The arrangement and composition of line, restfulness of the masses of form, and the harmonic balance and purity of colour are among the primary essentials of mural painting, and all these indispensable requisites of this form of art are due to its contact with architecture. While bearing this in mind, we must not forget that painting has its special functions apart from those of architecture, which include a controlling power over form and colour, and the faculty of illustrating ideas, by means of the representation of a theme or an incident, a subject or a story.
Now if the essentials of monumental painting, which we have named, and the special functions of the art of the painter are united in any scheme of mural decoration, the result would be an ideal work of decorative art, examples of which may be found in the frescos of Giotto, and in those of the majority of the Italian painters who followed him, down to the sublime creations of Michael Angelo.
The older art of the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Mediæval schools was, in each case, influenced by, and in perfect harmony with the architecture of the respective periods, and not less, but even more so, were the painting and sculpture of Italy from the middle of the thirteenth century till the end of the sixteenth century. The Byzantine and Romanesque mosaics which decorate the churches of Ravenna, Venice and Rome are dignified and sculpturesque in treatment, and from an ornamental point of view, admirably fill the architectural spaces of both walls and vaulted ceilings. The artists of these ancient schools rightly treated the wall spaces as flat surfaces, the wall being strictly considered as such, and no attempt was made to treat the subject of the painting in pictorial perspective, or to give the wall the illusion of a window. The subject or incident, was also, for the most part, mystic in character, and elevated in a spiritual sense, so that the very soul of their art was expressed and symbolized; while what we may call the bodily part, either from a want of their power of expressing it or from a careless or studied neglect of this side of their art, was limited and incomplete. And even when, in later times, the science of art, as expressed in anatomy and perspective, was well understood, this traditional treatment of the design was followed out by the Italian artists, both in their mosaics and wall paintings, and was never lost sight of by the painters subsequent to Giotto, until the seventeenth century, when the general decadence of art had set in.
The three absolute essentials of ancient and mediæval painting, which also characterized the best work of the Renaissance, appear to have been a striving after the symbolic expression of the spirit of the subject, a restfulness and dignity of form, and the beauty of colour. Whatever else we look for, we ought to find these three essentials in a successful work of monumental painting. In this kind of art, and indeed in all art, small things should be sacrificed to great, and the commonplace or matter-of-fact to the rendering or expression of the idea; in parentheses, it might be pointed out, that in a general sense the tendency of the art of the present day is towards a greater dexterity of handling closer representations of the facts of nature, but less sincerity of aim.
The more important paintings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were those which decorated the walls of the Italian churches and palaces, and the authors of these works were not only painters, but the majority of them were also architects, sculptors, and craftsmen in gold and silver work. Even those who confined their attention chiefly to painting, thoroughly understood the principles of architecture, and often designed and carried out architectural work, as witness Giotto, Ghirlandajo, Michael Angelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and many others.
If we now consider another aspect of art, where it is applied to objects of general utility, we shall find that the design and decoration of such, when rightly understood, are in each case subject to the laws that govern good architecture. Take, for instance, the form or shape of a common candlestick, a vase in pottery or in metal, a cabinet or a chair, and let us see how far we can apply the principles of architecture to their design and decoration. When designing such objects the first consideration is their utility, and the next is the material of which they are made. It is a common enough truism to say that the forms and proportions which may be suitable for objects made in a certain material, such as pottery or glass for example, should not be imitated in another, such as metal or woodwork. When the questions of utility and material have been settled, we can apply the laws and principles of architecture to guide us in the design and decoration of the given object. As to design, first, we should strive to obtain good proportion of the parts and divisions to each other, and to the whole. It will be found that correct proportion generally postulates the determination of beautiful outlines and shapes. We should also aim for the expression of contrasting elements of forms, such as curves with straight lines, sharp curves with others of less curvature, horizontal lines to counteract vertical tendencies, or mouldings and lines of varying widths arranged to fit in such positions that will give, or suggest, constructive strength; all of which are simply architectural principles, which, if applied to the design of common objects, would give them a definite claim to be considered as works of art.
