the ribs. (Plate 24.) It was in the smaller churches, and in the chambers and chapels attached to larger churches and cathedrals, in the crypts, sacristies, baptisteries, and sanctuaries, that complete schemes of colour decoration were carried out, or attempted in the Gothic period. It might be mentioned that some effective colour notes were obtained by the richly-coloured and gilt carvings and sculpture in wood and stone screens, altar-pieces, and the carved and painted tabernacles, which have been found in great numbers in the Gothic churches of Germany.

The stained-glass windows of the Gothic period, especially of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were the finest and best understood colour decoration in the glass material that has ever been done. Though many fine windows belonging to this time are found throughout Germany, Flanders, Bohemia, and Austria, the best examples are found in France, as at Chartres, and in England at York. The colouring of the glass of this period has never been surpassed for its splendour and beauty, and the figure-work and general ornamentation are designed and drawn in a suitably flat and architectonic style, in harmony with the material. The flat tapestry-like effect of the designs gives the work an appearance of mosaic in glass, and the result is what it should be, namely, a decorative work in “stained” glass, not “painted.” In the fifteenth century and later, stained glass became degraded to the imitation of pictures, or light and shade paintings in glass, and consequently lost its legitimate character as a mosaic in glass. In a word, it became eventually pictorial in character, and ceased to have the true quality of stained glass. This later degradation of coloured glass was common to Germany, France, Italy and England.

The love for colour decoration, as applied to the interiors and exteriors of secular buildings and private dwellings, was more marked in Germany than in other European countries during the Middle Ages, and, as we would expect, Germany, with a tenacious and faithful conservatism, has clung more closely to her old traditional love for colour and decoration, and still takes a greater pride in all the circumstance of civic processions and pageantry, than any other nation in Europe. If we seek for an explanation of this we shall find that it is an inherited love from their ancestors, the old Germanic warriors and chiefs, who ruled the country before the days of Charlemagne, and who took a passionate delight in colour and in personal adornment. We may take one illustration of this artistic conservatism, among many others, by pointing out that the Germans paint and decorate their restaurants to-day, for example, in the same way as they did in the days of the fifteenth century.

The museums of Cologne and Munich especially, contain many fragments of interior decorative painting that were taken from the old houses in their neighbourhoods. Such specimens of the old work are generally treated very flatly and only in a few colours, resembling tapestry designs, all of them having strong outlines that mark out the forms, like the constructive outline leads of window glass. We may point to one of the many fragments of this work which is now in the museum at Cologne: it consists of a portion of a deep and battlemented frieze, having three panels painted with scenes from the story of the Prodigal Son (der lieblose Sohn), and is executed in tempera in flat tints of reds, blues, pale yellows and greys, outlined in black. This frieze once formed a part of the decoration of the dining-hall des Hauses Glesch auf der Hochstrasse, Cologne.

Wooden panelled ceilings of private dwellings in the Gothic and Renaissance periods were strongly coloured, and the deep friezes on the walls were painted with figure subjects, heraldry, foliage, flowers and birds, or sometimes with conventional ornament alone, all the work being usually painted in tempera, while the walls below were either panelled with inlaid woods, or carved in wood or stone. In some cases the lower portion of the wall was painted on the wood or plaster, or hung with figured tapestries. It may be mentioned that the Germans have always made the greatest possible use of decorative heraldry, which was designed with great skill, in an elaborate and sumptuous manner, and used by them in every form and material of decorative art.

The adornment of the exteriors and interiors of their public buildings, and also of the better class of private houses, has always been a passion with the Germans. Many of the old houses in such cities as Lübeck, a northern German town of the Renaissance, Brunswick, Hildesheim, Frankfort, Strasburg, Nuremberg, Rothenburg, and the Swabian city of Augsburg are enriched with a wealth of carving and painting, of one or of both, on their façades, and in the interiors of their principal rooms, many examples of which are still in existence. The carving and painting in and on the houses of the Germans were in most cases designed and executed by native artists and craftsmen, but in some instances there are records of foreigners being employed, as in the case of the Fuggerhaus at Augsburg, where Hans Fugger, a member of that powerful and wealthy family, had his house decorated in the Italian Renaissance style, in 1570, the work being done by Italian artists.

