The revival of this beautiful art is strongly recommended by a writer
in the _Edinburgh Review_, for the internal decoration of private
residences. "As we have begun to build houses upon a handsome scale in
London, the lovers of art may venture to hope, that instead of spending
enormous sums solely on the upholsterer for his fading ornaments,
something may now be spared to the artist, for conferring on the walls
unfading decorations of a far more delightful and intellectual kind. If
the work be well executed, it will not suffer injury from being washed
with clean and cold water." The reviewer then goes on to suggest "small
foundations, like the fellowships at our universities. The fellow, a
young artist of promise, might spend two or three years in painting the
interior of a church, or other public building, maintaining himself
meanwhile on his fellowship, or two or three hundred pounds a year."
"If, however, the objections to painting our churches be deemed
insuperable, we have buildings designed for civil purposes in abundance,
which are well adapted for this species of decoration." He then
instances Westminster Hall, the walls of which might be covered with
fresco; and the outsides of houses in many German cities and towns in
the German cantons of Switzerland, the outsides of which are painted
with scriptural and historical subjects. "Painting," observes he, "were
the use of it universal, would be a powerful means of instruction to
children and the lower orders; and were all the fine surfaces, which are
now plain and absolutely wasted, enriched with the labours of the art,
if they once began to appear, they would accumulate rapidly; and were
the ornamented edifices open to all, as freely as they ought to be, a
wide field of new and agreeable study would offer itself."
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