The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SA TURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 15, 1803.

Mr. Armitage's Frescoes at Islington.

The revival of fresco-painting in Europe and its introduc-
tion i England were fairly looked upon as the most hope-
flit symptoms of recovery from a long and death-like sleep,

during the continuance of which the lesser qualities of art

had usurped the place of the greater in public estimation,
and finish, softness, and delicacy had been accepted as bet •
ter and more comprehensible things than composition,
drawing, and expression.
Fresco-painting is the test of a great painter as it is the
confusion of a weak one. When Michael Angelo declared
it to be the only manly style of painting, or, as Vasari
says, " truly the most virile, most sure, most resolute
and durablo of all modes," he stated a conviction
rather than uttered a sneer. He knew that the
practice of fresco can derive no help from the inferior
beauties that lend a charm to oil-painting; and that the
painter who should seek to express his thoughts in this,
the most difficult language of his art, must rely on a perfect
knowledge of it, directed by courage, skill, and consum-
mate judgment, and thus must be endowed with a mind
nobly to conceive a subject, and a hand able unerringly to
execute it.

The practice of fresco-painting in England dates
from the destruction of the Houses of Parliament and
the erection of the New Palace at Westminster. A royal
commission was appointed to consider and advise upon the
decoration of the new building; and English artists were
invited to prepare cartoons, in the first place,and afterwards
to submit for a prize competition specimens and trials in
fresco, An impetus was thus given to the introduction of
a mode of painting already flourishing in Germany under the
encouragement of the late King of Bavaria. English
painters threw their energies thoroughly into the work, and
the various exhibitions in which the competitive cartoons and
frescoes were displayed were eagerly thronged, and the
designs thoioughly appreciated by the public—rich and
poor. Probably no exhibitions in England have ever
created so much interest, or been visited with so much
favour.

Unfortunately, however, there were but a few spaces
in one public building to which the new mode
of painting could be applied. The Government
had neither means, nor probably any strong in cli.
nation, to cause other buildings to be decorated ;
and, as the large spaces available for fresco-painting can be
found, with rare exceptions, only in public edifices or in
churches, the stimulus which had awakened so mueh
ability and so many new hopes was withdrawn, and the
only apparent results of the Westminster Hall competi-
tions have been, generally speaking, incomplete and expe-
rimental efforts on the part of these artists who were
selected to cover the spaces considered to be most eligible
for decoration.

The chief prizes of the first competition were of equal
value, and were awarded to Mr. Armitage, Mr. Watts, and
Mr. Cope. Each of these painters has executed frescoes in
the New Palace at Westminster, and in the performance
quali-
fiofedthheimwseolrfkforenthtreupstreadctitcoe hofimthhisasdipffirocbualbtltyrawneelhl
of
art.
Unfortunately, however, in the ripeness of their powers
the demand for their exercise has ceased. Mr. Watts has
since painted, for love, the noble fresco in the hall at Lin-
coln's Inn; and Mr. Armitage undertook, for a nominal
price, to paint, and has now completed, the frescoes in the
Catholic Church of St. John, in Duncan-terrace, Islington.
Mr. Armitage's work in St. John's Church
consists of a mural painting in the apsis, repre-
senting our Lord and the Apostles, and of a large fresco in
one of the side chapels, representing Francis of Assisi sub-
mitting the rules of his new order to Pope Innocent the
Third. The young man stands in front of the kneeling re-
presentatives of his confraternity, before the Pope and his
Cardinals. Unabashed by the splendour of the court, yet
with no lack of modesty, he waits, with his hands crossed
on his breast, while the Pope reads the rules by which the
order just founded is to be governed. The eyes of all are
fixed upon his calm, earnest presence. The painter has put
aside all the picturesque elements which might encumber
or endanger the unity and simplicity of this idea ;
but, having rightly done so, his difficulties, on the
other hand, are very great. As he can get but little
aid from strong contrasts of light and shade and colour, it
becomes of the highest importance that his drawing and
composition should be thoroughly good. Mr. Armitage
has been well trained ; he is a good draughtsman ; and
perhaps there is no English painter who is better ac.
quainted with the rules of composition. His strength is
best seen in such work as these frescoes represent.
The " St. Francis" has been completed about three
years, and is at this moment in perfectly good condition ;
but we understand that the painter has made some change
in his practice, and that he considers his lately completed
work in the apsis to be more purely and simply alfresco
painting. The custom of painting colossal figures of
Christ with his Apostles on the wall behind the high altar
is of the earliest date, When the Basilicas were converted
into Christian temples, the effigies of the Caesars, which
had become almost the only objects of adoration in the
Pagan world, were removed, and in place of them mosaic
representations of the Saviour and his Apostles were dis-
played in the semi-cupola above the high altar. As might
be expected, we find a pagan stamp upon these early
works--the head of the Saviour bearing some resemblance
to the Jupiter, and the costume being generally that of the
period, consisting of the tunic and the pallium, with
sandals. The early impression has never been completely
effaced—and we may trace in the cartoons of Raphael, and
" The Last Judgment" of Michael Angelo, ten centuries
later, the influence of the earliest representations of the
sacred characters of the Christian religion upon all subse-
quent Christian art.