The native love for decoration and colour has always been respected in Germany by the ruling powers, by the municipalities and wealthy citizens, who have always encouraged and fostered the decorative arts. The Germans take a civic pride in not only having handsome town-halls, theatres, railway stations, art galleries, museums, colleges, universities, and other public buildings, erected as the best possible examples of fine architecture, but in the adornment of such buildings with sculpture, fresco, mosaic and other colour decoration.

We might extend these observations on the colouring of architecture in Germany with a brief description of a few examples of modern work of the art which has engaged our attention.

The Teutonic love for the Gothic style and for its auxiliary colour and ornamentation is manifested in the decoration of almost every public building in modern Germany. This is even apparent in the fittings and decorations of the luxurious saloons of their great and latest-built passenger ships, where the dining-rooms and drawing-rooms of the modern liners are often, as in the case of the Imperator, designed and decorated in the style and true spirit of Medieval Gothic, so that the passengers might almost imagine that they were living in some castle or baronial hall of the fifteenth century instead of being on board the ship.

The staircase walls and ceiling of the Museum at Cologne present a fairly good scheme of modern German decoration. The walls have fresco paintings by Steinle, which are important examples of this modern German painter. The ornamentation that surrounds the frescoes, and that on the lower parts of the walls are not so good in colour or form as that of the vaulted ceiling. The work on the latter is good in colour and successfully carried out. The vaults have crimson-red, and blue background alternating, on which are painted a well-designed scroll-like ornamentation in lighter shades with some gold introduced on the mouldings and other parts, the whole effect being rich and pleasing.

Richly coloured carved wood ceilings, in low relief, which contain numerous heraldic shields arranged in panels, and set in suitable ornamentation of foliage forms and ribbon-work, are found in nearly all of the more important rooms in the German town-halls. One of the finest examples of a coloured and carved ceiling is the one which adorns the Kaiserhalle in the Römer, or town-hall, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. This magnificent ceiling is carved in low-relief which gives it a suitable flat appearance. The rich tinctures of the charges on the shields, combined with the gold and silver that is used, produce, with the dark background of the natural brown colour of the wood, an extremely satisfactory example of refined decoration. This ceiling is certainly the best of its kind that we can remember to have seen in any German city. The walls of this magnificent chamber are decorated with good full-length portraits of the German and Prussian kings and emperors. At the entrance end of the hall there is a seated figure of Charlemagne, by Veit, and in the panel above is a wall painting by Steinle with the subject of “The Judgment of Solomon.” The full-length portrait of Frederick I (1152-90), is an unusually fine work by Lessing.

Another example of a finely carved and painted ceiling, is that of the Council Chamber in the Rathaus, or town-hall at Hildesheim. Here also are seen the heraldic devices, with figures and elaborate scroll-work which compose the design of this ceiling. The general scheme of the colouring is rich and deep in tones of red, blue, gold, on the background of dark brown wood. The walls of this Gothic chamber are decorated with fine paintings in fresco by H. Prell, begun in 1892. With the exception of there being too much darkness in some parts, they are otherwise brilliant and luminous in colour, and may be said to be among the best examples of fresco technique in Germany.

The interior of the town-hall at Aix-la-Chapelle is admirably decorated, and in a similar manner to those of Hildesheim and Frankfort. The Coronation Chamber in this building contains the celebrated historical fresco paintings by Alfred Rethel, four of which were painted by this artist, and the other four were designed by Rethel, but painted by Professor Kehren. The vaulted ceilings and piers are richly decorated in colour, and windows with stained glass.

The principal staircase walls of the New Museum in Berlin are decorated with six great frescoes by Kaulbach, representing certain epochs in the history of mankind. These wall paintings are executed in the water-glass method of fresco. As wall decorations they are too pictorial in design, and the treatment, in the matter of colouring and technique, lacks simplicity. They are over-modelled in their light and shade, and the colouring presents too many violent contrasts, which greatly injures their value as monumental examples of legitimate wall decoration. Wherever white or light yellows occur in the work, these parts of the painting have evidently become disintegrated, and at present show a disagreeable chalkiness or bloom. This, together with the presence of many black and heavy shadows, which appear to have gone darker, if possible, with age, combine to throw the painting out of tone. In composition and drawing they are not without grandeur of style, but if they had been more simple in treatment, and less violent in colour and light and shade effects, they would be more pleasing as wall decorations.

