The spectator., 1919-03-28
ANTIQUITY OF
 DECORATIVE ART Strange Sources From Which Pigments Used by Modern
 Painters Are Derived.
PRESERVATION OF SURFACES.
Crude but Effective Processes Employ cd by the Egyptians and Greeks of Pilny's Day-Noah Prudentiy
 Waterproofed the Ark


 swer to need for a preservative or te meet desire for beauty is question fully as knotty as the ancient one about the relative time of arrival of the chicken or the egg. It was inveatsd, though, and 1t serves both purposes equally; so whether 1t Is an offspring of mother necessity or an adopted son of beauty remains forever s disputed question.
 The first men. covering under the fierce and glaring suns Of the biblical countries, constructed rude huts of wood to shelter them. The perishabie nature of these structures caused rapid decay. and 1t Is probable that the 0c- cupants seeking some artificial means of preservation, hit upon the pigments of the earth in their search. It Is per haps natural to suppose that 1t was men to the search, although the glories of the sunsets and the beauties of the rainbow may have created q desire to initiate those wonders in their own dwellings
 The earliest record of the applica- don of preservative to wooden structure dates from the ark, which was, according to the Bible, pitched within and without The pitch was triumph of preservation whatever 1t lacked as thing of beauty
 Decoration applied to buildings first comes to light with ancient Babylon, whose walls were covered with repre- sentations of hunting scenes and of combat These were done in red and the method followed vas to paint the scene on the bricks at the time of manufacture, assuring permanence by baking Strictly speaking, this was not painting so much as il was the miliar kalsomining.
 The first Hebrew to mention paint ing is Moses In the thirtythird chap ter of the book of Numbers he in structs the Israelites. When ye have passed over the Jordan into the land of Canaan then shall ye drive out all the inhabitants of the land from be- lures.
 At later periods the Jews adopted many customs of the peoples who sue cessively obtained power over them md in the apocryphal book of the Maccabees Is found this allusion to the art of decorating, For as the mas ter builder of new house must care for the whole building, but he that undertaketh 10 set 1t out and paint 1t, must seek out things for the adorning thereof"
 Although Homer gives credit te . Greek for the discovery of paint, the Allusions to 1t in the books of Moses the painted mummy cases of the Egyp tians and the decorated walls of Baby Ion and Thebes fx its origin st . period long sntecedent to the Grecian era. The walls of Thebes were paint ed 1900 years before the coming of Christ and o96 years before "'Omer snote his bloomin Tyre"
 The Greeks recognized the value of
 
 of something akin to it on their ships Pllny writes of the mode of boiling wax and painting ships with 1t, after which, he continues, neither the sea, nor the wind. nor the sun can destroy the wood thus protected"
 The Romans, being essentially . warlike people, never brought the dec tt zf kt.t1 tN sh. t.rk alnN 1t had reached with the Greeks. For all that the ruins of Pompeii show many structures whose mural decora- tions are in fair shape today. The colors used were glaring. A black background was the usual one and the combinations worked thereon red, yel- low and blue.
 In the early Christian era the use of mosaics for churches somewhat sup planted mural painting. Still. during the reign of Justnian the Church of Saint Sophia was built at Constantine pie and its walls were adorned with paintings
 have come to be ss numerous as It's myriad shades and tints- Paint is unique in that its name aas no syno- nym and for 1t there Is no substitute material. Bread is the staff of life, but paint is the life of the stan.
 No one thinks of the exterior of . wooden building now except in terms of paint coated. Interiors, too, from painted walls and stained furniture down to the lowliest kitchen utensil, all receive their protective covering. Steel. so often associated with cement re-enforcing, is painted before 1t goes to give solidity to the manufactured stone. The huge girders of the sky scrapers are daubed an ugly but efi- cient red underneath the surface coat of black Perhaps the best example of the value of paint on steel is found in the venerable Brooklyn bridge, on which q gang of painters is kept go- ing continually. It Is scarce possible to think of single manufactured ar s.lx int