CONTENTS. PAGE Its Revival by the German Painters-Why it should be pre- ferred to Oil-Cartoons and Sketches of Colours necessary -The Construction and Preparation of the Wall-Selection of the Lime-Constitution of different Limes-Reduction of the Causticity of the Lime-The Nature of Lime-Slak- ing and Preparation of the Lime-The Composition of the Plaster or Mortar for the Ground-Implements-Colours- The Antiquity of the use of Wax against Atmospheric Corro- sion-The Nature of the Ancient Encaustic Painting— The Researches of Count Caylus and M. Bachelier-Experiments of Chev. Lorgna-Count Caylus's Explanation of a Passage in Pliny-Caylus's Method-Preparation of Grounds-Pre- paration of Tints-Retouching-Mode of Developing Pic- ture by Heat-Virtues of Encaustic Painting-Comparative Power of Colours in Oil and Wax to Resist Change The Nature of Mosaic-Its Durability-Dr. Salviati's Revival of the Art-Mosaic first used in the East-The Art amongst the Greeks and Romans - Preserved by the Byzantine PAGE Why Introduced in a Work upon Mural Painting-The Effect of the Invention of Oil-Painting upon Art-The Gradual Decline of the Influence of Architecture upon Painting- The Method of the Old Masters Lost-Want of System in its Present Practice-Transparency in Oil-Painting-Opacity or Solidity in Oil-Painting-Painting into Wet White and into a Glaze upon White Grounds-Impasto-What to avoid Report of D. Maclise, Esq., R.A., on the "Water-Glass," or "Stereochromic" Method of Painting-Works upon Paint- ing-Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Dutch, Ger- man- -On the History of Painting in General-On the State of Painting amongst the Greeks and Romans-The Lives of ON MURAL DECORATION. INTRODUCTION. THE AIM OF MURAL OR MONUMENTAL PAINTING. ARCHITECTURAL magnificence has invariably been the exponent, as well as one of the most enduring monuments, of a nation's tendencies-the invariable exponent, because national art is inevitably stamped by the ruling influence, be it religion, commerce, or arms, which sways the whole thoughts and activity of a people. Egyptian art, in its ponderous temples, tombs, and pyramids constructed of the most enduring materials its lavish hieroglyphics painted and incised, no less than the custom of embalming dusky generations, exhibits that love of perpetuation which consistently belonged to a nation teaching the doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul. There is about Egyptian relatively to Greek, and Roman monumental art too, a basic character correspond B ing with that which Egyptian teaching bore to the philosophies and civilizations which sprang out of it. The simplicity, harmony, and balanced proportion of Grecian monumental art indicate the nation's aspirations after the perfect idea, its belief in the Phidian power of education gradually to mould a people intellectually and physically to an ideal standard, and to form the rough plastic humanity into men-heroes. The whole product of Grecian thought bears the stamp of high culture upon it, in its moderation, its completeness; and the intellectual precedence of antiquity is given to the nation which enthroned the Parthenon on a rock, which made its Temple to Wisdom a beacon seaward, and to the ages a very palace of art, compelling us to confess that the ancients, in this respect at least, attained to an excellence which we, with all our boasted progress, seem only doomed to beat about and fall short of. How different the Roman to the Grecian monuments! for although the Romans frequently enlisted Grecian artists in their service, they either imperiously compelled or corrupted their taste, which, forced from its native purity, became ostentatious and florid in its adopted expression. There still remain triumphal arches, temples, arenas, camps, military roads, theatres, baths, and mural decorations on which lust of conquest, is indelibly branded. Rome, imperious in her strength, |