MURAL PAINTING, that branch of in terior decoration which has for its object the adornment of the walls of buildings by paint ing, as distinguished from mosaic, wainscoting, sculpture, tapestry and all other kinds and means of adornment. By extension the term in cludes also the painting of vaults and ceilings. It is not commonly used of mere painting with uniform flat color, but only of such painting as involves systematic decorative design, whether pictorial or by means of conventional patterns and ornament. In its highest develop ment it is the most exalted, spiritual and im aginative form of decorative art, and indeed of painting in general, and has enlisted the genius of the most gifted painters of all time.
General Purpose and Mural painting is not an independent art, like the painting of easel pictures, but an art intimately allied with architecture. Its function being that of enhancing the beauty of the structure to which it is applied, the decorator must sub ordinate his invention to the architectural con ditions and character of the building and of the spaces he is to adorn. He must conside: the size, scale and proportions of the room; its architectural style, features and divisions; its conditions as to lighting; the distance from the spectator's eye of the various surfaces he is to paint; and thus to make his paintings contribute to the dignity and effectiveness of the completed structure. • This requires a knowledge of architecture and a sympathetic attitude toward the architect's purpose, and the best results are secured when the architect and painter have collaborated from the begin ning. Usually, however, the building is "turned over to the decorator only when completed, and the artist must do his best with the condi tions thus created for him in advance. He is least hampered when the interior surfaces as signed him (for nearly all mural painting is of interiors) are broad and simple, as in the Arena Chapel at Padua by Giotto and the Sis tine Chapel at Rome by Michelangelo and others; but the truly great artist can triumph over such architectural complexities as the great ceilings in the Ducal Palace at Venice and the richly paneled vault of the Camera della Signa tura at Rome.
In the mural painter has to deal with two distinct elements of design: the pic tures which form the thief part of most deco rative schemes, and the framework, borders and other adjuncts of conventional ornament by which they are both related to and separated from the architectural members and features of the structure. There are many subordinate spaces too small for pictures, which may he en riched with arabesques and patterning in color and thus harmonized with the greater decora tions. There are, indeed, many interiors which offer little opportunity for pictorial decoration but abundant scope for painted ornament, as in many French Renaissance buildings of the 16th-18th centuries. Such decoration requires a thorough mastery of ornament in the various historic styles and calls for decorative fancy rather than for the higher forms of artistic inspiration.
The subjects treated by the mural painter may be broadly divided into the historical, the allegorical and the fanciful, varying according to the purpose of the building or room to be decorated. In the first class may be included not only actual historical events, but scenes from legendary lore and such Scriptural scenes as are narrated in the Bible as actually occur ring, without regard to questions of scientific historicity. In the second class we may include all allegorical and symbolic representations and such Scriptural subjects as are prophetic, apocalyptic or abstract. Subjects of the third class belong to the lighter phases of the art as applied to houses, ball-rooms, theatres, etc., and may include fanciful landscapes, pastorals, genre subjects and the like. The highest reach of the art is attained when a great master handles such tremendous "allegories" as 'Paradise,' the 'Last Judgment,' The Redemption,' tThe Triumph of Christianity,' as in the frescoes by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, or the extraordinary paintings by Sargent in the Bos ton Public Library. Even maps haw. been used as mural painting, e.g., those covering the walls of the famous Gallery of Maps in the Vatican (1581), and those painted on the upper part of the walls of the great waiting-room of the Pennsylvania Terminal in New York.