DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62783#0080
12
FRESCO PAINTING.
For this purpose, it is necessary to suppose that the present method
is incorrect and badly conducted, because the artists of these times
plaster a portion of the wall, (assuming that the plaster that is used
is recent) and then paint it: they then add another portion of plas-
tering and paint it in the same manner. In fact, this plastering is
done piece-meal and not in a whole or a mass, which is attended
with great inconvenience; for plastering, executed in this manner,
can neither be perfect nor durable, and will have cracks and other
defects; for it is evident the portion of plaster which is added to
the first piece which is quite dry, cannot unite or incorporate with it
as firmly as it would have done if the plastering had all been com-
pleted at once.a Whence it appears that this manner of plastering
has imperfections which time will shew us every day. Besides this,
the wall that has been plastered by portions, will not allow of the
polishing mentioned by Vitruvius, as an essential requisite for perfect-
ing the work, and for ensuring the durability and beauty of the walls;
for if we wish to work quickly on those walls plastered in portions, we
can neither do it well nor even moderately well, because the painting
in fresco is injured in the parts where it joins the new plastering.
Moreover, such walls cannot be constructed properly, by rule and
plummet, but must of necessity be full of hard lumps and hollows on
account of the joinings of the different masses, at the time of uniting
the fresh plastering with that which is dry?
a The durability of the fresco paintings of the moderns, since the time
Guevara wrote his work, is proved by their having lasted some centuries. Those
by Luca Cambiaso, in the roof of the choir of the Escurial, and in the Presbytery,
and those of Peregrino Tibaldi in that of the Library, and in the walls of the
choir of the Royal Monastery, which are all in perfect preservation, have lasted more
than two centuries. This durability, I have said, may be continued some cen-
turies, provided, that the roofs and walls of these edifices can be preserved from
the penetration of rain, and other inclemencies of the weather, which destroy
them in the same manner as conflagrations, earthquakes and similar things.
—Ponz.
b The works of Giordano in the Escurial in Madrid, and in Toledo, do not ex-
hibit these defects, and the junctions of the tareas (day’s work) are scarcely
visible, neither are there prominences nor hollows. These pictures will doubt-
less last like those by Palomino in Valencia, Granada, el Paular, &c., as fresh as
we now see them and equal to those above-mentioned, and also to those of the
ancients, if the same precautions be observed, provided the buildings in which
they are contained be preserved. Mengs, who was a great investigator of the
arts of the ancients, painted his works in fresco, according to the modern practice,
FRESCO PAINTING.
For this purpose, it is necessary to suppose that the present method
is incorrect and badly conducted, because the artists of these times
plaster a portion of the wall, (assuming that the plaster that is used
is recent) and then paint it: they then add another portion of plas-
tering and paint it in the same manner. In fact, this plastering is
done piece-meal and not in a whole or a mass, which is attended
with great inconvenience; for plastering, executed in this manner,
can neither be perfect nor durable, and will have cracks and other
defects; for it is evident the portion of plaster which is added to
the first piece which is quite dry, cannot unite or incorporate with it
as firmly as it would have done if the plastering had all been com-
pleted at once.a Whence it appears that this manner of plastering
has imperfections which time will shew us every day. Besides this,
the wall that has been plastered by portions, will not allow of the
polishing mentioned by Vitruvius, as an essential requisite for perfect-
ing the work, and for ensuring the durability and beauty of the walls;
for if we wish to work quickly on those walls plastered in portions, we
can neither do it well nor even moderately well, because the painting
in fresco is injured in the parts where it joins the new plastering.
Moreover, such walls cannot be constructed properly, by rule and
plummet, but must of necessity be full of hard lumps and hollows on
account of the joinings of the different masses, at the time of uniting
the fresh plastering with that which is dry?
a The durability of the fresco paintings of the moderns, since the time
Guevara wrote his work, is proved by their having lasted some centuries. Those
by Luca Cambiaso, in the roof of the choir of the Escurial, and in the Presbytery,
and those of Peregrino Tibaldi in that of the Library, and in the walls of the
choir of the Royal Monastery, which are all in perfect preservation, have lasted more
than two centuries. This durability, I have said, may be continued some cen-
turies, provided, that the roofs and walls of these edifices can be preserved from
the penetration of rain, and other inclemencies of the weather, which destroy
them in the same manner as conflagrations, earthquakes and similar things.
—Ponz.
b The works of Giordano in the Escurial in Madrid, and in Toledo, do not ex-
hibit these defects, and the junctions of the tareas (day’s work) are scarcely
visible, neither are there prominences nor hollows. These pictures will doubt-
less last like those by Palomino in Valencia, Granada, el Paular, &c., as fresh as
we now see them and equal to those above-mentioned, and also to those of the
ancients, if the same precautions be observed, provided the buildings in which
they are contained be preserved. Mengs, who was a great investigator of the
arts of the ancients, painted his works in fresco, according to the modern practice,