest examples of a coloured and carved ceiling is the one which adorns the Kaiserhalle in the Römer, or town-hall, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. This magnificent ceiling is carved in low-relief which gives it a suitable flat appearance. The rich tinctures of the charges on the shields, combined with the gold and silver that is used, produce, with the dark background of the natural brown colour of the wood, an extremely satisfactory example of refined decoration. This ceiling is certainly the best of its kind that we can remember to have seen in any German city. The walls of this magnificent chamber are decorated with good full-length portraits of the German and Prussian kings and emperors. At the entrance end of the hall there is a seated figure of Charlemagne, by Veit, and in the panel above is a wall painting by Steinle with the subject of “The Judgment of Solomon.” The full-length portrait of Frederick I (1152-90), is an unusually fine work by Lessing.
Another example of a finely carved and painted ceiling, is that of the Council Chamber in the Rathaus, or town-hall at Hildesheim. Here also are seen the heraldic devices, with figures and elaborate scroll-work which compose the design of this ceiling. The general scheme of the colouring is rich and deep in tones of red, blue, gold, on the background of dark brown wood. The walls of this Gothic chamber are decorated with fine paintings in fresco by H. Prell, begun in 1892. With the exception of there being too much darkness in some parts, they are otherwise brilliant and luminous in colour, and may be said to be among the best examples of fresco technique in Germany.