Evening star., 1924-06-19
The North Window
BY LEILA MECHLIN

otto quotes Rodin IN support OF the
effort being made at this time at the
American School OF Fine Arts at
Fontain ebleau TO revive, under the
direction of R. La Montague Saint
Hubert. the art of fresco painting.
Saint Hubert has made an exhaustive
study of the medium SO long left In
disuse, and is now teaching it to
group of enthusiastic students, with
the intent not only of recovering the
old formula of beautiful art" but
! of adapting its use to our modern
ideas and conceptions 50 that 1t may
have ''new life and new meaning"
There is great confusion and mis-
understanding in regard to this art.
The word 'fresco" implies any man :
ner of painting on or with fresh
mortar. 1t cannot, however. properly
be applied to tempera painting exc
oil painting on canvas which initiates
such. For instance, Puvis de Cha
vannes' beautiful mural paintings in
the Pantheon at Paris, which are
executed after the latter manner.
"Frescoes," Saint-Hubert tells us, as
he tells his pupils in a series Of lectures
recently published by Frederic Fairchild
Sherman of New York, attained COM
plete Towering in Italy under Giotto and
his pupils. Masaccio, Guirlandaio, Fra
Angelica. Benozzo Gozzoli; then they
died out. but to be reborn. almost
miraculously. by Raphael. Botticelh. BE-
fore disappearing again beneath the ar
tistic e0uberance without faith of the
'baroque STYLE" Victor Motte5, CEN
turies later. rediscovered. in part;
Baudoin, a pupil of Puvis de Chayannes
and master Of Saint Hubert. who.
through stubborn and enduring efforts
carried OH during his whole lifetime,
succeede i in pulling aside the veil which
ever since the Renaissance bafiingly
concealed the secrets of fresco painting +"
AT the lime of his earlier endeavors a
large number of the Italian primitives'
finest FIRE scoeS were well covered over
with plaS1er or white paint, under which
Vasari hSd caused to be hidden in nu-
msrous Ct urches wonderful decorations
considered as unworthy by cotemporary
prejudiced fashion. The walls OF Santa
Croce in Florence were whitewashed
all over" RAudoin made point OF
studying aAd reviving pure craftsman
tablished by the primitives and, above
all. by Giotto."
The advantage Of freSco painting
over painting in oil or tempera is
that 'the petrihcation OF the color
when the reaction has been we'll CAL
culated produces an eternal youth an
solutely unassailahle by either air
or light" The process is by no means
q simple one. The wall must first
be prepared and the rough-cast sur
face applied. On this the outline of
the design is traced and points fixed
as guides, remaining even when the
surface coat is put on. When the
time comes for the painting. the
artist must work rapidly and ac-
curately. Everything must be in
gins 1t is this need of accuracy
which Saint-Hubert believes to be
the reason for the great number OF
drawings which the old masters have
left-studies of figures in various
positions, portions of designs. all con-
tributing to the accuracy of the fin
ished cartoon. Comparatively few
colors are used. and these must be
mixed freshly each day. The painter,
furthermore, must have a fairly ac-
curate knowledge of chemistry and
chemical reactions in order to secure
permanency of color
Ten thousand difficulties seem to
beset the fresco painter. He must
the other, but by means OF very
clean brush, slightly dampAned, en-
ployed at precisely the right moment,
adjacent colors may be joined to-
freshness. The mortar must not be
too soft nor vet too hard. and IL a
mistake is made the only way to
remedy it is to cut out the plaster
with a trowei and patiently patch.
Everything seems to conduce to en-
danger the result, such. for instance.
as the weather; and whether or not
success has been attained can only
be discovered when the drying
| process is complete.
No wonder that as life became more
complicated and to move more
rapidly the art of fresco painting fell
into disuse, but marvellous, indeed
is the fact that in this present age
of hurry and impatience it is finding
revival. Yet in that portion of the
old palace of Fontainebleau where
Saint Hubert has his studio there is
today a group of enthusiastic young
students mastering the mysteries of
this ancient method of painting and
covering the rough stone walls with
their experiments just as the appren-
tices of the old masters in the early
days of art may have covered the
walls of still older buildings in Italy.
\ X : X
France is celebrating this year the
centenary of the birth of Puvis de
Chavannes, one of the greatest mural
painters of modern times. On the
cover of the catalogue of the Salon
of the Societe Rationale des Beaux-
Arts is a reproduction of portrait
in relief of the great painter, and, in
color, reproductions of three of his
st. Genevieve series. One whole gal
lery of the Salon this year is given
up to examples of Puvis' work, chiefly
tions, but also including such COM
plete original works as his portrait
Of the Princess CantacuZene and the
finished study, Autumn" both of
which, with numerous drawings, are
reproduced in the catalogue.
was caused by the Chavannes decora-
tions in the Boston Museum of Fine
Arts, the fun that was poked at them
and the criticism with which they
The painter produced these works
without having seen the place for
which they were destined, and it is
possible that had he painted them
here with this knowledge he might
have made them different, at least
different in tone or general color
scheme. But be that as it may. time
has proved their worth, and it is safe
to believe that almost no one today
who visits the Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston but carries away an i'm
pression Of the decorative value, the
impressive, quiet simplicity of these
unusual and mastery works.
y \
The mistake that to a great ex-
tent we have made in this. country in
our mural painting has been to re-
gard such as easel pictures on large
scale, whereas a mural decoration
should in reality be an architectural
adjunct. There is nothing harder
than to dissociate from the popular
-i,S th> idaa TINT q poiptinr r,v.t