Siena are fine instances of the days when mural painting was a living
and popular art, frankly appealing to the love of story and romance,
vivid, dramatic, and yet superbly decorative. Superior modern critics
might scorn such types of art as "literary," and their _naïveté_ as
"childish"; but their story-telling power is an inseparable part of
their artistic form, and never oversteps it, just as their decorative
instinct is in perfect accord and harmony with their architectural
conditions.
This was long before the days of academies and art schools, when there
was no technical art education outside the workshop, no competitive
examinations, and a man learnt his craft by apprenticeship to it,
beginning at the beginning, under a master craftsman.
I fail to see how any art can be wholly taught or learned on general
principles, since it is of the nature of art to address itself to
particular problems, the conditions of which constantly vary. Certain
general principles have been evolved out of collective practice of
more or less value, no doubt, in a general way, but they must always
be liable to qualification in their adaptation to particular cases.
Nothing of the nature of art can be formulated as an exact science,
happily, or the limits of its invention and variety would soon be
reached. Art, however, has its scientific side, though the science of
art is not exactly scientific or theoretic, but practical, and rather
consists in recognizing particular necessities of conditions and
materials, and the realizing that the frank acknowledgment of the
nature of these conditions and materials leads, in all the varieties
of design, in association with craftsmanship and architecture, to the
highest beauty.
[Illustration: Patterns in plain leading,
from "THE GLAZIER'S BOOKE."]
The peculiar beauty of a stained glass window, for instance, is
entirely dependent upon this frank acknowledgment of conditions. A
screen of transparent colour and pattern, defined and united by leads,
and held in position by iron bars. Directly any attempt is made to
overstep its natural limits--to make it look like a painted picture,
to get chiaroscuro and vanishing points, or to try to ignore the
leading as an essential condition of its existence--the charm and the
joy of it is lost. There is a distinct character and beauty both in
plain leaded glass and roundels throwing a pleasant network of simple
geometric lines over the blankness of window-panes. Henry Shaw, in
his Glazier's Book,[8] gives a great variety of delightful leading
patterns.
Now, any design for a coloured glass window should, in the first
place, be a good arrangement of lead-lines, I think--a good pattern,
in short, whether figure subject or not--and, secondly, a good pattern
considered as an arrangement of colour or jewelled light.
The artistic designer and maker of a wrought-iron gate, grille, or
railing, whatever phantasy he might introduce, would never forget the
essential requirements of a gate, grille, or railing. He would never
forget the architectural relation of his work, or rather he would make
the chief beauty and inventiveness of his treatment of wrought iron
spring out of that relation.
The practice of modelling in clay (though it may be useful in a
student's training) designs intended to be carved in wood, has, it
seems to me, been most destructive of the beauty and character of true
woodcarving. The same may be said of stone and marble. The essential
spirit and go of the thing, the characteristic touch and treatment
which each material in which the designer works claims as its own, and
which is its own particular reason for existing, these are, of course,
lost or tamed out of recognition when a copy is made of something
already existing in a material and produced by a method totally
different.
Much better keep to simple mouldings and plain painting than bring
in ornament which has no character or meaning of its own. We must not
confuse the mere spreading of ornament with decoration in its true
sense, for Design in all its forms may be said to be governed by an
architectural instinct of its own, which makes it a harmonious part of
the building with which it is united, and which unites it, and puts it
in harmony with itself.
In the limits of a short paper it is impossible to do more than
deal very lightly with so vast a subject as the Arts allied to
Architecture, and there are many that I have not been able to touch
at all, since, properly considered, _all_ the arts are, or should be,
allied to architecture, and the history of architecture covers the
history of human life itself; and what, let us ask, would architecture
be without the associated arts which help to express and adorn it and
fit each part for the use and service of man.
[Footnote 6: This was written before the arrangement of the
collections in the new building of the Victoria and Albert
Museum was complete.]
[Footnote 7: An illustration of this porch is given in my
"Bases of Design."]
[Footnote 8: The full title is "A Booke of Sundry Draughtes.
Principally serving for Glasiers: And not impertinent for
plasterers, and gardeners: besides sundry other professions.
