SPIRIT FRESCO PAINTING
The method of painting followed out in the spirit-fresco system, as far
as the manipulation of the colours is concerned, is almost precisely the
same as that of the lime or buon-fresco process, the exception being,
that the over-paintings and retouchings may be executed at any time,
weeks, months, or even years, after any previous painting of the same
parts; but as the preparation of the wall is of course somewhat
different, and the medium is altogether so, a short description of the
method or system may be of interest to students.
Spirit-fresco painting is a method or process invented by Mr. Gambier
Parry of Gloucester, and which he adopted when painting his mural
decorations in St. Andrew’s Chapel in Gloucester Cathedral, and in
Highnam church. The process was adopted by the late Lord Leighton for
the wall paintings of “The Arts of Peace,” and “War,” in the Victoria
and Albert Museum, and, many years previous to the painting of these
works, for the fresco painted by him in Lyndhurst church in the New
Forest. Some of the frescos in the Manchester Town Hall, by Ford Madox
Brown, are painted in this process, and some of the paintings by various
modern artists which decorate the interior of the Royal Exchange are
executed in the spirit-fresco medium on coarse canvas, and afterwards
fastened to the wall.
Although we cannot claim for spirit-fresco that peculiar quality of
monumental dignity, nor the undoubted luminosity or power of reflecting
light that is characteristic of buon-fresco paintings, still, if the
entire system is carefully carried out, from the preparation of the wall
down to the finished painting, the work should be as lasting and as
permanent as any other kind of wall painting.
For instance, the spirit-fresco executed by Lord Leighton in Lyndhurst
church, forty-four years ago, had still retained its brilliancy of
colour and was in a perfectly sound condition three years ago, when the
writer last saw it. In the winter season water from the condensed
moisture constantly runs down the surface of this fresco, but does not
seem to injure it. No amount of damp or wet on the surface will injure
spirit-fresco paintings, as the colours are practically locked up in
wax, upon which water has little or no injurious effect, but if the wall
is damp at the back, or water gets in by accident, the plaster ground
behind becomes soft and friable, and the coloured surface is soon
destroyed. Damp behind the surface is the greatest enemy to this kind of
fresco,
[Illustration:
[_To face p. 32._
PLATE 9.--DETAIL FROM THE ARTS OF WAR FRESCO
_Lord Leighton, Victoria and Albert Museum_]
and consequently the inner surface of an outside wall should not be
chosen for an important work in this process.
As the writer had the honour of assisting Lord Leighton in the execution
of the “Arts of Peace” and “War” frescos in the Victoria and Albert
Museum, and also prepared both walls before the paintings were executed,
he is therefore enabled to give a brief description, as outlined below,
of the whole method of procedure, both as to the preparation of the
walls and the method of painting adopted, which will serve to explain
the system of spirit-fresco painting.
It may be mentioned that the walls were prepared in strict accordance
with Mr. Gambier Parry’s method and directions. Mr. Parry inspected this
part of the work, and declared that the whole preparation had been done
to his satisfaction.
First of all the rough brick surface of the wall had a coating of
plaster, consisting of a mixture of lime and river sand, exactly of the
same proportions, and laid on in the same thickness as that of the first
plaster coating in buon-fresco. After this had remained for two years, a
second coating, again similar in composition and in thickness to that
used in the last-named process, was applied. This plaster coating was
finished off with a rectangular wooden trowel, and, in the case of the
wall on which the “Arts of War” fresco was painted, it was left with a
fairly rough surface. The wall surface of the “Arts of Peace” fresco
was, on the contrary, brought to a much smoother face, as it was the
desire of Lord Leighton to have a smooth surface for the latter
painting, for working on the rough surface of the former fresco was, as
he remarked, “like painting on a gravel walk.”
When the coating of plaster, which was rather more than half-an-inch in
thickness, had remained for about eight months, in order that it might
get thoroughly dry, the wall was saturated with two coats of the “wall
wash,” this being made from the medium in which the spirit-fresco
colours are ground, mixed with one and a half of its bulk of turpentine.
The spirit-fresco medium is a mixture of pure white wax, gum elemi, oil
of spike, and artists’ copal; the proportions of each are given at end
of this chapter. After the second coating of the wall wash had dried in,
a day being allowed for this, a coating made of dry white lead, and half
its quantity of gilders’ whitening, thinned out with wall wash, was
applied as thickly as it could be conveniently used. A little yellow
ochre was added to this mixture in order to obtain a creamy white
ground, which enables the artist to see by contrast the pure white
lights that may be used in the painting, as the work proceeds.
The “Arts of War” fresco ground was treated with one coating only of
this last mixture, which accounted for its extremely rough texture,
while the “Arts of Peace” wall surface had three coatings, as
[Illustration:
[_To face p. 34._
PLATE 8.--DETAIL FROM THE ARTS OF WAR FRESCO
_Lord Leighton, Victoria and Albert Museum_]
the nature of the subject was thought to demand a smoother surface.
