Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/807

 F E E S C 771 the fig tree ; size made from glue or from gum tragacanth is also mentioned. A list of tlie colours employed by Giotto and his pupils and successors is given below; and the same, there can be little doubt, were in use on the part of Giunta, of Cimabue, and their contemporaries. Amongst these white lead played an important part in painting on panels and on walls. All who are familiar with old pictures must have frequently seen those of black Madonnas and saints, held in especial veneration for their sanctity and antiquity. The colours with which they were painted were freely mixed with white lead and with the yolk and albumen of egg, which darkens whilst the white lead oxidizes ; hence their present state. This partially explains the singular appearance presented by the mural pictures of Giunta at Assisi, in which the shadows are red executed in fresco, and the lights painted in distemper are black. The explanation is not entirely satisfactory, however, for the change is not universal, and in a considerable number of the pictures the colours have not changed ; but wherever damp has penetrated, the paintings have become very dark; the microscope would probably show that this is due to the presence of fungus, the pro duce of the egg distemper. As the works attributed to Cimabue are for the most part in better preservation than those given t^ Giunta, they suggest that this great artist, who did so much for design, also improved the technical processes of mural art. He undoubtedly carried fresco- painting further, although on thin intonaco ; but he pre pared for the finishing processes as his predecessors had done. This statement is based upon the examination of a Madonna and Child with Angels in the lower church of St Francis, which is executed in the same manner as the pictures in the upper church ascribed to Giunta. This fragment is so noble in design, the heads are so beautiful, the whole work is so much better than the picture of the Borgo Allegri, now in Sb Maria Novella Florence, that although in its method it is like the works of Giunta, in design it is far beyond his powers. Cimabue s method of outlining on the wall has been described ; but there are traces of his use of the stylus, to which he had recourse when he wished to alter an outline after the work was begun, and it is therefore evident that the plaster was damp when he had recourse to this instrument. His pre parations in fresco being dry, he proceeded to paint the shadows of flesh with terra vert in distemper, and then modelled the features with the requisite colours. That he heightened the lights with white lead is apparent, for these have become black even in places which damp did not reach. A glaring example of this is the table-cloth in a picture of the Marriage at Cana in Gallilee, which, once white, is now an intense black ; the plates, viands, and vases upon it are unchanged in colour ; these no doubt are in pure fresco, which explains the difference. We can form no idea now of the splendid appearance which the paintings in the interior of St Francis presented when newly done. There are abundant traces of the use of a mordant for gilding, showing that the high lights upon dresses and the edges of folds were gilt, as well as embroideries on the borders, and on the aureoles of saints. It is obvious that such ideas were derived from mosaics, in which the lights sparkle with gold. Regarded simply as decorative art, these paintings at Assisi, with their clear bright colouring, the rich gilding, and with the windows filled with coloured glass, must have been magnificent. The art was very conventional, still the beginnings are perceptible of a higher imitative system, and of a growing appreciation of truth to nature. The heads of angels are characterized by expressive beauty ; the bride in the Mar riage at Cana has a very pleasing face, and even the idea of portraitura is observable ; the look of surprise in the countenance of the husband is naturally expressed, and with good taste. Those who have not seen these paint ings, and only judge of the merits of Cimabuo by his altar- pieces at Florence, can have little conception of the ability of this remarkable artist. Beneath the paintings of Cimabue, and under the gallery which represents a triforium, range the mural pictures of Giotto and his contemporaries or pupils. By Giotto the art of fresco received a new impetus ; ho continued the mixed method then prevalent, but with a more moderate use of distemper, and laid the foundation of the system carried to perfection by his greatest successors. The part of the wall which was assigned to him apparently admitted of thicker plastering, for he caused preparatory coats of plaster to be spread with due care ; on the last of these, when dry, he no doubt made his outlines according to the manner of his predecessors, and over these the intonaco was distributed with singular dexterity. Plastering in his time was a branch of fine art, so that it is at all times ditlicult to discover the joinings in the works of Giotto and his followers. An account of his method of mural painting will convey a clear idea of the technical processes improved by him and followed by other artists after him. The lime prepared for the intonaco having been kept till it had parted with much of its caustic quality, was mixed with sand in the proportion of two of sand to one of lime. The pigments used were : White biancosangiovanni, or lime carefully ground with pure water and dried in the sun in the form of cakes ; black charcoal of vinewood, a black chalk, or lamp black; red cinabrese, a red earth of intense colour, and sinopia, a lighter red, also an earth, and burnt ochre ; amatista not now known by this name, but a fine purple red; green terra vert; yellow two qualities of ochre, dark and light, and giallolino, which resembled Naples yellow in tone. This is a very moderate palette, but it was supplemented by the colours subse quently applied in distemper. These were orpiment, cin- abro (a red oxide), German blue (apparently a cobalt), vermilion, lake, verdigris, indigo, and white lead. When the picture was commenced in fresco, particular grounds were laid on the wet plaster in preparation for the colours which were to follow ; for instance, the sky to be painted blue in distemper was prepared with a deep red (cinabrese) in fresco. The virgin s blue robe was first grounded with black mixed with red, and then painted with blue mixed with size prepared from glue, for red of egg would have made it green. The blue, however, has frequently become a bright green, spite of this care. There are numerous ex amples of these methods in pictures, extending from the age of Giotto to that of Raphael. In a painting by Lippo Memmi at Assisi a dark rich red in distemper is laid over a preparation of light red in fresco. By Ghirlaudajo a brown robe has been coloured in tempera over pale grey in fresco. The dark purple robe of the Cardinal Bonaventura in the fresco called the Dispute on the Sacrament, by Raphael, is spread over a preparation of red. Many other cases might be cited were it necessary. The most singular of all was the preparation for painting trees and bushes by a ground in fresco of black, on which the leaves, branches, sprays, buds, and flowers were executed of the proper colours in distemper. Illustrations of this custom are observable in pictures by Orcagna, Pietro Laurati, Simone Memmi, Masolino, Paolo Ucello, and many other artists ; it did not survive the 15th century, and it is due to Masaccio to point out that he appears to have been the first to escape from this commonplace conventionality. The methods of mixing colours and tints and their use in painting were reduced to system, whether for painting drapery or the nude. It was usual to prepare three pots of each colour carefully graduated. Thus, for instance, in thti