Mr. Armitage has adopted, in its greatest simplicity,
this earliest type. The figure of our Lord—colossal in
size—is represented seated in the centre of the apsis, and
directly behind the high altar. On either side are ranged
the Apostles in pairs—St. Peter and St. Andrew being
foremost on one side, St. John and St. James on the
other. The great merit of the fresco is its simplicity.
The painter has justly estimated the advantages
and the limits of his materials. He has given his
attention chiefly to the drawing and expression of
the heads. The colour is merely suggestive—rich-
ness of effect being attained by means of the gold ground
upon which the figures are relieved. The first impression
conveys a sense of coldness, which gives place, however, to
the admiration and approval which all good work inspires
in true lovers of art. With the exception of the principal
figure, in which, we think, Mr. Armitage has preserved too
much of the character of the ideal Jupiter, the heads are
' true in character to the idea we form of the several Apostles,
and rightly varied in expression. The drawing in general
is masterly, and the draperies are well composed.
An inexperienced observer has but little idea of the diffi-
culties involved in the successful accomplishment of such
works as these frescoes, and would probably be surprised to
learn that a very clever painter of cabinet-pictures would
stand before a large space of wall as helpless as a child to
cover it with design. Besides the necessary training,which
must be of the highest order for him who aspires to be a
fresco-painter, there are difficulties inherent in the process
itself, and the unsuccessful battling with which has re-
sulted in the deterioration or ruin of so much good work in
Westminster Palace.

In reference to the above, we have been permitted to
make the following extract from a letter written by the
artist to a friend, relative to the frescoes in St. John's
Church.

" For the fresco of St. Francis of Assisi, I followed, as
closely as I could, the precepts of Cennino Cennini. This
old author and artist (himself a pupil of Giotto) recommends
the pi eparatory modelling of the flesh with a greenish tint
—terra verte, umber, &c.—and the subsequent addition of
the carnation hues applied in a very fluid state. He never•
theless says that a small quantity of
eomP°'..nd, which
. litre should be mixed
with these carnation colours. With 'fie exception of the
use of terra verte, I followed his `instruction to the letter.
For the terra verte I substitr'
and oxide of chromium, —red a mixture of raw umber
our colourmen's terra
....xperience having taught me 4'
~nat
has had more to r 1 . verte is a greasy
..,
any other car- 0 With the ruin of Engil,,a frescoes than
and less ,^ -.de, As my work proceeded, I got to use less
the 1- .4 ale lime as a pigment ; tea, when I undertook
1:1138e0 of the apsiS, 1 resolved dispense with it
..itog2er. Accordingly, in the flesh tints of the " Christ
and Apostles" there is net a particle of lime or any body
colour. The wall is rather stained than painted. I think
masetthhoecicooffloeursrsadgorenaott actanangteagferomovetrhethwe
eotld,
the work has every element of durability ; and my new
state."
We believe that these works were undertaken by Mr.
to i n:1:. the I aderhy
Armitage as experimental works, and not with a view to a
lucrative employment of his time. The actual time spent
upon the frescoes themselves. independent of the cattoons,
tracings, &C., was four mentlis for the "St. Francis" and
seven months for the apsis.—The Reader.

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