DOI Heft:
No. 357 (December 1922)
DOI Artikel:Batten, John D.: The practice of tempera paintings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21396#0330
THE PRACTICE OF TEMPERA PAINTING
surprising in view of the sulphurous atmos-
phere (I speak but chemically) the
sulphurous atmosphere of the Houses of
Parliament. I refer particularly to the
Dyces. These have now been treated by
Prof. Church with a coating of ceresin—
which is a kind of paraffin wax—and are no
longer evidence, except of the protective
merit of the ceresin. Other frescoes,
similarly situated, have perished so com-
pletely that the paint could be flicked off
with the charwoman's duster. No doubt
one man did his work in the right way and
the other in the wrong way, but as no record
was kept we are to-day no wiser. a
Other huge paintings were done in the
newly invented water-glass method. The
Maclises, and some others, show serious
faults, but the Herbert, in the Peer's
Robing Room—Moses with the Tables of
the Law—whatever you may think of the
design as mural decoration—is technically
a miracle of success. But again, as far as I
know, there is no record to enlighten us as
to the cause of success or failure, a a
It is quite unnecessary to have experi-
ments on this magnific scale—a few yards
of brick wall on a back staircase would
serve. I think that the men who did these
things were all oil painters and most of
them Academicians, but even so it is
surprising that the touch of the new
materials and the sense of the new
surroundings did not provoke them to
some new effort. They do not appear to
feel that a mural decoration is anything
other than an Academy picture. Of course,
they never regarded their work as an
experiment; to them it was the ripe fruit
of an accomplished art, and I suppose they
were of an established reputation which
they did not care to risk by new adventure.
In conclusion, there is a chapter in
Cennino Cennini headed, " How to make
Flour Paste " and it reads thus :—" Begin-
ning to paint pictures in the name of the
Most Holy Trinity, and always invoking
that name, and that of the glorious Virgin
Mary, we must first prepare a founda-
tion with various kinds of glue." This
in introduction to seven short chapters
on different kinds of paste and glue,
and it is to the supervising of the pre-
paration of these things that Cennino
invites the august personages above named.
310
An attitude of mind strangely different
from our own. We, on the one hand, have
not enough pride in our work to summon
the Most Holy Trinity, or, by whatever
other name we name the Highest, to assist
our effort and watch for its result, and on
the other hand we have not enough
humility to spend much time and care
on such mere cook's work as making paste.
And both ways we are wrong. 0 a
To-day it is the men of science who are
the men of conscience. It is they who have
the faith to invoke the unknown Gods, to
knock clamorously at doors which have
never yet been opened to mankind, and it
is they who shirk nothing of the kitchen
and scullery work, who spend tedious
hours and days in weighings, measurings,
testings, in pharisaical washings and
tithings to many places decimal, a 0
Let us fall into step with them, at any
rate to start with. By the time our paths
diverge, as undoubtedly they will, we may
perhaps have caught something of their
stride. J. D. B.
"MASTER PEN GOLDMAN "
TEMPERA PAINTING : BY
F. ERNEST JACKSON
surprising in view of the sulphurous atmos-
phere (I speak but chemically) the
sulphurous atmosphere of the Houses of
Parliament. I refer particularly to the
Dyces. These have now been treated by
Prof. Church with a coating of ceresin—
which is a kind of paraffin wax—and are no
longer evidence, except of the protective
merit of the ceresin. Other frescoes,
similarly situated, have perished so com-
pletely that the paint could be flicked off
with the charwoman's duster. No doubt
one man did his work in the right way and
the other in the wrong way, but as no record
was kept we are to-day no wiser. a
Other huge paintings were done in the
newly invented water-glass method. The
Maclises, and some others, show serious
faults, but the Herbert, in the Peer's
Robing Room—Moses with the Tables of
the Law—whatever you may think of the
design as mural decoration—is technically
a miracle of success. But again, as far as I
know, there is no record to enlighten us as
to the cause of success or failure, a a
It is quite unnecessary to have experi-
ments on this magnific scale—a few yards
of brick wall on a back staircase would
serve. I think that the men who did these
things were all oil painters and most of
them Academicians, but even so it is
surprising that the touch of the new
materials and the sense of the new
surroundings did not provoke them to
some new effort. They do not appear to
feel that a mural decoration is anything
other than an Academy picture. Of course,
they never regarded their work as an
experiment; to them it was the ripe fruit
of an accomplished art, and I suppose they
were of an established reputation which
they did not care to risk by new adventure.
In conclusion, there is a chapter in
Cennino Cennini headed, " How to make
Flour Paste " and it reads thus :—" Begin-
ning to paint pictures in the name of the
Most Holy Trinity, and always invoking
that name, and that of the glorious Virgin
Mary, we must first prepare a founda-
tion with various kinds of glue." This
in introduction to seven short chapters
on different kinds of paste and glue,
and it is to the supervising of the pre-
paration of these things that Cennino
invites the august personages above named.
310
An attitude of mind strangely different
from our own. We, on the one hand, have
not enough pride in our work to summon
the Most Holy Trinity, or, by whatever
other name we name the Highest, to assist
our effort and watch for its result, and on
the other hand we have not enough
humility to spend much time and care
on such mere cook's work as making paste.
And both ways we are wrong. 0 a
To-day it is the men of science who are
the men of conscience. It is they who have
the faith to invoke the unknown Gods, to
knock clamorously at doors which have
never yet been opened to mankind, and it
is they who shirk nothing of the kitchen
and scullery work, who spend tedious
hours and days in weighings, measurings,
testings, in pharisaical washings and
tithings to many places decimal, a 0
Let us fall into step with them, at any
rate to start with. By the time our paths
diverge, as undoubtedly they will, we may
perhaps have caught something of their
stride. J. D. B.
"MASTER PEN GOLDMAN "
TEMPERA PAINTING : BY
F. ERNEST JACKSON