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FRESCO PAINTING
[Illustration]
FRESCO PAINTING
ITS ART AND TECHNIQUE
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE BUONO
AND SPIRIT FRESCO METHODS
BY
JAMES WARD
AUTHOR OF
“PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENT,” “COLOUR HARMONY AND CONTRAST,”
“HISTORIC ORNAMENT,” “PROGRESSIVE DESIGN,” ETC.
_With Four Plates in Colour and Thirty-one Half-tone Illustrations
of Italian and other Fresco Paintings_
LONDON
CHAPMAN AND HALL, LTD.
1909
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
PREFACE
I have endeavoured in this treatise to place before students some
practical hints in the methods and processes of fresco painting, which
are the outcome of my experience in the practice of the “buon-fresco,”
and the “spirit-fresco” systems of wall decoration. As to the
stereochrome, or German “water-glass,” and its later variety, the Keims
process of fresco painting, I do not pretend to have a definite
knowledge, having no practical experience in painting in these methods,
but, on seeing the condition of some frescos in England which have been
executed in stereochromy, I should prefer to trust to the buon-fresco or
to the spirit-fresco mediums when it is a question of the permanency of
wall paintings.
It is common enough to-day to hear and to read of the condemnation of
fresco painting by critics, and even by some eminent artists, all of
whom seem to echo each other in pointing out the failures in the
examples executed on the walls of the Houses of Parliament and other
places; and all agree, because of these failures, that fresco painting
is impossible in this country, owing to the dampness of the climate.
Our damp climate seems to have a deal to answer for, but it is hardly
fair to blame it for the ignorance of some of our mid-Victorian artists
as to the nature and behaviour of the materials used in fresco painting,
and for their possibly limited knowledge of the chemistry of colours and
the after action of caustic lime on the colours they used.
I trust that the technical notes and observations on some of the Italian
frescos may be of interest and of some value to students of decorative
art.
J. WARD.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE RELATIONSHIP OF MURAL PAINTING TO ARCHITECTURE 1
CHAPTER II
MURAL DECORATION--SYSTEMS AND METHODS 8
CHAPTER III
FRESCO-BUONO PROCESS--COLOURS--PREPARATION OF THE
WALL--METHOD OF EXECUTION 12
CHAPTER IV
PAINTING OF FLESH AND DRAPERIES--PERMANENCE OF
BUON-FRESCO 25
CHAPTER V
SPIRIT FRESCO PAINTING 31
CHAPTER VI
TECHNICAL NOTES ON THE COMPOSITION, COLOUR, AND
PRESENT STATE OF SOME ITALIAN FRESCOS 39
CHAPTER VII
FRESCO PAINTINGS BY GOZZOLI AND PERUGINO 51
CHAPTER VIII
THE WORK OF PINTURICCHIO AND GHIRLANDAJO 56
CHAPTER IX
FRESCOS BY ANDREA DEL SARTO, LUINI, G. FERRARI,
RAFFAELLE AND MICHAEL ANGELO 63
INDEX 71
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE _To face page_
1. THE ARTS OF PEACE (colour). _Lord Leighton_ _Frontispiece_
2. FRAGMENT OF ANCIENT FRESCO FROM TIRYNS 10
3. PORTION OF FRESCO BORDER (colour). _After
Sir E. J. Poynter, P.R.A._ 20
4. TRIAL PIECE OF BUON FRESCO. _G. F. Watts, R.A._ 23
5. TRIAL PIECE OF BUON FRESCO. _G. F. Watts, R.A._ 25
6. GROUP OF THREE FIGURES (colour). _G. F. Watts, R.A._ 27
7. ST. STEPHEN BEFORE HIS ACCUSERS, AND THE STONING
OF ST. STEPHEN. _Sir E. J. Poynter, P.R.A._ 30
8. DETAIL FROM THE ARTS OF WAR. _Lord Leighton_ 32
9. DETAIL FROM THE ARTS OF WAR. _Lord Leighton_ 34
10. DETAIL FROM THE ARTS OF PEACE. _Lord Leighton._ 37
11. THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN. _Giotto_ 39
12. THE DEATH OF ST. FRANCIS. _Giotto_ 40
13. ST. LOUIS, KING OF FRANCE. _Giotto_ 42
14. THE MEETING OF SS. JOACHIM AND ANNA. _Giotto_ 43
15. CHRIST APPEARING TO MARY MAGDALENE. _Fra Angelico_ 44
16. THE DEPOSITION IN THE SEPULCHRE. _Fra Angelico_ 46
17. DETAIL OF THE CRUCIFIXION. _Fra Angelico_ 47
18. THE TRIBUTE MONEY (colour). _Masaccio_ 49
19. ANGELS, FROM THE PARADISE. _B. Gozzoli_ 51
20. ANGELS, FROM THE PARADISE. _B. Gozzoli_ 53
21. ST. BENEDICT. _Perugino_ 54
22. ST. JOHN. _Perugino_ 55
23. DETAIL FROM THE CHRIST’S CHARGE TO PETER. _Perugino_ 56
24. ST. CATHERINE DISPUTING BEFORE MAXIMIANUS. _Pinturicchio_ 57
25. DETAIL OF THE ST. CATHERINE FRESCO. _Pinturicchio_ 58
26. THE NATIVITY, SPELLO CATHEDRAL. _Pinturicchio_ 59
27. FLORENTINE LADY. _Ghirlandajo_ 60
28. THE DEATH OF ST. FRANCIS. _Ghirlandajo_ 61
29. FLORENTINE LADY. _Ghirlandajo_ 62
30. DETAIL FROM THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN. _Ghirlandajo_ 63
31. FRESCO OF AN INFANT ANGEL. _B. Luini_ 64
32. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD. _B. Luini_ 65
33. ST. LUCY SENTENCED TO DEATH. _Jacopo d’Avanzo_ 66
34. THE FIRE IN THE BORGO. _Raffaelle_ 68
35. FIGURE OF ADAM, SISTINE CHAPEL. _Michael Angelo_ 69
FRESCO PAINTING
CHAPTER I
THE RELATIONSHIP OF MURAL PAINTING TO ARCHITECTURE
When considering the subject of mural painting, and indeed the progress
and development of art generally, of the so-called “fine arts,” or of
the lesser arts that minister to the uses and wants of everyday life, we
cannot regard them as isolated creations of human activity apart from
their legitimate connection with the laws and principles of good
architecture. The progress, development, culmination, and decadence of
architecture synchronize with the similar stages of painting and
sculpture.
In a noble building the special functions of the three sister arts are
clearly defined; each supplies its own distinct qualities of expression
to make up the general artistic unity. The severe lines and proportional
rhythm of the architecture are enriched by sculpture, which in its turn
is chastened and modified by the contiguous severity of the former,
while painting adds the necessary colour finish to the bare spaces that
are enclosed by the mouldings and constructional lines of the
architecture, borrowing at the same time much of its dignity,
restfulness of form, simplicity of composition, and whatever else that
adds to its nobility and monumental fitness, from its close association
with the architecture. Thus, while the three arts are each limited to
their own special functions, they, at the same time, would appear to
assimilate from each other what is lacking in themselves, and so
contribute to the complete artistic harmony.
Painting, as the most ornate of the three, owing to its greater power of
expression and beauty of colour, must nevertheless be employed to
_decorate_, in the true sense of the word, the plain spaces in a
building, and in the largest and simplest manner, without any definite
attempts to represent the true facts of nature, or at least it should be
suggestive of such facts rather than descriptive of them.
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.