The Monticellonian., 1919-06-06
ANTIQUITY OF
 DECORATIVE ART
Strange Sources From Which Pigments Used by Modern
 Painters Are Derived.
PRESERVATION OF SURFACES.
Crude but Effective Processes Employ. cd 5y th. Egyptians and Greeks of pIinY's Day-Noah Prudently
 Waterproofcd the Ark.

s"er to need for q preservatiye or to 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 invented, though, and 1t serves both purposes equally; so whether it is an offspring of mother necessity or an adopted son of beauty remains forever disputed question.
 The first men. covering under the fierce and gIarng suns of The biblical countries, constructed rude huts of wood to shelter them. The perishable nature of these structures caused rapid decay. and 1t is probable that the oc- eunants, seeking some artificial means of preservation. hit upon the pigments ef the earth in their search IL is per haps natural to suppose that it was the instinct ef preservation that led mon to the search although the glories aS tte sunsets and the beauties of the rainbow may have created desire 10 initiate those wonders in their own dwellings
 The earliest record of the appllca- ton of il preservatlve to wooden structure dates from the ark, which was, according 10 the Bible. pitched within and wthoat." fhe pitch was Il triumph oe preservation whatever it lacked as d thing of beauty
 Decoration applied to builints first comes to light with ancient Babylon, whose walls were covered with repre- sentattons "f hunting scenes and 0. Combat. Tiese were done in red and the method followed was to paint the scene on the bricks Ut the time of manufacture. assuring permanenee by baking. Strictly speaking. this was not painting so much as if was he earliest manifestation CT our own fa- miIiar kalsanining
 The frst Hebrew to mention paint lng is Masses n the thirty-third chap ter af the book of Numbers he In- struets the IseaeliteS, When ye have passed over the Jordan into the land ef Canaan. then shall ye drive out nil the inhabitants of the land from be- fore yon and destroy all their pie tuges.
 Al latnr periods the Jews adonte1 many customs ef inc peoples wh0 sue eessiveiy obtained power over thens and in the aRoeryphal book of the Maccabees is found this allusion to the art of decorating, "For is the mas ter builder of new house must care for the whole building, but he that undertaketl to set il out and pnInt II. must seek unt things for the adornns thereof
 Although Homer gives credit 10 a Greek for the discovery of paint, the alluslons to 1t in the books of Moses. the painted mummy cases of the Egyp- tians and the decorated walls of Baby lon and Thebes fix its origin at period long antecedent to the Grecian era. The walls of Thebes were paint ed 1900 years before the coming of Christ and 996 years before "'Omer smote his bloomin Tyre"
 The Greeks recognized the value of paint as Il preseryativc and made use of something akin to 1t on their ships. Pliny writes ot the mode of boiling wax and painting ships with it. 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 oration of buildings to the high plane It had reached with the Greeks. For all that the ruins of Pompeii show many structures whose mural decora- lions are in fair shape today. The eolors used were glaring. A black background was the usual one and the combinations worked thereon red, yell low and blue.
 In the early Christian era the use ot mosacs for churches somewhat sup planted mural painting. Still. during the reign of Justinian the Church ot Saint sophia was built tt constantino- pie and its walls were adorned with paintings.
 In modern times the uses of paint have come 10 be as numerous as it's myriad shades and tints. Paint is unique in that it's name las no syno- nym and for Il there K no substitute material Bread is the staff of life. but paint is the life of the staff.
 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 10 the lowlest kitchen utensil. all receive their protective covering. Steel, so often associated with cement re-enforcing, k .laiuled before II goes to give solidHy tp the manufactured stone. The huge Girders of the sky scrapers are dauUed an ugly but eli cient red underneath the sdrfaee coat of black. Perhaps the best example of The value of paint on steel is found In the venerable Brooklyn bridge. on which gang of painters k kept so- ! ing continually II k scarce possible to think of a single manufactured ar- | ticIe wnich does not meet paint some where in tn, course of its conStruc- l ion So has paint grown into the very rlairaw of our lives
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