Mountain advocate., 1919-05-09
lfAuITY or
DECORATIVE ART
Strange Sources From Which
Pigments Used by Modern
Painters Are Derived.
PRESERVATION OF SURFACES.
Crude but Effective Processes Empley-
ed by the Egyptians and Greeks Of
Pliny's Dsy-Noah Prudently
Waterproofed the Ark.

Whether paint was invented In an
swer TO need for preservative or to
meet a desire for beauty is a question
fully as knotty as the ancient one about
the relative time of arrival OF the
chicken or the egg 1t was invented,
though, and It serves both purposes
equally; so whether 1t is an offspring
OF mother necessity or an adopted son
OF beauty. remains forever q disputed
question.
The first men, covering under the
nerce and glsrinr suns et the biblical
countries, constructed rude huts or
wood to shelter them. The perlshasle
nature of these structures caused rapid
decay. and It Ia probable that the oc-
cubants, seeking some artificial means
OF preservation, hit upon the pigments
of the earth In their search. 1t Is per-
i,aps natural to suppose that 1t was
the instinct Of preservation that led
men 10 the search, although the gleries
OF the sunsets and the beauties OF the
rainbow may have created desire to
initiate those wonders In their own
dwellings
The earliest record Of the appllca-
ton OF preseryatlye 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
Iaol,aI as N thfnV af haa uty
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 we're done In red and
the method followed was 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 1t was the.
earliest manifestation Of our own IA
millsr kals0mining.
The first Hebrew to mention paint
ing is Moses. In the thirty-third 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-
fore you and destroy all their pic
lures. :"
At later periods the Jews adopted
many customs of the peoples who sue
cessively obtained power over them
and in the apOcryphal book of the
Maccabees Is found this allnsiOn To
the art OF decorating, For as the mas
ter builder OF new house must care
for the whole building, hut he that
undertaketh to set it out and paint 1t,
must seek out things for the adorninS
thereof"
Although Homer gives credit to a
Greek for the discovery OF paint, the
illusions to it in the books OF Moses,
the painted mummy cases OF the Egyp-
tisns and the decorated walls OF Baby
Ion and Thebes fix its origin at q
period long antecedent TO the Greclan
era. The walls OF Thebes were paint
ed 1900 years before the coming "i
Christ and 996 years before "'omer
smOte his bloomin' Tyre"
The Greeks recognized the value OF
paint as Il preseryative and made use
VI something akin to 1t on their ships
Pliny 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 9
warlike people, never brought the dec
sratlon Of buildings to the high plane
il had reached with the Greeks Fol-
all that the ruins OF Pompeii shov
nanny structures whose mural decora
tions are in fair shape today. The
colors used were glarlnE. 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
nosaics for churches somewhat sup
planted mural painting. Stlll, durin,
the reign Of Justinisn the Church o
Saint Sophia was built at Constantine
ple aud its walls were adorned will
paintings.
Ia modern times the uses OF pain
have come to be as numerous as IT
myriad shades and tints. Paint I
unique in that its name las no syno
nym and for II there Is no substitute
material. Bread Is the star of life, bu
paint is the life Of the stan.
No one thinks Of the exterior Of
wooden building now except In term
of paint coated. Interiors. too, fror
painted walls and stained furnltur
down TO the lOwliest kitchen utensi
all receive their protective covering
Steel, so often associated with cemen
reinforcing, is painted before II zoe
to give sOlldity TO the manufacture
stone. The huge girders Of the SKY
-, scrapers are dsubed an ugly bat eff
cieat red underneath the slrface cOs
OF black. Perhaps the best exsmpl
of the value of paint on steel is foun
in the venerable Brooklyn bridge, o
which a gang Of painters is kept q
Ing continually 1t Is scarce possibl
TO think Of single manufactured a.