Studio: international art (27.1903)

Modern English Plaster Work

since, where there are walls and ceilings, there will
always be work for the plasterers to do, it is certain
that more will be wanted.

I could add one, making twelve, to the list
given me of the houses he has decorated, and
having had in this case the advantage of seeing
the work in its place, the present opportunity is
taken of saying that no fair idea of its value as
decoration can be obtained from perspective views.
To be appreciated, the design should be set forth
on the plane it covers and the scale of the work
indicated. Besides, one wants to be told what the
surface is and what point of view to take. The
individual element, much as the designer may
value it, I think to be unimportant. It should at
any rate be over-lorded by the architectural sense
of propriety, which will account for all that is
abstract, restful and unobtrusive in decorative work
of this kind. Compare in St. Mark's the Byzantine
mosaics, immutable as mountain peaks, with the
biblical series, which would be held to disgrace
the building if they had not the historical interest
pertaining to everything of their date.

At Knowle, in the Cartoon Gallery, the vine,
pink, honeysuckle, columbine, lily, all enter into
the design, and a long list could be drawn from the

past of English examples showing nature in the
design, and leaving nothing to be desired. When
modesty suggests self-suppression, he who treats of
this matter can point the moral of his discourse by
showing what has been done, and this course, per-
sistently pursued, has kept Mr. Bankart's own
work out of sight hitherto. There seems to have
been any amount of such work in the days of half-
timber building in England, and, more generally
speaking, in buildings of stone requiring the
protection of plaster.

As for the style of the future, it is, at any rate,
not to be stereotyped. There is a renewal of
Nature's gifts in the seasons of every year. What
the artist takes from her lap does not impoverish
her, and there should be signs of her gladness and
wealth in the Englishman's home everywhere.
This, or something like this, seems to be what Mr.
Bankart would say; but more to the purpose than
speech is the work we have of his hands, and the
promise of more to come.

I have seen a child, who should have been
sleeping, looking up from her cot at one of these
plastered ceilings and have heard her told what it
cost her father. Clearly, no one would want to
spend such a sum on any but his own house, so the

Si'!/]'

PORTION OF FRIEZE AND CORNICE AT " CALDERWOOD," CHISLEHURST
272

BY G. P. BANKART