Fig. 89.—Ceiling from Serlio’s architecture.
adorned with figures of men or animals. Wall spaces need not be panelled in small rooms, as the window-openings, doors, and fireplaces mostly break up the space sufficiently. If the rooms, though small, are high, a dado and a frieze are improvements. On ceilings there is more room for variety and elaboration. There are many ways of decorating ceilings. We may take the cornice as the frame, and regard the ceiling as the space to decorate; the simplest way is to powder it ([Fig. 85]), or to cover it over with a scroll-work pattern ([Fig. 86]). An effective treatment consists in lightly covering the field with a pattern steadied by labels, shields, or medallions ([Fig. 87]).
In dividing a ceiling into panels, either by painting or by relief work, the centre panel or compartment should generally be larger than any of the others (see [Fig. 89], and 92 at B), though there are excellent Renaissance ceilings divided into equal panels. When the ceiling is unequally divided, the spaces should be in harmonic proportion, so that no two series of panels shall be the same width; this, however, does not apply to the widths of the stiles and rails, which should be alike. Figs. [88] and [89] show such arrangements. Care must be taken in designing the subdivisions of ceilings that the panels, interspaces, and mouldings are well contrasted. A safe guide for the designer in obtaining the requisite proportions is to be found in the Roman ceilings, although those of which drawings are preserved were mostly vaulted. For flat ceilings, good examples may be studied of the best period of Italian Renaissance ([Fig. 88]), and in both cases the mouldings of the panels are usually given. Where a ceiling to be decorated is divided by beams, the panelling, if admissible, should be repeated in the different compartments. Ceilings of corridors or long rooms may be harmonically divided across at discretion.
Relief work or modelled ornament on ceilings should be so regulated that the light from windows or from artificial illumination should cause little cast shadow, only enough to define the outline; the forms should be carefully rounded off in the more important masses to lessen the abruptness of cast shadow. A preponderance of light in the larger masses, connected and softened by lower tones, is commonly adopted.
On the carved surface itself, the play of light and shade should be quite secondary, and not compete in strength with the deeper shadows cast by the ornament on its ground. If this be not attended to, confusion and obscurity are apt to be produced.
A nice balancing of light and shade is of the greatest importance in relief ornament. It may here be remarked, that for outdoor work in a sunny climate, a lower relief in the carving and more delicacy in the mouldings is admissible, than in a misty one like ours, where strong sunlight rarely occurs; and for this reason a bolder treatment of relief is necessary, which allows of a coarser material being used. Before leaving the subject of relief ornament, it would be as well to state, that no carved decoration should be fastened on to a ceiling or panel, but should be worked out of the material itself; and also that where human figures are used on ceilings, they must be so arranged as to be seen from the heads at the most important point in the room; seen from the feet the figures appear to be upside down.
CHAPTER V
IN setting out spaces for decoration the chief aim should be to get them in harmonic proportion. The Greeks were the great masters of this art, the most subtle proportions being chosen by them, but there is not space here to enter into refinements. Roughly speaking, the proportion of 1¾ to 1 is fairly agreeable; when the space required approaches a double square, it looks better if it somewhat exceeds or falls short of that figure. As a rule, a marked preponderance in the height or length should be given to every oblong used in decoration, and with those rough rules, an educated eye can mostly, after a few trials, obtain harmonious proportions. Those forms about which there is an uncertainty always look feeble and unsatisfactory, e.g. an oblong that approaches the square, or an ellipse that approaches a circle. In the case of the square there should be no doubt about its being a square, so it is necessary that the ornamentation chosen be calculated to emphasize the shape and not give it the appearance of an oblong, i.e. the ornament should be symmetrical on both the axes, and it is often useful to accentuate the corners as well; if the square be surrounded by a border it is sometimes advisable to strengthen its corners by knees. If this be done it is necessary to have them at the four corners; if they be applied to the two upper or the two under corners, the square will be taken for an oblong. The repetition of squares is much more endurable than a repetition of similar oblongs. A common case of the monotonous effect of similar oblong panels is to be seen in a four-panelled door with the middle rail in the centre, so the middle rail is commonly put below the centre to get variety in the panels. Even in so graceful a form as the human figure, sculptors rarely represent it in a perfectly symmetrical attitude, particularly in bas-relief, unless it be to express some marked emotion, or for the sake of the composition; there are, however, a few figures in front view, symmetrically arranged, that form the centres of ornamental compositions: the front view of animals in bas-relief is still less admissible. The circle is by far the most beautiful and useful closed curve, but it is not always available, as in the case of a central feature in a very long ceiling or in oblong panels, and its place must be then supplied by an ellipse, which has this merit, that its proportions are infinite, the straight line and the circle being only extreme cases of the ellipse; but when the choice is unfettered the long (major) axis should so far exceed the short (minor) as to afford a contrast; an ellipse that differs but slightly from the circle too much resembles one that is ill-drawn. When an ellipse is placed with the long axis vertical, which is sometimes necessary in oblong panels, looking-glasses, &c., it should be tied to the vertical and horizontal framework to prevent an