The wall wash, preparation coats, and the colours used in the painting,
being all mixed or diluted with the same medium, and the spike oil, used
in the artist’s dipper, having the effect of opening up the ground
coating, allows the colours to unite with, or melt into, the ground, the
latter being extremely porous, so that when finished and dry the work
forms a continuous body from the surface right into the plaster. In this
continuity of body spirit-fresco resembles closely that of the
buon-fresco.
The process admits of repainting and retouching as often as may be
necessary, though it is best, for the sake of gaining a desired luminous
effect, to paint frankly with a full brush, laying on the colour in an
impasto, and where depth of tone or transparency is desired these
effects are best obtained by washing in thinly or glazing the shadows,
using the colours and the spike oil medium, as in water-colour painting.
The method of work is really, in the execution, a mixture of the
techniques of oil and water-colour painting. One of its great advantages
is the practically unlimited range of colours allowed on the palette,
and another is that the artist can take up his work at any time, or
stage, neither of which obtains in buon-fresco.
It may be of interest to describe the method of carrying out the
painting of the work in connection with the South Kensington frescos.
The original designs were painted carefully in brown monochrome, in
light and shade, and were enlarged as fine outlines on a canvas to the
exact size of the wall space; from these enlargements tracings were made
on tracing cloth, and these tracings were pricked through and pounced on
to the wall with powdered charcoal, this impression being intensified by
going over it with a lead pencil. A small coloured sketch in the case of
each fresco was prepared in oil colour, which was fairly closely copied
in the colouring of the larger work. For convenience, the monochrome
cartoons in each case were photographed to full scale, in sections, and
the light and shade was faithfully copied from these photographs, so
that in the execution of the painting on the wall there should be no
hesitation, nor any experimenting in colour.
The first piece of work done on the wall was one of the largest and most
prominent figures, and was painted as far as possible in direct and full
colour. The nature of the medium, however, does not always lend itself
to the finishing of the work straight off in one painting; this is the
case especially in the flesh tints, or in any elaborate drapery
modelling. The method usually adopted was to lay in the tints with a
full brush and solid colour, carrying the modelling as far as possible
in the first painting. Too much working over the same part is liable to
bring up the wax, and to cause the work to dry unpleasantly glossy. When
there is a danger of this occurring it is better to leave off and take
up the part again after
[Illustration:
[_To face p. 37._
PLATE 10.--DETAIL FROM THE ARTS OF PEACE
_Lord Leighton, Victoria and Albert Museum_]
allowing a day or so for drying. When any part required a second or
third painting, which usually happens, it was found best to begin by
moistening the whole of it over with a very thin transparent tint of the
local colour, using plenty of spike oil; this has the effect of opening
up the wall surface by causing a slight melting of the paint underneath.
The painting was then carried to a completer stage of finish by
reinforcing the higher lights and deeper shadows. The process lends
itself to the accomplishment of almost any degree of finish by the use
of subsequent washes of thin colour in the shadows. It is better, as a
matter of technique, in any kind of fresco painting to always employ the
brush strokes in the direction of the lines of the form, and not across
it, as is often done in oil painting; one reason for this is that the
work can be accomplished more directly and rapidly, and another is that
the drawing of the forms is better expressed.
It may be noticed that there is a marked difference in the technique of
the painting of the two frescos in the museum. The “Arts of War,”
painted first, is treated broadly, and the colour throughout used rather
thickly, while in the “Arts of Peace” a thinner method of treatment in
the use of the colour is apparent, and the modelling in the latter,
especially in the heads and nudes, is carried to a higher degree of
finish, without any loss of breadth, by means of small brush strokes, or
“hatching.” This method of work is of special value in fresco painting,
and was adopted to a very great extent by the Italian frescanti of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Michael Angelo painted, or at least
finished his frescos in the Sistine Chapel in hatched lines; Lord
Leighton had satisfied himself on this point by a close examination of
the Sistine frescos when he copied the figure of Adam from the “Creation
of Man,” which is painted in one of the ceiling panels of the chapel.
The broader method of treatment, as seen in the technique of the “Arts
of War” fresco, is the more popular, but Lord Leighton preferred the
technique of his later work, the “Arts of Peace.”
The following are the constituents of the medium in which the spirit
fresco-colours are ground, according to Gambier Parry:--
{ Elemi resin (gum elemi) 2 ozs. } weight
{ Pure white wax 4 ozs. }
Incorporated {
by heat. { Oil of spike lavender 8 ozs. } liquid
{ Finest preparation of artist’s } measure
{ copal 20 ozs. }
The colours in a dry powder are ground up in this medium, and put into
tubes for use. Spike oil to be used freely in the dipper, when
painting.
[Illustration: _Photo. Alinari._]
[_To face p. 39._
PLATE 11.--THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN
_Giotto, Cloister of Sta. Maria Novella, Florence_]