DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61387#0166
94
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
baculus, or sort of strickle, and thus was produced the admirable firm-
ness and smoothness of grounds prepared in this manner. The surface
thus obtained never cracked, and was of so firm a substance that it
could be sawn off like a piece of marble, and so fixed in another wall;
a process not only anciently employed at Pompeii, but also since its
rediscovery, in order to convey the pictures painted on this substance to the
museum.
It was formerly a very general opinion that the pictures painted on the
surfaces thus prepared were painted a fresco on the still moist stucco. In
accordance with this view the pictures were no sooner discovered than they
were immediately daubed with a preservative varnish, thus rendering all
chemical experiments impossible. More recent experiments have been
variously estimated, and there is still a great difference of opinion as to the
mode in which the wall-paintings were executed. Some writers hold that
fresco was the usual method, others decide for painting a tempera on the dry
stucco, while some assume a mixed method, like 0. Muller, who, in; his
“ Archaeologie der Kunst” (§319, 5), asserts that at Herculaneum the ground
colours are painted a fresco, the rest a tempera; and if it be true that this
method was pursued at Herculaneum, it might also have obtained at Pom-
peii. Other writers have decided for an encaustic method; and that encaustic
was used at Pompeii is incontestable, as colours prepared with resin were
found in a shop there, while one of the pictures in the Pantheon seems
to be an allegorical representation of the art. In this method the colours
were prepared with wax or resin, and rendered fluid by the admixture
of some ethereal oil; they were then laid on with a brush, and melted
into the ground with a hot iron, and at the same time spread and toned
down. This method, however, seems rather to have been applied to easel
pictures on wood, to the painting of architectural members in stone;
perhaps also of statues and bas-reliefs. For as by this method the colours
remained uninjured by the weather, it was well adapted for all sorts
of out-of-door work. It may possibly also have been now and then applied
to wall-painting; but that it was universally so applied may be unequivocally
denied.
Overbeck, from his own private researches, is of opinion that three distinct
methods may be traced. The first of these is pure fresco. Walls which
were to serve as grounds for some other technical method were universally
prepared in this way; also all imitations of marble and other stones, as well
THE RUINS OF POMPEII.
baculus, or sort of strickle, and thus was produced the admirable firm-
ness and smoothness of grounds prepared in this manner. The surface
thus obtained never cracked, and was of so firm a substance that it
could be sawn off like a piece of marble, and so fixed in another wall;
a process not only anciently employed at Pompeii, but also since its
rediscovery, in order to convey the pictures painted on this substance to the
museum.
It was formerly a very general opinion that the pictures painted on the
surfaces thus prepared were painted a fresco on the still moist stucco. In
accordance with this view the pictures were no sooner discovered than they
were immediately daubed with a preservative varnish, thus rendering all
chemical experiments impossible. More recent experiments have been
variously estimated, and there is still a great difference of opinion as to the
mode in which the wall-paintings were executed. Some writers hold that
fresco was the usual method, others decide for painting a tempera on the dry
stucco, while some assume a mixed method, like 0. Muller, who, in; his
“ Archaeologie der Kunst” (§319, 5), asserts that at Herculaneum the ground
colours are painted a fresco, the rest a tempera; and if it be true that this
method was pursued at Herculaneum, it might also have obtained at Pom-
peii. Other writers have decided for an encaustic method; and that encaustic
was used at Pompeii is incontestable, as colours prepared with resin were
found in a shop there, while one of the pictures in the Pantheon seems
to be an allegorical representation of the art. In this method the colours
were prepared with wax or resin, and rendered fluid by the admixture
of some ethereal oil; they were then laid on with a brush, and melted
into the ground with a hot iron, and at the same time spread and toned
down. This method, however, seems rather to have been applied to easel
pictures on wood, to the painting of architectural members in stone;
perhaps also of statues and bas-reliefs. For as by this method the colours
remained uninjured by the weather, it was well adapted for all sorts
of out-of-door work. It may possibly also have been now and then applied
to wall-painting; but that it was universally so applied may be unequivocally
denied.
Overbeck, from his own private researches, is of opinion that three distinct
methods may be traced. The first of these is pure fresco. Walls which
were to serve as grounds for some other technical method were universally
prepared in this way; also all imitations of marble and other stones, as well