London. William Pickering 1848." It is almost wholly copied
from an older work "printed in Shoolane at the sign of the
Falcon by Walter Dwight 1615."]
NOTES ON COLOUR EMBROIDERY AND ITS TREATMENT
NOTES ON COLOUR EMBROIDERY AND ITS TREATMENT
Embroidery as an art of design may be considered from many different
points of view--but none of these are more important than those of
colour and its treatment. It is indeed to colour that decorative
needlework owes its chief charm, and in no direction is the influence
of controlling taste more essential, and in its absence the most
elaborate workmanship and technical accomplishment are apt to be
wasted.
The choice and treatment of colour must naturally depend, in the
first place, upon the object and purpose of the work, which would, of
course, decide the scale and motive of its pattern.
As applied to costume, in which direction we find some of its most
delicate and beautiful examples, nearness to the eye, the construction
of the garment and the proportions of figure would have to be
considered.
The Russian peasants have a form of frock or long blouse worn by young
girls, which affords an instance of effective use of frank and bright
colour upon a white ground. The garment itself is of homespun linen.
It has a square opening for the neck, and is put on over the head,
like a smock frock. The sleeves are quite simple, full on the upper
arm and narrowing to a band on the wrist. The skirt, which falls
straight from the shoulders, is decorated with a series of horizontal
bands of pattern worked in cross-stitch, the principal colours
being red and green, colours which always tell well upon white.
The square-cut opening at the neck and the cuffs are emphasized
by embroidered pattern of similar kind but on a smaller scale. The
garment is ingeniously adapted to the growth of its wearer by adding
extra rings of pattern to the skirt, and by enlarging a square piece
let in at the arm-pits.
The Hungarian peasant women are most admirable embroiderers, and in
their festal costumes display an extraordinary wealth of brilliant
colour, employing, like the Russian, principally the cross-stitch
on white linen. They are fond of decorating the ends of their
pillow-cases which are piled up one upon the other on the bed, usually
set against the wall in their cottages, so that only the outside ends
show, and these alone are embroidered. Both the patterns, which are
traditional and have an oriental character, and their colour show a
strong decorative sense and natural taste. Many of them being worked
in a single tone of red or blue, always effective on white. In some
parts short sleeveless leather jackets lined with sheep's wool are
worn. These are made incredibly gorgeous in colour by a kind of
combined _appliqué_ and stitch embroidery, the vivid greens, reds,
blues, and purples being kept in their place by the broad white of the
shirt sleeves which flank them on each side when worn.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN PEASANT EMBROIDERY
CHILD'S BLOUSE
in home spun linen worked in cross-stitch
Red pattern in
cross stitch
Red band
Neck opening
Red band
Red pattern in cross stitch
Square enlarging piece
Red band
herring bone stitched
Blue (stitched)
Pattern in Red
(Cross stitch)
Blue (stitched)
Red band
Red band
]
More austere arrangements are however found. There is a large heavy
overcoat, with hanging sleeves and deep collar, worn by the Hungarian
farmers, made of white wool. This is ornamented most judiciously
by _appliqué_ embroidery in black and green. The chief points of
decoration being the collar, the cuffs, and the hem.
In the Montenegrin section of the Balkan States Exhibition at Earl's
Court there were some charming shirts and blouses embroidered with
gold thread and colour, in bands. The constructive points, such as
the neck opening, the junction of the yoke and sleeves, sometimes the
sleeves themselves were richly ornamented with designs in gold and
colour with excellent effect.
Good examples of treatment of rich colour in combination with light
pattern are to be found among Cretan embroideries. The decoration in
bands of the ends of the muslin scarves, relieved with silver and
gold thread, often recalls the effect of the illuminated borders of
fourteenth and fifteenth-century manuscripts, having a delightfully
gay and sparkling effect. These Cretan embroideries are examples of
the harmonious effect in the arrangement of a number of different
colours in the same pattern, grouped around a central feature which
forms the dominating note; this is generally in the form of a large
red flower with a gold centre, and this is surrounded with smaller
detached star-like flowers, and formal cypress trees in leaf-shaped
enclosures of gold or silver thread. The design being repeated, with
slight variations, to form a band or border of pattern decorating
the ends of the scarf. In a sample before me eight colours are used,
besides gold and silver thread. The colours are: (1) red, in centre
flower (a light vermilion); (2) crimson (sometimes, alas, magenta);
(3) pink (pale salmon); (4) orange; (5) light (lemon) yellow (of
greenish tone); (6) olive (dark); (7) pale blue, and (8) dark blue.