Very little decoration is required on any article or object which has been designed on correct architectural principles, beyond that already expressed by the lines or mouldings and space divisions. If, however, the nature or use of the object permits of the display, or adventitious aid of such, in order to heighten its beauty, by making it still more attractive and comely to the eye, then the laws and principles of architecture will again help us by indicating where the decoration may be placed, the right amount to use, the scale of such, and the order of its disposition. We learn, for instance, from architecture that we must not weaken the appearance of the constructive parts, such as the lines, or the mouldings, by any fretful ornamentation, but on the panels and plain spaces we may legitimately place our decoration, yet still restrained so far as not to interfere with the right uses of the object, and designed so as to harmonize, and in some instances contrast, with the lines and contour. Examples of artistic objects, designed on architectural principles, may be found in the Greek and Etruscan vases and Pompeian bronzes, and, on the other hand, if some examples may be mentioned where the laws of architecture do not find expression in their form or decoration, and where art is almost non-existing, we might safely point out the meretricious creations of the Chelsea and Dresden chinaware, and the gold and silversmiths’ work of the mid-Victorian period. This digression from our subject may be justified, on the grounds of showing how important the study of architecture is to the painter, the decorative artist, and to the designer in any branch of art.
CHAPTER II
MURAL DECORATION—SYSTEMS AND METHODS
Various processes, systems, or methods have been employed in ancient and modern times in the colour decoration of walls and ceilings. Under this section of art is included all kinds of wall paintings, from the representation of the symbolic hieroglyphics, found in the Egyptian tombs, to the monumental paintings on the walls of public buildings, churches, and palaces. The decoration of wall surfaces in colour is one of the very oldest forms of art, and to a wall painting of any kind the term “fresco” has usually, but somewhat loosely, been applied. Strictly speaking, however, a veritable fresco painting is one that is executed on the fresh or wet lime plaster of the wall, and is not re-touched after the plaster has become dry. All other varieties of so-called “fresco” paintings can only be designated as wall paintings, and qualified according to their kind, such as “fresco-secco,” or “dry” fresco, a kind of fresco where the wall is prepared in the same way as in true fresco, and is then allowed to dry. Before the painting is commenced, the wall is well saturated with lime water, and the colours used are the same as those employed in fresco painting. It is not so permanent as work executed on the fresh, wet plaster. Some of the old writers frequently use the term “secco” when tempera painting is evidently meant. Painting in tempera on the dry wall is a process in which the colours are tempered with a binding medium, such as glue size, gum, parchment size, or a size made from eggs beaten up with water; the Italian painters added the juice, or gum, of the fig tree, and sometimes vinegar to the egg size. Other methods are encaustic, or painting with wax as a medium, heat being afterwards applied to the wall to blend or to protect the colours; spirit fresco, in which the colours are ground in a wax medium and thinned with spirits of turpentine or oil of spike; water-glass, a German method of wall painting; Keim’s process, an improved variety of water-glass, and wall painting in oil colours.
The only advantage that these varieties of wall painting seem to possess over the buon, or true fresco, process—and it may be considered as a questionable one—is, that as regards the number of the colours, the artist may use an almost unlimited or unrestricted palette, while in buon fresco his colours are limited to the very few which remain unchanged when subjected to the caustic action of the lime in the plaster. Tempera painting on walls has been so much mistaken for the fresco process that it is impossible to say when the latter was first practised, but according to the statements of Vitruvius and Pliny, the process was well understood by the Greeks and Romans. Perhaps one of the most interesting revelations in the history of the art has been brought about by the discovery of several fragments of wall and ceiling decorations, found recently by the late Dr. Schliemann during the excavations of the ancient cities and palaces of the pre-Hellenic Mycene and Tiryns, of primitive Greece. One of these fragments of fresco painting, which was found in a palace at Tiryns, consisted of a portion of a wall or ceiling, a stucco slab, composed of lime and sand plaster, on which is painted the representation of a spirited bull with the figure of a man vaulting over its back. This interesting piece of work must have been executed at least as early as 1500 B.C., as the city of Tiryns was a mass of ruins shortly after this date. Many other fragments of fresco paintings have also been found in the ruins of these ancient palaces, some of which were decorated with linear and geometric ornament, conventional flowers, and animal forms. Not only were the walls and ceilings decorated with frescos, but the floors of some of the apartments were treated in a similar manner. Still earlier examples of fresco painting have been found in prehistoric Thera, one of the Grecian isles, and others in the Minoan palace at Cnossus, in Crete, both of which may have been painted as early as the nineteenth century B.C., and certainly not later than the eighteenth.