International studio (60.1916/1917)

Tempera

perhaps scarcely necessary to point out that in
the case of large mural work the light is never
quite the same over the whole composition, and
often varies very considerably. This in itself
gives variety to what may in fact be a flat and un-
interesting tone of colour, and to achieve an even
tone in tempera is a long and laborious process
if the space be of any size.
It is also proved, I think, by Chavannes, that
a quiet and pale tonality is the most satisfactory
for large wall-pictures, at any rate when closely
associated with architecture, and this is not the
scale of colour that is best adapted for tempera
work. At the same time wall-pictures, if of mod-
erate size and set in such a framing as wood
panelling, not too far from the eye, would be
well carried out in it.
Such work as that of the average early Flemish
portrait, more allied to oil in its actual composi-
tion, would have been more pleasantly done in
tempera, as the rather steel-like rigidity of the
varnish work would have been softened by the
medium whilst the charming precision of out-
look would be retained.
Atmosphere.—Most artists complain that tem-
pera is incapable of rendering atmospheric effect.
By this is meant a dozen things as a rule, and may
have no real reference at all to atmosphere. If
aerial perspective is meant it is quite possible to
imitate this effect in tempera if you wish to do
so. If what is meant is the loose and vibrant
touch commonly applied to oil pictures to-day,
then, as was made clear just now, tempera is en-
tirely unsuitable to it. So far as aerial effect can
be represented by more or less flat masses of
colour, with well-defined edges, it can be quite
adequately rendered. It must be said, however,
that tempera is not a medium suitable for the
treatment of violent effects of weather or of light
and shadow. The reasons for this are those
arising from the qualities of the medium. Inten-
sity of colour, which is the key-note of tempera,
should never be obscured by other considera-
tions. The imitation of effects of light and mist,
on the contrary, usually require a pearly or dusty
scheme of colour such as is well suited to oil pig-
ment as now used, and it almost always necessi-
tates broken and indefinite shapes, whereas to
obtain the utmost intensity of colour the shapes
used must be well defined and carefully arranged.
So far then as the imitation of light is concerned,
the tempera painter, as a rule, passes it by. He

is especially concerned with the local colour of
things and not with their interrelation or unifica-
tion by means of light and atmosphere. It is a
medium especially suited to the treatment of in-
dividual character, and stands midway between
the monumental and generic qualities inherent in
fresco and mosaic, and the more democratic
appeal of oil and water-colour.
In one direction, however, it can successfully
deal with questions of light.
In some of the later colour-prints of Japan, and
more clearly perhaps in some of Professor Holmes’s
oil pictures, we can see the use of colour to express
or represent a state of atmosphere and light
without any attempt at imitation. There is no
looseness of treatment, neither has the modula-
tion of tone anything to do with the result; it is
achieved by the actual pitch of colour chosen and
the relation between the different hues. I have
in mind especially a print by Hiroshige in which
black rocks stand up jaggedly against a yellow
sky. They rise out of a green space of colour
that is very intense, but much lighter in tone than
grass would actually be at sunset. These spaces
of colour are chosen so rightly that they convey,
much better than the most perfect coloured photo
could do, the feeling of the scene. They are quite
untrue in the limited sense of the word, but they
convey a truth of emotion that is much more
really true. Such effects as this, dependent on
the subtile choice and arrangement of hue and
not on the representation of actual fact can often
be very effectively treated in tempera, but it is
doubtful if even these are quite so satisfactory
in tempera as in oil.
Its Possibilities to-day.—It is not irrelevant to
remember that each medium has been used over
a definite period and to express a definite ideal.
As the ideal of the people changed, the method
of expression changed with it. This fact has been
taken to imply that once it has been discarded an
ideal, or at any rate a method, is outmoded and
ever after obsolete. This surely is a most disas-
trous view of the matter, and one which is en-
tirely put out of court by the fact that almost
precisely similar forms of art have sprung up
amongst peoples widely separated both by time
and place, simply because they thought alike and
held some ideals in common.
The painted vases of Central America and those
of the early Minoan civilization are identical in
treatment; the line work of the Greeks and cer-

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