DOI issue:
No. 55 (September, 1901)
DOI article:Vallance, Aymer: The revival of tempera painting
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22775#0228
Tempera Painting
Mark’s Rest,” issued in parts from 1877 t0 1884,
he wrote, in reference to a certain picture of
Carpaccio’s: “It is tempera . . . notoil: and I
must note in passing that many of the qualities
which I have been in the habit of praising in
Tintoret and Carpaccio, as consummate achieve-
ments in oil-painting, are, as I have found lately,
either in tempera altogether, or tempera with oil
above. And I am disposed to think that ulti-
mately tempera will be found the proper material
for the greater number of most delightful subjects.”
When the prophet himself has spoken thus
authoritatively, what have we any further need of
witness ? His testimony has
the more value, as being the
humble avowal of conviction
arrived at, not without reluc-
tance nor until after years of
laborious investigation, through
the sheer, irresistible logic of
facts.
Among producers of original
work in the revival of tempera
Mr. Spencer Stanhope may be
said to be the pioneer. He
has exhibited in London at
intervals from the earliest
exhibitions of the Grosvenor
Gallery. Twelve large panels
from his brush decorate the
walls of the College Chapel at
Marlborough. And yet, resi-
dent abroad as he has been
for a long time, and working
quietly as he has done, without
inviting public attention to the
fact that he used a medium
different from other people’s,
his example has passed almost
unnoticed by his contem-
poraries, although other artists
were scarcely behind in making
independent essays. Thus, in
1880, the same year that the
above-named exhibited his fine
composition, The Waters of
Lethe, at the Grosvenor Gal-
lery, Mr. Walter Crane con-
tributed Truth and the
Traveller, a large decorative
painting executed on canvas
with colours specially prepared
with starch. Before and after
“kilhwych, the king’s son” by Arthur j. gaskin the last-mentioned work,.
156
of their profession. Such pictures as Rossetti’s
Girlhood of Mary Virgin and his Annunciation
tempera would have rendered to perfection. Even
Sir Edward Burne-Jones, though he gave gene-
rous encouragement to Mr. Southall and others
who were trying to revive tempera, came in con-
tact with it too late in life to adopt it in his own
case.
There needed someone of weightier influence to
proclaim the momentous message, and in doing
so John Ruskin was but adding one more proof
of his singular insight, one more item to the incal-
culable sum of our indebtedness to him. In “ St.
Mark’s Rest,” issued in parts from 1877 t0 1884,
he wrote, in reference to a certain picture of
Carpaccio’s: “It is tempera . . . notoil: and I
must note in passing that many of the qualities
which I have been in the habit of praising in
Tintoret and Carpaccio, as consummate achieve-
ments in oil-painting, are, as I have found lately,
either in tempera altogether, or tempera with oil
above. And I am disposed to think that ulti-
mately tempera will be found the proper material
for the greater number of most delightful subjects.”
When the prophet himself has spoken thus
authoritatively, what have we any further need of
witness ? His testimony has
the more value, as being the
humble avowal of conviction
arrived at, not without reluc-
tance nor until after years of
laborious investigation, through
the sheer, irresistible logic of
facts.
Among producers of original
work in the revival of tempera
Mr. Spencer Stanhope may be
said to be the pioneer. He
has exhibited in London at
intervals from the earliest
exhibitions of the Grosvenor
Gallery. Twelve large panels
from his brush decorate the
walls of the College Chapel at
Marlborough. And yet, resi-
dent abroad as he has been
for a long time, and working
quietly as he has done, without
inviting public attention to the
fact that he used a medium
different from other people’s,
his example has passed almost
unnoticed by his contem-
poraries, although other artists
were scarcely behind in making
independent essays. Thus, in
1880, the same year that the
above-named exhibited his fine
composition, The Waters of
Lethe, at the Grosvenor Gal-
lery, Mr. Walter Crane con-
tributed Truth and the
Traveller, a large decorative
painting executed on canvas
with colours specially prepared
with starch. Before and after
“kilhwych, the king’s son” by Arthur j. gaskin the last-mentioned work,.
156
of their profession. Such pictures as Rossetti’s
Girlhood of Mary Virgin and his Annunciation
tempera would have rendered to perfection. Even
Sir Edward Burne-Jones, though he gave gene-
rous encouragement to Mr. Southall and others
who were trying to revive tempera, came in con-
tact with it too late in life to adopt it in his own
case.
There needed someone of weightier influence to
proclaim the momentous message, and in doing
so John Ruskin was but adding one more proof
of his singular insight, one more item to the incal-
culable sum of our indebtedness to him. In “ St.