The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1919-06-10
ANTIQUITY OF
DECORATIVE ART
strange Sources From Whick
Pigments Used by Modern
Painters Are Derived. q
PRESERVATION OF SURFACES
Crude but Effective Processes Employ
ed by the Egyptians and Greeks Of
Pliny's Day-Noah PrudentIy
Wate5proofed 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
though. and it serves both purposes
equally; so whether 1T 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 of
wood to 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. 1t is per-
hapS natural to suppose that it 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 a desire to
initiate those wonders in their own
dwellings.
The earliest record of the applica-
ton of preservative to 4 wooden
structure dates from. the ark, which
was, according to the Bible, pitched
within and without The pitch was a
! triumph Of preservation whatever it
y lacked us thing of beauty.
Decoration applied to buildings first
comes to light with ancient Babylon,
4 whose walls 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
j not painting SO much as it was the
| earliest manifestation of our own ia
! mliar kalSomining
The first Hebrew to mention paint
| ing is Moses. In the thirty third chap
/ ter of the book of Numbers he in
structs the Israeltes. when We have
| passed over the Jordan into the land
Of Canaan. then shall We 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
aatl' in the apoc1! phal boo.; OF the
NaccaDeeS is found this alluSiun to
the art Of decorating, For as the mas
ter builder of a new house must care
for the whole building, but he that
! undertaken to set it ont and paint it,
{ must seek out things for the adjoining
thereof"
Although Homer gfyes credit to
! Greek for the discovery of paint, the
illusions to it in the books of Moses,
the painted mummy cases of the Egyp-
tians and the decorated walls of Baby
Ion and ThebeS fix its origin at a
period long antecedent to the Grecian
era. The walls Of Thebes were paint
ed 1000 years before the coming OF
Christ and 900 years before "'Omer
smote his bloomin' Tyre"
The Greeks recognized the value Of
paint as preservative and made use
Of something akin to it on their ships.
Pliny 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"
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-
tons are in fair shape today. The
cOlors 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 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 wa adorned with
paintings
In modern times Q. -ses Of paint
have come to be as numerous as its
myriad shades and tints. Paint is
unique in that its name las no syno-
nym and for it there is no substitute
material Bread is the staff of life, but
paint is the life Of the staff.
q No one thinks of the exterior Of q
wooden building now except in terms
& of paint coated. Interiors, too, from
s rainted walls and stained furniture
4 down to the lowliest kitchen utensil
all receive their protective covering
! Steel, so often associated with cement
! re-enforcing, is painted before it goes
& to give SOlidity to the manufa ctured
: stone. The huge Orders of the sky
4 scrapers are daubed an ugly but eff
j cient red underneath the surface Goa,
I of black. Perhaps the best example
s Of the value Of paint on steel is found
4 In the venerable Brooklyn bridge, OF
which a gang Of painters is kent go
ing continually. 1t is scarce possible
, - think of single manufactured ar
ticle which does not meet paint some
Wher.. "a the course of It's COnStruc.