[Illustration: CRETAN EMBROIDERY. Silk on Muslin, heightened with
gold and silver thread.
Colours:
1. Orange
2. Crimson
3. Red
4. Pink
5. Olive
6. Yellow (green)
7. Light blue
8. Dark blue
9. Gold
10. Silver
]
As every embroideress knows, colour in embroidery is very much
influenced by texture. The colour of a skein of silk looking different
from the same colour when worked. Juxtaposition with other colours,
again, alters the effect of a colour. As a general principle,
especially where many colours are employed, we are more likely to
secure harmony if we choose reds, for instance, inclining to orange,
blues inclining to green, yellows inclining to green or brown,
blacks of a greenish or olive tone. Perfectly frank and pure colours,
however, may be harmonized, especially with the use of gold, though
they are more difficult to deal with--unless one can command the
natural, primitive instinct of the Hungarian, the Greek, or the
Persian peasant.
For bold decorative work few kinds of embroidery design are more
delightful than the bordered cloths and covers from Bokhara. Here,
again, the colours are chiefly red and green in different shades, the
reds concentrated in the form of big flowers in the intervals of an
open arabesque of thin stems and curved and pointed leaves in green,
the whole design upon a white linen ground.
[Illustration: BOKHARA EMBROIDERY. Silk on linen, chiefly in chain
stitch.
The large flowers are worked in two shades of rich red inclining
to crimson with yellow centres relieved by dark blue. The blue &
yellow & red are repeated in the smaller flowers.
The leaves are blueish green with a red line down centre. They
are outlined with bronze brown which I also used for the stems &
spirals.
Inner border, between red lines. The star flowers are alternately
blue & red with yellow centres with bronze leaves. The outer
border, also between red lines. The flowers are red with blue &
yellow centres alternately, & green & bronze leaves.]
Such joyful, frank, and bold colour, however, would be usually
considered too bright for the ordinary English interior, and under our
gray skies; and colour, after all, is so much a question of climate,
and though for its full splendour we turn to the south and east, we
need not want for models of beautiful, if quieter, harmonies in the
natural tints of our native country at different seasons of the year.
There are abundant suggestions to be had from field and hedgerow at
all times--arrangements in russet, or gold, or green. What can be
more beautiful as a colour motive than the frail pink or white of the
blossoms of the briar rose, starring the green arabesque of thorny
stem and leaf; or its scarlet hip and bronze green leaf in the autumn;
or the crisp, white pattern of the field daisy on the pale green
of the hay field, relieved by the yellow centres and by the red
of sorrel; or the brave scarlet of the poppy between the thin gold
threads of the ripe corn. Then, too, there are beautiful schemes of
colour to be found in the plumage of our birds. Take the colours of a
jay, for instance--a mass of fawn-coloured gray with a pinkish tinge,
relieved with touches of intense black and white and small bars of
turquoise blue and white. A charming scheme for an embroidered pattern
might be made of such an arrangement, if the colours were used in
similar proportions to those of nature--say in a costume.
The mainspring of colour suggestion, as of design, in embroidery,
however, must be found in Nature's own embroidery--flowers, and the
garden must always be an unfailing source of fresh suggestion for
floral design both in colour and form. But, of course, everything in
the process of adaptation to artistic purposes is under the necessity
of translation or transformation, and any form or tint in nature must
be re-stated in the terms proper to the art or craft under its own
conditions and limitations as being essential to the character and
beauty of the result, _suggestion_, rather than imitation of nature,
being the principle to follow.
But while we must go to nature for fresh inspiration in colour
invention or combination, we have a guide in the traditions and
examples of the craft and the choice of stitches to influence our
treatment.
The colour principles, too, we may find in allied arts may help us.
