DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62783#0070
2
FRESCO PAINTING,
Spanish antiquities in terms of the highest praise. The manuscript
of this work on coins, to which Guevara alludes in his commentaries,
(p. 244) is lost.
The present work, which is entitled " Commentaries on Painting,”
must have been written after the year 1550, because the author
mentions the work of Vasari which was published in that year, and
before the commencement of the building of the Escurial, which
was undertaken to commemorate the victory of St. Quintin in 1557.
The work was dedicated to Philip the Second, but was never pre-
sented, nor was it ever published by the author, but was found in a
bookseller’s shop by Don Josef Alfonso de Roa, a person eminent for
his literary attainments and love for the fine arts, by whom it was
sent to Don Antonio Ponz, author of the Viage de Espana, and a
friend of Mengs, who published it in 1788, and who wrote the notes
appended to the following pages, to which his name is attached.
DIRECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS FROM THE COMMENTARIES
OF GUEVARA.
Of preparing walls and roofs.—It appears to me, (says
Guevara,) that it will not be unseasonable, but on the contrary,
necessary, since I have treated of the origin and beginning of
painting in fresco,a to show on what kind of walls and roofs
the ancients adopted this method of painting, and how they pre-
pared these walls, as well as what whitewashings and preparations they
employed in order to make this kind of painting firm, so that it may last
long, be agreeable and durable. The method is that described by
Vitruvius, Book vn. c. m., but from the style in which it is written I
suspect it has been noticed but by few : at least, we see the use of
what the Italians now call stucco, much changed and corrupted.
This I think must have occasioned new inventions for facilitating works
of this description, that they might resemble those which were more
ancient and perfect, although they were not equal to them in reality;
and as there are perhaps but few who have a real knowledge of
antiquities, these works are passed off for antiques, by persons of
a The following is the passage alluded to in the text; “ Ludius invented and
taught how to paint on uncovered places in maritime cities, with little expense,
and in a most agreeable manner. This is the kind of painting which in Italy is
termed fresco, and with which are painted what the Italians call facades, and
we the exterior of houses; it is understood that, in the opinion of Pliny, Ludius
was the inventor of this kind of painting at Rome.” Page 49. It is unnecessary
to observe, that the passage in Pliny is considered, by many writers, to refer
to distemper painting, and not to fresco.—Ed.
FRESCO PAINTING,
Spanish antiquities in terms of the highest praise. The manuscript
of this work on coins, to which Guevara alludes in his commentaries,
(p. 244) is lost.
The present work, which is entitled " Commentaries on Painting,”
must have been written after the year 1550, because the author
mentions the work of Vasari which was published in that year, and
before the commencement of the building of the Escurial, which
was undertaken to commemorate the victory of St. Quintin in 1557.
The work was dedicated to Philip the Second, but was never pre-
sented, nor was it ever published by the author, but was found in a
bookseller’s shop by Don Josef Alfonso de Roa, a person eminent for
his literary attainments and love for the fine arts, by whom it was
sent to Don Antonio Ponz, author of the Viage de Espana, and a
friend of Mengs, who published it in 1788, and who wrote the notes
appended to the following pages, to which his name is attached.
DIRECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS FROM THE COMMENTARIES
OF GUEVARA.
Of preparing walls and roofs.—It appears to me, (says
Guevara,) that it will not be unseasonable, but on the contrary,
necessary, since I have treated of the origin and beginning of
painting in fresco,a to show on what kind of walls and roofs
the ancients adopted this method of painting, and how they pre-
pared these walls, as well as what whitewashings and preparations they
employed in order to make this kind of painting firm, so that it may last
long, be agreeable and durable. The method is that described by
Vitruvius, Book vn. c. m., but from the style in which it is written I
suspect it has been noticed but by few : at least, we see the use of
what the Italians now call stucco, much changed and corrupted.
This I think must have occasioned new inventions for facilitating works
of this description, that they might resemble those which were more
ancient and perfect, although they were not equal to them in reality;
and as there are perhaps but few who have a real knowledge of
antiquities, these works are passed off for antiques, by persons of
a The following is the passage alluded to in the text; “ Ludius invented and
taught how to paint on uncovered places in maritime cities, with little expense,
and in a most agreeable manner. This is the kind of painting which in Italy is
termed fresco, and with which are painted what the Italians call facades, and
we the exterior of houses; it is understood that, in the opinion of Pliny, Ludius
was the inventor of this kind of painting at Rome.” Page 49. It is unnecessary
to observe, that the passage in Pliny is considered, by many writers, to refer
to distemper painting, and not to fresco.—Ed.