No. VIII.

PAINTING.*

STYLES AND METHODS OF PAINTING SUITED TO THE DECORATION OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

THE materials and dimensions of works of art, and the situations and lights for which they may be intended, have been termed external conditions; as distinguished from what are called the aesthetic elements of art.

Whatever be the external conditions, it is essential that the visible impression of the work should, under the circumstances, be as complete as possible. To insure this, not only the executive means, but the qualities to be represented, still require to be adapted or selected accordingly as conditions vary. Such adapted methods and resources constitute, in each case, a specific and appropriate style.

The question respecting the relation of painting to external conditions is not unimportant in considering the tendencies and claims of different schools. In general, the great masters seem to have inquired what the outward resources at their

* [From Papers in the Appendix to the Second and Fifth Reports of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts. 1843, 1846. -ED.]

command could best effect. Such a habit, instead of confining, was rather calculated to enlarge their invention and to vary its forms. The result of their labours is the sufficient ground of the world's admiration; but their docility cannot be duly appreciated without a reference to the local circumstances under which they worked.

An inquiry into the principles which may regulate such varieties of style appears to be especially requisite when painting is employed in the permanent decoration of public buildings, and may now be resumed with a more direct object, as particular localities in the new Houses of Parliament approach their completion.

First, it is to be observed that the adaptation of painting to a peculiar style of architecture is altogether a question of taste; even authority here fails, the greatest Italian masters never having been called upon to paint in a Gothic building. The example which is most applicable may be found in the works of Luca Signorelli, at Orvieto. In those works there can be no doubt that the artist's object was not to imitate, but to surpass the ruder productions which may have been executed, there or elsewhere, about the time when Italian-Gothic structures were erected. The Tudor style of Gothic (the style of the Palace at Westminster) is coeval with the highest development of art in Italy; and buildings erected in the time of Henry VII. or Henry VIII. might have been decorated by the

hand of Raphael, had he accepted the invitation of the last-named monarch to visit England.*

The conditions now proposed to be considered are Dimensions, Situation, Light, and the Means of representation.

Large dimensions (in respect to the size of the entire painting) requiring a corresponding point of view-the height at which the work may be placed requiring a distant point of view independently of dimensions-imperfect light-and a method of painting possessing limited technical resources-all these are to be considered as causes of indistinctness,† requiring to be counteracted by such means as the method of art adopted can command; in short by such means as may appear preferable on general grounds, and which may render that method the fittest.

DIMENSIONS.

The relation between the longest dimension of a picture, and the distance from which the work requires to be viewed, may here require to be remembered. Once and a half the extent of the

* Dallaway's Walpole, vol. i. pp. 106-187.

+ It is necessary to separate the causes from the remedies of indistinctness. A distant point of view, whether the consequence of the size of the work or of its situation, is in itself a cause of indistinctness; the size of the objects represented, if calculated to counteract this, is among the remedies, but, it will appear, may sometimes be overlooked.

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longest dimension (whether in width or height is immaterial) is the minimum of distance to which the spectator can retire in order to see the entire surface. A circle cannot be embraced by the eye till the spectator retire to a distance equal to once and a half its diameter.

The law relating to the next condition is a necessary consequence of this. In some cases, the situation of a picture, independently of its dimensions, may require that the work should be viewed at a considerable distance. A painting measuring 14 feet high (such being assumed to be its longest dimension) would require, according to the foregoing law, to be seen at a distance of 21 feet. But if the lower edge of that painting be 26 feet from the ground, the spectator must retire to the distance of at least 60 feet before the eye can embrace it; for a painting equal to the whole height (40 feet) would require that distance.

This is the state of the case with regard to the compartments to be painted in the House of Lords. They are 26 feet from the floor, and may be reckoned to be about 14 feet high. *

At the end opposite the throne, the compartments are in recesses, and will be less fully lighted. At this end, therefore, all the causes of indistinct

The height of the compartments to the point of the (Gothic) arch is 16 feet; but the picture, properly so called, may be considered to terminate two feet lower.

ness above enumerated are combined, and may suggest a counteracting treatment in the paintings accordingly.

If, on the one hand, these considerations may furnish an answer to those who look for finish and minuteness of detail in specimens of fresco-painting intended for such a situation, it will be acknowledged, on the other, that the general treatment which may be calculated to correct the consequences of such conditions is a problem requiring some experience to solve. Fortunately, a reference is possible to the example of great artists under similar circumstances.

The instances are not frequent in which the size of the objects represented on a large surface is too small for the distance which the size of the entire painting requires. Raphael's first work in the Vatican, called the Dispute of the Sacrament, would be such an instance, if the room in which it is painted were large enough for the spectator to retire to the requisite distance. This is not possible; the whole of the painting cannot be embraced by the eye at once. The experiment can, however, easily be made with the engraving; the small size of the figures, as compared with that of the entire work, is then apparent. This imperfection, as is well known, was rectified by the artist in his subsequent works in the Vatican.*

In pictures of processions or unconnected incidents, the treatment here referred to cannot be considered a defect.