The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-02-05

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the Burlington Fine Arts Club was
formed in 1895 to test the lasting quail
tiles Of certain water colors, and 1t has
Just issued it's report on this interesting
subject.
-Four pigments-madder carmlne,
madden brown, madden purple and sepia
were exposed to dry air for thirteen
months and showed no change. After
an exposure of three years in the dry
air there was some notable fading. The
madden carmine and madden brown had
sIost 10 per cent. of their original
Depth and the madden purple and
sep.a "about 20 per cent" Two pig
nlents exposed to the dry air, Prus-
sian blue and indigo, were unchanged.
but when they had been exposed in or
binary frames had deprecated from 10
to 80 per cent, losing their depth OF
color.
The committee thinks that by the use
of yentilating frames water colors can
be better preserved. In proof of this 1T
was found that pigments in closed
tubes had deteriorated more than when
these colors had been painted on paper
slips and exposed in frames A frame
should, SO the committee believes, be
So constructed that while 'sthe moist
ure-laden air can escape, no dust can
enter" The alright frame is, then,
likely to harm a water color, and it
was thought that the introduction of
some moisture absorbing substance
would be effective. The plan proposed
is to modify the construction of the
ordinary glazed frame by the introduc-
. ton "of wire gauZe cartridge
charged with small bits of freshly burnt
lime which will remove continuously
all moisture inclosed between the front
glass and the thin metal sheet which
will have to serve as a blackboard"
The lime in the cartridges would have
TO be renewed from time to time.
Unfcrtunate 1y, this method, though
advantageous to such colors as aureo-
lin, rose madden, Indian red, madden
carrnine, madden brown, madden purple,
Pr1issian blue, French blue, indigo,
sepia and cadmium yellow, does not
do for gamboge, Indian yellow vernil-
lion, crimson lake and Vandyke
brown. The committee proposes max
ing further tests of the durability of
water colors, exposing some of these in
a room where there are all the differ
room, keeping the tests under the same
conditions for four years.
In table are printed the results of
exposure in frames under ordinary cir
cumstances and in dry air of the sew
enteen water colors in general use.
Those in the dry air seemed to suffer
the least and changes and fadings were
sansibly diminished
NJ a.
and we'll worthy of careful study. Think
OF the regrets, of the owner of a Turner
who sees it's golden CLEANS pass out Of
existence, and just such a glorious
water color of Turner is to-day one Of
the gems of a New York gallery. We
should think that the USE Of lime would
require great precautions, for an atom
of it coming accidentally in contact
with paper would burn or deface the
picture.
New York Post: Now that Tissot's
drawings of the Life of Christ are on
exhibition in New York, those who have
been puzzled by their singular lack of
effectiveness, and the absence of any
emotion but that of curiosity with
which one regards them, may be inter-
ested TO recall what the greatest of
critics wrote, more than forty years ago
ON the application of archaeology and
local color to Biblical subjects in "A
Summer in the Sahara" Fromentin
has compared the life of the Arab to
that of the Patriarchs, and so is led to
discuss the modern effort to introduce
exact Oriental costume into sacred art.
s.My opinion of the system, he says,
sis this: 1.-The men of genius are all
ways right, and the men of talent are
often wrong To costume the Bible is to
destroy it as to dress denigod is to
make man of him.
But as the idea must in some
shape be clothed, the masters
have understood that to chasten and
simplify the forn-that is, to suppress
all local color-is to remain as near as
possible to the truth. Outside
of what is general, there is no truth
possible. and decidedly we
must renounce the illustration of the
Bible or undertake it in the spirit of
Raphael and Poussin. The
people of the East do, indeed, possess
a true grandeur, but if, more
often than others. they approach the
epic style, it is by the very absence of
all costume-that is, by ceasing in a
manner to be Arab by becoming mercy
human Before the -nakedness of
q shepherd I may dream of Jacob; with
the bournous of Sahara or the machla
of Syria one can never represent any
thing but Bedouins.'' 1t is true that
Fromentin is speaking of the Old Tes-
lament, but what he says applies to the
illustration of the New Testament also.
The more we are convinced by arch,
aeology and accuracy of local color
that certain events actually happened
in Palestine in the first century, the
more foreign to us those events are
made to seem, and religious emotion
evaporates precisely in proportion as
the appetite for realism is satisfied.
Two methods only have been found by
which Bible stories may be so repre-
sented in art as to seem of Importance
to us to be our religion, to be not
actual but true. The one is the method
of Raphael. which abstracts all local
color and makes the event general and
typical and true for all mankind; the
other is the method of Rembrandt and
some of the early Italians, who frank
1y gave the event depicted in the sur
roundings and with the local color OF
the artists own time,. and made 1t seem
to. belong specifically to the spectator,
and to be true especially for him. This
method has been tried in our own day,
but either we are not sufficiently naive
to accept it or the artist has not been
sufficiently sincere to enforce it, and
sfhe results have not been happy,
4ba,ph nerhaps Millet if he had gone