[Illustration: DESIGN FOR AN EMBROIDERED HANGING
Showing the use of shields of arms as contrasting
elements in colour & pattern
COLOURS:
oak leaves - sage green.
stone & acorns - golden brown
on pale green or unbleached
linen ground.
Heraldic colours as noted
on sketch
ORIGINAL DESIGN BY WALTER CRANE.]
Heraldry, for instance, while shields of arms, crests, and mottoes,
are in themselves excellent material for embroidery, as units
of embroidered pattern. The principles of the disposition and
countercharge of colour in heraldry, and the methods of its display
and treatment in form as exemplified in the heraldic design of the
best periods--say, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century--will be
found full of useful lessons. A repeating pattern of leaves or flowers
in a hanging is pleasantly enriched and varied by the introduction
of heraldic badges or shields at intervals, the emphatic concentrated
colour and accent of the heraldry contrasting with the less formal,
open, but evenly dispersed design with its recurring units and
counterbalancing curves which form the main field of the hanging.
Interesting heraldic devices for such purposes may be found in every
locality, either of family, civic, or general historic interest, our
village churches being generally valuable treasuries from this point
of view.
Where it is desired to restrict colour in embroidery to two or
three tints, and restricted colour is generally suitable to simple
decorative purposes with corresponding simplicity of design, it is
safe to follow the principle of complementary colours in nature.
Red and green, blue and orange, brown and yellow, and so on, but, of
course, this would leave an immense range of choice of actual tint of
any one colour open. Your red, for instance, might be salmon pink or
deep crimson, your green that of the first lime shoots in spring to
the metallic bronze of the holly leaf; your blue might be that of
larkspur or the turquoise of the palest forget-me-not, while
your orange might be that of the ripe fruit or the tint of faded
beech-leaf. Tasteful work, however, may be done in two or three shades
of the same colour.
The choice of tint for the embroidery must depend largely upon the
tint and material of the ground, and also upon the material in which
the work itself is to be carried out--silk, cotton thread, or crewels.
Whether, however, for designs which entirely cover the ground, or for
the lightest open floral pattern, linen seems the material on which
the best results are produced.
NOTES ON EARLY ITALIAN GESSO WORK
NOTES ON EARLY ITALIAN GESSO WORK
The charming varieties of decoration in relief by means of modelled
gesso and stucco which attained to such richness and beauty in the
hands of Italian artists in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
are traceable to very early origins, and come down from Graeco-Roman
and Roman times, and probably had a still earlier existence in the
East, since decoration in raised gesso was long practised by the
Persians and the Arabs, and plaster-work goes back to the ancient
Egyptians, who also used gesso grounds for the painting and gilding of
their mummy cases. Existing examples of Roman and Pompeian relief
work belong mostly to the first century B.C., and are of the nature
of architectural enrichments, being chiefly mural and ceiling
decorations, worked in plaster and stucco, _in situ_. Many of these
are very delicate and show the influence of Greek feeling in design
and treatment, such, for instance, as those from the ceilings of
the tombs on the Via Latina at Rome, which in their simple panelled
treatment, enclosing groups of finely modelled figures seem to be the
forerunners of the rich and delicate gesso relief work, stamped, or
modelled with the brush, which the Italians used with such tact in the
decoration of caskets, marriage coffers, and other furniture in the
early renascence period. Mr. Millar in his comprehensive work on
"Plastering" speaks of a very fine example of gesso work as existing
in the old cathedral church at Coire, a box which is said to be as old
as the ninth century. It is entirely covered with gesso, on which
a design in relief has been roughly scrolled. The gesso has been
polished so as to give the appearance of ivory, and he further says,
"at the corners, where it has got chipped off, the ends of the linen
can be seen which has evidently been put next the wood, as Cennino
Cennini advises."
Cennino, indeed, in his very interesting "Trattato" (which was
translated by Mrs. Merrifield in 1844, for the first time into
English, and recently, more accurately and completely, by Mrs.
