The pre-eminence. claimed for fresco-painting is founded on-1. The quality it possesses of clearness, and exhibiting colors in a pure and bright state. The surface not being dry and dull, as tempera or size color, nor glossy like oil-paintings, is capable of being favorably viewed from any point. 2. Its durability—many frescos being painted on arcades or the cloisters of churches open on one side, some on the fronts of houses entirely exposed in the open air. 3. The skill and dexterity required in execution —retouching not being admissible, nor those various appliances of glazing over paint ing, etc., available iu working with oil-colors; all which circumstances compel the fresco,-painter to confine his energy more to the subject and design, than to the mechani cal qualities so much sought after by painters in oil. The frescos by M. Angelo in the Sistine chapel, by Raphael in the stanze of the Vatican, and those in the cupola of the cathedral of Parma by Correggio, are pointed to by the advocates of this mode of art as settling the question.
But, on the other side, it may be said-1. Though a certain ,degree of clearness and purity of color results from fresco, it is deficient in depth and richness. The absence of glossiness is no doubt an advantage in the case of mural-painting with reference to architectural decoration; but to a considerable extent this difficulty can he obviated in the case of painting in oil; and Delaroche's great picture of the Hemicycle in the beaux arts in Paris, which is in. oil, is not objectionable on that ground—indeed, many mis take it for fresco. 2. No doubt, iu fresco, the colors are not liable to change much, if the work be executed in pure fresco, and not retouched; but, generally speaking, the surface is fragile, and easily broken or scratched, and there is no way of mending it but by retouching with tempera colors; and if that be extensively done, its nature is altered, and it becomes a picture in size colors. The " Madonna de Foligno," "Madonna di San Sisto," " Sposalizia, and other celebrated easel-pictures by Raphael, are in much better preservation than his frescos in the stanze of the Vatican. 3. The properties of difficulty in execution and limited range of coloring, and of technical appliances, a're of a negative kind. No doubt, some painters have maintained that good coloring is incom patible with grand compositions; but, on the other hand, Titian's " Entombment" in the Louvre, and Peter Martyr in Venice, among others, are referred to as rebutting such an assertion.
Mural-painting is of great antiquity: in Egypt, in the Etruscan tombs, on the walls of houses in Pompeii, and in the cataccanbs, there are various remains of paintings which are generally considered to be frescos; those in Pompeii, in particular, are remarkable for grandeur and purity of style in design and drawing; but they are executed in a slight and free manner, and on this account, and from the same or irearly similar sub jects being often found repeated, are supposed to be copies by house-decorators of cele brated paintings that were preserved in temples or palaces at Rome. Whether these
were frescos painted on the walls or movable pictures, is matter of dispute. "The Greeks preferred movable pictures, which could he taken away in case of fire, or sold if necessary." -Wilkinson on Egyptian and Greek Paintings. Pliny says Apelles never Painted on walls; and various pictures of immense value are stated to have been taken from Greece to Rome.
On the whole, it may be assumed as an opinion that hai long been generallyadopted, that where painting is to be combined with architecture, fresco is the style that assim ilates most with it. On the other hand, the fact of Delaroche having so successfully executed in the Beaux Arts a work in oil, wnich by size and subject was so well adapted for fresco, and the circumstance of the adoption lately in Germany, and by the artists in our houses of parliament, of stereochromic painting (See below) in place of fresco—a method by which certain defects in the process of fresco-painting are said to be obviated— militate against the soundness of some of the opinions hitherto adopted as to the advan tages ascribed to, fresco-painting.
Fresco Sacco is it • spurious kind of fresco, much•used in Italy in ordinary house-deco ration. The colors, mixed in water, are laid on the wall after the plaster is dry, and adhere in a certain degree by absorption, the hard or glassy surface which forms on plaster after it dries being' first removed by pumice or otherwise. Pictures executed in this manner look coarse and dry, or rotten, and are in every way inferior to pure fresco.
Stereochrornic Painting (Gr. stereos, firm, and chroma, color).—The ordinary process of fresco seeco, however, has lately assumed very great importance from a discovery by the late Dr. J. R. von Fuchs of what is called water-glass (see Focus's SOLUBLE GLASS), which. being passed over the surface of a work executed in fresco secco, imparts much brilliancy, and fixes-and gives great durability to the colors; this method is styled ste reochromic painting, and has been extensively practiced in Berlin by Kaulbach and other eminent German artists. The late prince Albert was so much impressed by the hearing which this discovery would have on the art of mural-painting, that he translated from the German a pamphlet describing the "manufacture, properties, and application of water-glass (soluble alkaline silicate), including a process of stereochromic painting," and printed it for private circulation. Mr. Maclise, B.A., made use of this new style of art in executing his great picture in the palace of Westminster of the " Meeting of Wel lington and Blucher at Waterloo."