In ordinary situations, the choice of materials is the most important part, to secure the durability of the work, and par ticularly the greatest care is necessary in the preparation of the gi mind, and of the wall, to cause it to adhere.
Fresco painting has been chiefly employed in palaces, tem ples, and other public edifices. For large and important places no other kind of painting is so good. As the artist is obliged, from its nature, to proceed with rapidity in its pro duction, it has necessarily more spirit and vigour in the execution. than paintings in oil, which may be repeated, and re-touched, as often as the artist timeies he can improve, or heighten their effect. In fresco there is not time to meddle, and disturb the freshness of the colour, or the fulness and freedom of the touch. But there can be no minute detail of forms, or extensive variety in the gradation of tints ; the beauties of neatness, and delicacy of finishing, make no part of the excellencies of this branch of the art ; it will not bear the close examination which well-finished pictures in oil do ; there is something dry and rough in its appearance, unpleasing. to the common observer, on too close an inspection. It lacks the full rich sweetness of hue and texture which oaf paintings possess; and though it has more freshness, and retains it, yet from the confined number of colours which can be employed in it, it is not equal to oil in the perfection of the imitation of nature.
Whoever seeks to be pleased with fresco painting, must learn justly to estimate the best, and not the most agreeable qualities of the art. Character, contour, expression, are within its powers ; and are the points which the great artists who practice it, knowing its limits, will endeavour most to exhibit in their productions. Harmony of colouring, chiaro oscuro, and the minute graces of execution, have never yet been rendered in it, or but very partially, in comparison with works in oil.
In the early part of the restoration of painting, a species of fresco was the only mode of practising the art, in use' A ground of chalk was prepared on tablets of wood, and the colours laid on it, ground and mixed in water only, or with some gluten soluble in it. The surface of the picture was afterwards covered with a varnish, to secure it from rubbing, and to give the tints more force and lustre.
"Fresco," observes a writer in The Builder," was much used in England seine fur or live centuries since, in both ecclesiastical and civil structures of importance ; the subjects being chiefly scriptural, with occasional deviations in favour of some legendary achievement, or as a pictorial record of some well-contested battlefield. With these bold and beautiful, but unresisting memorials of things sacred, and deeds that redounded to national glory, the fanatical spirit of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries warred to extermination ; neither the enrichments of the temple bestowed by the constant piety of our ancestors, nor the grateful reminiscences of heroic services of the state, were permitted to escape the devilries enacted by the factitious saints of the Puritan calendar : the frescoes perished ; but better taste and better feelings have supervened, bidding fair to re-estab lish both the art itself, and the influential purposes to which it was anciently devoted."
The report of Mr. Barry on the proposed decorations of the interior of the new Houses of Parliament, is really a splendid programme of the association of sculpture and paint ing,, upon an occasion too so fertile in appliances and means, that the principles of taste will, it is presumed, be developed in a manner to serve as examples for much of time. With reference to painting, Mr. Barry says—" I would that the walls of the several halls, galleries, and eoiridors of approach, as well as the various public apartments through out the building, should be decorated with paintings, having 55 reference to events in the history of the country ; and that these paintings should be placed in compartments formed by such a suitable arrangement of the architectural designs of the interior, as will best promote their effective inilon with the arts of sculpture and architecture. With this view, I should consider it to be of the utmost importance, that the paintings should be wholly free from gloss upon the surface, that they may be perfectly seen and fully understood from all points of view.' " By paintings with surfaces free from gloss or glaze, we understand those wherein the colours employed are mixed in other mediums than oils or varnishes; and though fresco is not named, yet the magnitude of the surfaces to be covered, and the exception to those which are glazed, leads us to suppose that it is intended to revive this branch (dart. Now, though the buildings to be thus adorned are progressing with considerable rapidity, much time must elapse befiwe the interior is prepared to receive the embellish ments contemplated ; meanwhile, many will have their long ings to share in these distinguished labours, and, generally, the revival will open a new field for talent, in which there will shortly he no want of encouragement for those who may have successfully cultivated it ; so oblivious, however, has the art become, that we have repeatedly heard the question put as to its nature and mode of execution, and we think an explanation will be useful to many of our readers. Fresco is the ari of painting in relievo with water-colours on fresh plaster; the amalgamation thus formed of the decorative material with the body to which it is applied, is endued with un changeabl eness and permanence of a very ext raord Mary kind." The appointment of "A Commission on the Fine Arts," especially directed "to inquire into the mode in which, by means of the interior decorations of the Palace of West minster, the fine arts of this country can be most effectually improved," has no doubt led to the revival of the art of fresco-painting. The various reports of the commission contain a great deal of valuable on the subject, and the employment of several artists to furnish specimens, has brought forward some beautiful examples of fresco painting, and elicited talent that might, but for these circum stances, have been lost to the world. In addition to the encouragement thusifflirded, the stimulus of a public corn petition, and the distribution of rewards to the successful candidates, Her Majesty and Prince Albert had given the advantage of their countenance to the art, by ordering the decoration of a summer-house in the gardens of Buck ingham Palace with fresco paintings.