Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/32

 to suggest or imitate mosaic They have intricate interlacing geometrical patterns marked out by lines in slight relief; brilliant enamel colours were then burned into the tile, the projecting lines forming boundaries for the pigments. A rich effect is produced by this combination of relief and colour. They are mainly used for dadoes about 4 ft. high, often surmounted by a band of tiles with painted inscriptions. The Alhambra and Generalife Palaces at Granada, begun in the 13th century, but mainly built and decorated by Yūsuf I. and Mahommed V. ( 1333–1391), and the Alcazar at Seville have the most beautiful examples of these “azulejos.” The latter building chiefly owes its decorations to Pedro the Cruel ( 1364), who employed Moorish workmen for its tile-coverings and other ornaments. Many other buildings in southern Spain are enriched in the same way, some as late as the 16th century.

Almost peculiar to Spain are a variety of wall-tile the work of Italians in the 16th and 17th centuries. These are effective, though rather coarsely painted, and have a rich yellow as the predominant colour. The Casa de Pilatos and Isabel's Chapel in the Alcazar Palace, both at Seville, have the best specimens of these, dating about the year 1500. In other Western countries tiles have been used more for pavements than for wall-decoration.

4. Wall-Coverings of Hard Stucco, frequently enriched with Reliefs.—The Greeks and Romans possessed the secret of making a hard kind of stucco, creamy in colour, and capable of receiving a polish like that of marble; it would stand exposure to the weather. Those of the early Greek temples which were built, not of marble, but of stone, such as the Doric temples at Aegina, Phigaleia, Paestum and Agrigentum, were all entirely coated inside and out with this material, an admirable surface for the further polychromatic decoration with which all Greek buildings seem to have been ornamented.

Another highly artistic use of stucco among the Greeks and Romans, for the interiors of buildings, consisted in covering the walls and vaults with a smooth coat, on which while still wet the outlines of figures, groups and other ornaments were sketched with a point; more stucco was then applied in lumps and rapidly modelled into delicate relief before it had time to set. Some tombs in Magna Graecia of the 4th century are decorated in this way with figures of nymphs, cupids, animals and wreaths, all of which are models of grace and elegance, and remarkable for the dexterous way in which a few rapid touches of the modelling tool or thumb have produced a work of the highest artistic beauty (fig. 3). Roman specimens of this sort of decoration are common, fine examples have been found in the baths of Titus and numerous tombs near Rome, as well as in many of the houses of Pompeii.



These are mostly executed with great skill and frequently with good taste, though in some cases, especially at Pompeii, elaborate architectural compositions with awkward attempts at effects of violent perspective, modelled in slight relief on flat wall-surfaces, produce an unpleasing effect. Other Pompeian examples, where the surface is divided into flat panels, each containing a figure or group, have great merit for their delicate richness, without offending against the canons of wall-decoration, one of the first conditions of which is that no attempt should be made to disguise the fact of its being a solid wall and a flat surface.

The Moslem architects of the middle ages made great use of stucco ornament both for external and internal walls. The stucco is modelled in high or low relief in great variety of geometrical patterns, alternating with bands of more flowing ornament or long Arabic inscriptions. Many of their buildings, such as the mosque of Tulún at Cairo ( 879), owe nearly all their beauty to this fine stucco work, the purely architectural shell of the structure being often simple and devoid of ornament. These stucco reliefs were, as a rule, further decorated with delicate painting in gold and colours. The Moorish tower at Segovia in Spain is a good example of this class of ornament used externally. With the exception of a few bands of brick and the stone quoins at the angles, the whole exterior of the tower is covered with a network of stucco reliefs in simple geometrical patterns. The Alhambra at Granada and the Alcazar at Seville have the richest examples of this work. The lower part of the walls is lined with marble or tiles to a height of about 4 ft. and above that in many cases the whole surface is encrusted with these reliefs, the varied surface of which, by producing endless gradations of shadow, takes away any possible harshness from the brilliance of the gold and colours (fig. 4).

During the 16th century, and even earlier, stucco wall-reliefs were used with considerable skill and decorative effect in Italy, England and other Western countries. Perhaps the most graceful