Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-04-03
ANTIQUITY OF
DECORATIVE ART
Strange Sources From Which
Pigments Used by Modern
Painters Are Derived.
PRESERVATION OF SURFACES.
Crude but Effective Processes Employ
ed by the Egyptians and Greeks OF
Piiny's Day--Noah Prudently
Waterproofed the Ark.

Whether paint was invented la an
swer to need for a preservative or 20
meet a desire for beauty is question
fully as knotty as the ancient one about
the relative time of arrival Of the
chicken or the egg Ii was invented,
though, and 1t serves both purposes
| equally so whether Ii is an offspring
of mother necessity or an adopted son
| Of beauty remains forever disputed
question.
The first men, covering under the
fierce and glaring suns OF the biblical
| countries, constructed rude huts or
wood 10. shelter them. The perishable
nature of these structures caused rapid
decay, and it is probable that the oc-
| cupants, seeking some artificial means
of preservation, hit upon the pigments
| Of the earth In their search. II Is per
haps natural to suppose that II was
the instinct of preservation that led
men TO the search, although the glories
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 appica-i
ton 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 II
lacked as q thing of beauty.
Decoration applied to buildings first
comes to light with ancient Babylon
whose wallis were covered with repre-,
sensations Of hunting scenes and of
combat. These were 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 fa-
miliar l.aisomning.
The first Hebrew to mention paint
ing is Moses. In the thlrty-third chap
ter Of the book of Numbers he In
structs the Israelites, when We have
passed over the Jordan into the land
Of Canaan then shall We drive out ali
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.
cessiyely obtained power over thein
and 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
nndertaketh to set it out and paint it,
must seek out things for the adjoining
thereof"
Although Homer gives credit to
Greek for the discovery of paint, the
illusions to II in the books of Moses,
the painted mumnry cases of the Egyp-
tians and the decorated walls OF Baby
Ion and Thabes fix its origin at a
period long antecedent TO the Grecian
era The walls of Thebes were paint
ed 300 years before the coming of
Christ and 996 years before Omer
snote his boomin' Tyre
The Greeks recognized the value Of
sSint as preseryative and made use
81 something akin to It on their ships
Plihy writes of 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 a
warlil1e people, never brought the dec
Dration of buildings to the high plane
1t had reached with the Greeks For
all that the ruins of Pompeli show
many structures whose mural decora-
tons are in fair shape today. The
rolors used were glaring. black
background was the usual one and the
combinations worked thereon red, yell
Iow and blue.
IN the early Christian era the use of
mosaics for churches somewhat sup
planted mural painting Still, during
the reign Of Justinian the Church of
Saint Sophia was built at Constantine
pie and It's walls were adorned with
paintings.
lii modern times the uses Of paint
have come TO be as numerous as its
myriad shades and dnts Paint is
unique III that IFS name las no syno-
nyn and for~it there is no substitute
material. Bread IS the staff of life but
paint II the life Of the staff
No one thinks Of the exterior Of a
wooden 5uiidiag now except in terms
Of paint coated. Interiors, TOO, from
painted walls and stained furniture
down to tue lowllest Kitchen utensil,
all receive their protective covering.
steel, 50 often sssociated with cement
rc-enforcing, Is painted before ii goes
TO give solid'ty TO the manufactured
stone. The huge Orders of the sky
scrapers are daubed an ugly but Ell
cient rel 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 gang of painters is kept go
ing continually 1t is scarce possible
10 blink of single manufactured ar
ifcle u-fsch does not meet paint some