Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/47

Rh MURAL DECORATION 37 as in many of tlic 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 a very 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 of effect, 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, who excelled in almost all possible methods of mural decoration, made great use of stucco ornament in the most elaborate and magnificent way, both for external and internal walls. The stucco is modelled in high or low relief in great variety of geometrical patterns, of wonderful beauty and richness, alternating with bands of more flowing ornament, or long Arabic inscriptions. Many of their buildings, such as the mosque of Tulun at Cairo (879 A.D.), owe nearly all their beauty to this fine stucco work, the purely architectural shell of the structure being often quite simple and devoid of ornament. These stucco reliefs were, as a rule, further decorated with delicate painting in gold and colours, pro ducing an effect of indescribable beauty and splendour. The Moorish tower at Segovia in Spain is a good example FIG. 4. Stucco Wall-llelief, from the Alhaiubra. 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, both in the delicate intricacy of the designs and in the brilliant colours with which they are painted. The lower part of the walls is lined with marble or tiles to a height of about 4 feet, and above that in many cases the whole surface is encrusted with these reliefs, the varied surface of which, by pro ducing endless gradations of shadow, takes away any possible harshness or over-gaudiness from the brilliance of the gold and colours (fig. 4). 1 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. Per haps the most graceful examples are the reliefs with which Vasari in the 16th century encrusted pillars and other parts of the court in the Florentine Palazzo Vecchio, built of plain stone by Michelozzi in 1454. These are very beau tiful reliefs, some of flowing vines and other plants winding spirally round the columns. The English examples of this work are very effectively designed, though coarser in exe cution. The outside of an old half-timbered house in the market-place at Newark -upon -Trent has high reliefs in stucco of canopied figures, dating from the end of the 15th century. The counties of Essex and Suffolk are very rich in examples of this work used externally ; and many 16th- century houses in England have fine internal stucco de coration, especially Hardwicke Hall (Derbyshire), one of the rooms of which has the upper part of the wall en riched with life-sized stucco figures in high relief, forming a deep frieze all round. The best English stucco work of this sort is very remarkable for its freedom and spirit of design, as well as for certain grace of line, which is a sur vival of the old mediaeval sense of beauty, then rapidly passing away. 5. Sgraffito. This is a variety of stucco work used chiefly in Italy from the 16th century downwards, and employed only for exteriors of buildings, especially the palaces of Tuscany and northern Italy. The process is this. The wall is covered with a coat of stucco made black by an admixture of charcoal ; over this a second very thin coat of white stucco is laid. When it is all hard the design is produced by cutting and scratching away the white skin, so as to show the black under-coat. Thus the drawing appears in black on a white ground. This work is effective at a distance, as it requires a bold style of handling, in which the shadows are indicated by cross-hatched lines more or less near together. 2 Flowing arabesques mixed with grotesque figures occur most frequently in sgraffito. It is still largely practised in northern Italy, and has been used with success in the external decoration of the South Kensington Academy of Music. 6. Stamped Leather. This was a very magnificent and expensive form of wall -hanging, chiefly used during the 1 6th and 1 7th centuries. Skins, generally of goats or calves, were well tanned and cut into rectangular shapes. They were then covered with silver leaf, which was varnished with a transparent yellow lacquer, making the silver look like gold. The skins were then stamped or embossed with patterns in relief, formed by heavy pressure from metal dies, one in relief and the other sunk. The reliefs were then painted by hand in many colours, generally brilliant in tone. Italy and Spain (especially Cordova) were important seats of this manufacture ; and in the 17th century a large quantity was produced in France. Fig. 5 gives a good example of Italian stamped leather of the 16th century. In England, chiefly at Norwich, this manufacture was carried on in the 17th and 18th centuries, in many cases of very excellent design. In durability and richness of effect stamped leather surpasses most other forms of movable wall-decoration. 7. Painted Cloth. Another form of wall-hanging, used most largely during the 15th and 16th centuries, and in a less extensive way a good deal earlier, is canvas painted to imitate tapestry. English mediaeval inventories both 1 It is unfortunate that the otherwise valuable work of Owen Jones on the Alhambra gives a very false and uupleasing notion of the colouring of the place. 2 A good description of the process is given by Vasari, Tre Arti del Diseyno, cap. xxvi.