Herringham) gives very full and ample accounts of the methods in use
in his time in painting and the allied arts, and gives recipes, also,
both for making and working gesso. He lays great stress on the care
necessary in preparing grounds on wood both for painting and raised
work, and in advocating the use of "linen cloth, old, fine, and white,
and free from all grease," writes "take your best size, cut or tear
large or small strips of this linen, soak these in the size, and
spread them with your hands over the surface of the panel; remove
the seams, and spread the strips out with the palms of the hands, and
leave them to dry for two days." He further enjoined one to "remember
it is best to use size when the weather is dry and windy. Size is
stronger in the winter than in summer, and in winter gilding must be
done in damp and rainy weather." Then--Chapter 115--he proceeds to
describe the process of laying on the ground of gesso over the linen.
His "gesso grosso" used for the ground, is burnt gypsum or what we
know as plaster of paris. The same, well-slaked, he uses for finer
grounds, and also for working in relief upon such grounds.
In Chapter 116 Cennino describes how to prepare gesso sottile (slaked
plaster of paris). The plaster, he says, "must be well purified, and
kept moist in a large tub for at least a month; renew the water every
day until it (the plaster) almost rots, and is completely slaked, and
all fiery heat goes out of it, and it becomes as soft as silk." This
gesso is afterwards dried in cakes and Cennino speaks of it in this
form as "sold by the druggists to our painters," and that "it is used
for grounding, for gilding, for _working in relief_, and other fine
works." These cakes were scraped or soaked and ground to powder and
mixed with size for using as grounds and for relief work, as occasion
required (Chapters 117, 119). In speaking further on (Chapter 124) of
"how works in relief are executed on panels with gesso sottile," he
says, "take a little of the gesso on the point of the brush (the brush
must be of minever, and the hairs fine and rather long), and with that
quickly raise whatever figures you wish to make in relief; and if you
raise any foliage, draw the design previously, like the figures, and
be careful not to relieve too many things, or confusedly, for the
clearer you make your foliage ornaments, the better you will be able
to display the ingraining with stamps and they can be better burnished
with the stone." He describes (Chapter 125) also methods of casting
relief work, "to adorn some parts of the picture" which shows he is
thinking of gesso enrichments in painting, so much used by the early
painters.
Cennino is said to have been living in Padua in the year 1398. His
treatise shows the care and patience necessary to good workmanship in
the various arts and crafts he describes, and throws much light upon
the methods of the artist craftsman of his time, and is of particular
value and interest as touching the subjects of tempera painting,
gilding, and, incidentally, of gesso-relief decoration, to the
ornamental effect of which both the former are important contributors.
Now there are several distinct varieties of gesso work. Firstly we
have gesso relief used to adorn and enrich painted panels, or as an
adjunct to decorative painting. Of this there are many instances:
a notable one may be cited in the frescoes of Pinturrichio in the
Appartamenti Borgia in the Vatican at Rome where the paintings are
heightened by gilded parts in relief, such as weapons and ornaments,
embroidery or robes, and even architectural mouldings. The late Mr.
Spencer Stanhope revived this union of gilded gesso with decorative
painting, as in his work in the chapel at Marlborough College. Other
examples may be found in our National Gallery. The superb collection
of Italian gesso work in the Victoria and Albert Museum, unrivalled
anywhere, from which, by the courtesy of the late Mr. Skinner, who was
Sir C. Purdon Clarke's successor in the directorship,[9] I am enabled
to give my illustrations, may be referred to as furnishing examples of
every variety of treatment in the craft, as well as of the taste and
invention and richness of early Italian decorative design.
[Illustration: MARRIAGE COFFER, NO. 5804--1859
(VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM).]
As an adjunct to painting gilded gesso was frequently used burnished
and enriched with stamped or punctured patterns (_granare_), often in
the form of nimbi around the heads of saints and angels in devotional
works, and in backgrounds. Cennino (Chapter 142) speaks of this method
and gives directions in it. The Marriage Coffer from the Museum, No.
5804--1859, illustrates this treatment and is a good example of
its highly decorative effect. The front panel shows a very rich and
interesting design of figures in fifteenth century Florentine costume,
heightened with gilded parts in gesso having small punctured patterns
upon it, which give sparkle and variety to the gold. This method seems
to have been continued for several centuries in Florence. I have an
alms-dish of early seventeenth century date, the centre of which
is treated in this way with punctured or hollow pin-head patterns
impressed upon a gilded gesso ground.