Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/196

 178 NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. of the figures. Its landscape background might indeed be ahnost directly copied in a glass painting*." Part i. pp. 239-241. We may add some considerations independent of the nature of the material. In a picture a certain concenti"ation both of subject and effect is neces- sary. The eye should at once be caught and fixed on some particular objects ; it should be satisfied, without any reference to the shape of the picture, or anything beyond it ; and this effect requires at least the possi- bility of a somewhat rapid gradation of shade and colour. Considerable masses of dark shadow, or of uniform or slightly varied tint, devoid of posi- tive colour, are necessary ; a near approximation to nature in tone and general effect is desirable ; the different qualities of objects represented, solidity, opacity, transparency, brilliancy, the aerial effect of distance, must all be carefully consulted ; a failure in any one of them is a positive blemish to the picture, and they must exist together with (perhaps we may say they cannot be attained without) the principle of concentration we have adverted to. In a fresco the object is often altogether different ; a large uncertain space of wall has to be covered ; its boundary is not an element of impor- tance, but its extent is such as much to modify the principle of concentra- tion. A diffusion of effect, that shall prevent the eye from being suddenly attracted to one particular point, is rather to be studied. Although the design may from its nature require sorne particular figure and group to be brought out more prominently than others, this should not be done so much by the strong effects of light and colour resorted to in a picture, as by the grandeur conveyed in the outline itself; the choice should be made rather by the mind than the eye. In a glass painting another element is intro- duced, the shape of the window itself, a characteristic architectural feature which must neither be disguised nor rendered subordinate. Hence, although the mullions of the lower lights need not be suffered to interfere with the • subject of the painting, if a large design is chosen, still the whole picture must not be treated in such a manner as to draw the eye from the extreme parts, which are bounded by the architectural lines of the window, to any central point, in too decided a manner. On this account, no less than from the nature of the material, large masses of deep and opaque shadow are to be avoided ; a diffusion of effect, both as to Hght and colour, is desirable. The principles of composition, therefore, in the very earliest composi- tions, are perfectly correct, though the standard of art may have been con- siderably raised at a later period. In Plate 3, part of an Early English window, the effect is continued, by del Pionibo in the National Gallery, would a number of suggestions most valuable to form, with a little modification, a good the glass painter, and is worthy of an design for a glass painting: as would also attentive perusal. Had I fortunately met Raphael's Cartoons. My attention has with this work before I commenced the been directed to these last works by the present section, it would have saved me Aiipeiidix, No. 2, to the fiftli Report of some time and trouble." the Commissioners of Fine Arts, Loud.
 * "The raising of Lazarus, l)y Sebastian 1840, pp. 13, 14. Tliis Appendix contains