PROCESS OF FRESCO-PAINTING.
[THE exact and scientific information given in the following valuable communication from a correspondent, who has investigated the subject with learned research, will be read with interest both by artists and connoisseurs. We shall revert to the points alluded to by S. R. H. when the question becomes ripe for further discussion.] TO THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR.
15th November 1841.
Ste—As general information upon any subject adds to the pleasure of its critical discussion, I am induced to transmit to you this letter on Fresco- painting. No art or science can be appreciated unless its principles be under- stood ; no power is so dangerous to either as capricious patronage, or unin- structed zeal. I do not desire to offer opinions; I merely wish to convey to your readers information, derived from sources not much known, and when known not easily procured. The process of Fresco-painting consists in this. A well-dried wall is covered over with one or two lines (about 1-16th of an inch thick) of a carefully- prepared mortar, made of flue sand and old lime ; which serves as the ground of the painting, and possesses the property, so long as it is in a damp state, Of fixing the colours applied to it without the aid of size or any other medium ; so that neither when dry nor by means of water can they be effaced, but in the course of time become more completely united with the surface of the wall. This union of the pigment with the mortar prepared as above is not merely a mechanical adhesion, but a real chemical cohesion. For the lime thus slacked in the wet mortar has the peculiar property during its drying, or setting, of working to the surface, and owing to the absorption of carbonic acid from the atmospheric air, to become there crystallized to a fine transparent enamel; which the colouring matter when applied thoroughly pe- netrates. invests, and thus is itself fixed. This crystallized surface, a kind of stalaetyte formation, is with difficulty soluble in water, and is not destroyed by other atmospheric influence ; but, by the continued chemical action of the carbonic acid and moisture, it as it were becomes still further concreted, or harder and harder still. In this chemical union of the pigment with the lime, (which is applied to the mortar, or to the colours themselves, as a hydrat of lime, but which in the end at least partly passes into a carbonized neutral salt,) the condition exists, that those pigments not affected by ardent lime are alone fit to be employed in Fresco. Therefore, not only is the use of vegetable and animal pigments in general excluded, but those even of the mineral kingdom which contain elemental properties in too great affinity with the lime ; for otherwise they lose their own former natural condition, and enter into a new one with the lime whereby the colour becomes changed. The colours employed are in general! earths. And as the damp state of the mortar as prepared is the cause of the cohesion-of the colour, it follows that the setting of the mortar must proceed with the progress of the painting: therefore this must be conducted bit by bit ; and no more mortar must be placed on the wall than can be finished in one day. The wall thus prepared, the artist stretches a large cartoon over the portion to be painted, and, without injury to this, traces his design upon the mortar. Sometimes these cartoons are coloured, the better to guide the artist; and as in drying the colours become lighter, they are applied with a. relative darker tint. To correct any inequality, it is customary to retouch with a colour in dis- temper, or some other process; though on this VASAat observes—" Quelli cha cercano lavorar in muro,lavorino virilmente a fresco ; a non ritocchino a secco, perche oltral'esser COM nilissima resale pia corta vita ale pitture." An opinion has prevailed that Fresco was used for the decoration of the tem- ples at the -earliest period of Greek -art, and that the pictures mentioned by PAUSANIAS as painted by POLYGNOTUS Of ThaSOS (B. C. 422) in the 'Roche , at Delphi, which had been converted from a club-house into a picture-gallery, and the Facile at Athens, were executed in this manner. It is certain that, instead of employing the various shades of white and black only, he improved his art by the introduction of new materials, and applied to the pic- tures with delicacy and taste the different powers of four colours. But it is difficult to fix the period of its origin : applicable to the purpose of extensive decoration, it was early adopted by the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans. The ancient Romans united Fresco and Distemper together ; and it is probable that this latter process-by which the colour is fixed by size, on a dry sur- face—was first adopted. The experiments made by Sir H. DAVY on paintings found at the Baths of Titus and Herculaneum, would, I think, confirm this opinion. Nothing, however, is so easy as assertion—it is the reason of every idle man ; and no assertion is so erroneous as " that the secret of the art was lost until restored by the present German school." Subject to the same action of indifference or of opinion in its favour, liable to the same encouragement or neglect by which all other pursuits are matured or retarded, Fresco-painting has been always cultivated with varying success. Its best period is stated to be that from GIOTTO to RAFA_ELLE ; its worst, that of ANDREA Pozzo and his contemporaries. The present German school has been formed within the last twenty-five years. CARSTENS and Selma first attempted its revival; WacriTeit and Kocn, their followers struggled with success against the in- difference of their time. It was the Chevalier BARTMOLDY who first employed CORNELIUS, OVERBECK, VEST!!, and SCFIADOW, at his villa OR Mount Pincto. At the Villa Massimi, Juerus SCHNORR executed frescoes from Ariosto, OVERBECK from Tasso, and VEITII with Koos from Dante. SCHNORR'S power in landscape was shown at the Villa Bartholdy ; in which department KARL ROTTMAN has of late attained unexpected excellence. But it is at Munich the power of these artists has been chiefly displayed. ConNeLrus, as Director, has here designed elaborate paintings at the Glyptothek, and a series of beautiful drawings, representing the most interesting period of the lives of The most eminent Italian and Dutch painters, from CIAIABUE to RUMENS, for the arcades of the Pinakothek. HENRY Hess has the finest example of fresco combined with architecture, in the All Saints Church; and SCHNORR has se- lected subjects from the .Nibelungen-Lied for the Royal Palace. At Bonn, the hall of the University is enriched with fresco representing the four faculties. DERMANN,_ with the aid of GOTZENBERGER and FoRSTER, designed Theo- logy; and tiiiTZENBERGER undertook Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Medi- cine. If to these we add the works of BENDEM ANN at Dresden, of GEO EICBAITER at Stuttgart and Rome, of TEITII at Frankfort, and OSTERLEY at Hanover, we shall have noticed the leading artists of the day.
The cause of the formation of the present German school may be traced to the devotion of the Germans to the early Italian and national painters, and to the influence of religions and " fatherland " feeling. Fresco-painting is hut one of many forms typical of opinions and emotions which have been thus nurtured and advanced.
" iudem sie uns rergnfigen
Sind Quellen unsers Wicks, die uiemais urn bettilgen." Mach discussion is continued there on the style of Hess mid CORNELIUS. CORNELIUS is blamed for that he does not sufficiently transport himself into the period he depicts. But however we may study or think, in tracing the actions of the past we insensibly tinge them with the influence of the present. At best, the result is, I think, but an accommodation. And the Germans of the nineteenth century have rather resisted classic prejudices. Unlike the Greek, whose religion was the worship of Beauty in the ideal—whose acute percep- tions created the tine arts, by the personification of the simple Virtues as ob- jects of adoration—who venerated the god, and the grace and dignity his statue personified—to whom
"Tit' intelligible forms of' ancient poets. The power. the beauty, and the majesty, That had their haunts in dale and piny mountain," *ere a perpetual source of perfection, by their symbolic representation—the modern German may be said to work more from natural impression than from classic recollection. To use their own phrase, they seek to represent Truth and not Fancy.
Such, Sir, though briefly sketched, is the process and present state of Fresco- painting. Of its fitness for decoration at the New Houses of Parliament— whether our climate be favourable for its adoption—whether the smoke of London be more deadly than the smoke of Raman candles—whether its style should be symbolic or dramatic—I do not discuss ; feeling assured that by yon, and by other practised judges, these points will be well considered for the public good. But should it be adopted, I must be permitted to hope that the English artists may meet, as the Germans have met, with the sympathy and moral support of their countrymen ; feeling assured that, thus sanctioned, we have ability sufficient to represent history with truth and national feeling with
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