In the Hall of the Gods, and in the two adjoining rooms on either side of the small vestibule in the Glyptothek at Munich there are some important frescoes by Cornelius, painted in 1820-30. The subjects of these paintings are classical, and represent the Abode of the Gods, the Legend of Prometheus, and the Trojan wars, all painted in rich and brilliant schemes of colour, but bordering on harshness. There is a great deal of auxiliary decoration in these rooms consisting of good examples of ornamentation in the Greco-Roman style of Grottesche in painting and in stucco-reliefs. The new Town-hall of Munich is well decorated with wall paintings, ornament, and heraldic work. The Council Chamber has a very large wall painting executed in oil on canvas by Piloty. The subject is an Allegorical History of Munich, and the magistrates’ room has paintings by Lindenschmit and is also adorned with a finely carved and painted ceiling.

One of the finest schemes of modern German decoration is that of the great staircase of the Albertinum Sculpture Gallery at Dresden. The frescoes, by H. Prell, on the ceiling and walls have subjects of Greek mythology and are painted in bright and light schemes of colour, the general effect being very luminous, and the work is vigorous in execution. The dado and lower stonework has panels of bronze with low-relief decoration, and in the corridor of the landing there are some fine panels in mosaic.

Fresco, mosaic, tiles, and coloured marble have frequently been used, as the means of obtaining colour decoration on the exteriors of many public buildings in Germany, in modern times. On the upper part of the façade of the Kunst-Gewerbe Museum at Berlin there are a fine series of square-shaped panels containing mosaics in colour on gold grounds, designed by Professor Ewald, and by Geselchap.

The exterior wall of the Royal Historical Museum at Dresden has an important decoration, consisting of a long and deep frieze, executed in a light yellow stone-colour and black on a gold-coloured ground. The material is a kind of porcelain or tile composition, having a sgraffito-like treatment. The work was made in the Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Meissen. The subject of this frieze is a procession of kings and warriors of Saxony on horseback who ruled from 1170 to 1873, and who are represented in chronological order.

There are many buildings in Germany that have had their exteriors decorated with paintings in fresco, but much of this work is now in a decayed condition. Many modern houses, such as restaurants and shops, have exterior decorations painted in oil. The outside walls of the Old (Alt) Museum at Berlin have an extensive arrangement of panels painted in fresco, having mythological subjects, such as the Labours of Hercules, etc., but they are now in a dirty and faded condition. As an example of exterior colouring we might mention the beautiful Gothic fountain, the Schöne Brunnen, erected about 1360, in the market place of Nuremberg. This fountain is built in the shape of a pyramid, in a rich Gothic style; it has, however, been restored several times. It is decorated with many figures of kings, prophets, apostles, and other worthies, and is always kept painted in its original colouring of blue, red, and gold.

We may conclude this review of German coloured decoration of buildings by a brief notice of some of the painted wood and stone carvings which are found plentifully in old German churches, and more particularly in those of Nuremberg. The Church of St. Lawrence at Nuremberg contains several examples of carved wood altar-pieces in the form of triptychs, the centre panels of which are carved with scriptural subjects, the figures being in high relief and painted in rich colours, in order to harmonise with the colour of the two painted leaves on either side of it. Hanging from the roof in the centre of this church is the celebrated circular wood carving by Veit Stoss, all richly coloured and gilt. It consists of a representation of the Annunciation, and the surrounding circular frame is of a beautiful design of open work ornamented with roses, and with seven medallions with representations of the Seven Joys of the Virgin. In this church there is also a very interesting fourteenth-century altar-piece in Gothic stone-carving which is erected in a bay on the left of the east end of the church. It is a good example of the colouring of the period, and is painted in tints of yellowish-red and warm green, with a soft dull blue in the background parts, and the salient points and narrow mouldings are gilt. On many of the structural parts and mouldings of this Church there are still remains of the fourteenth and fifteenth century colouring. Remains of similar colouring are found in many parts of the Church of St. Sebaldus, at Nuremberg, more particularly on the ribs of the vaults, piers, and ceilings, etc. In this church may be seen the celebrated Crucifixion with the figures of the Saviour, the Virgin, and St. John, in carved wood and richly coloured, which is the work of Veit Stoss (1520). Another example of painted and gilded wood carving in this church is the statue of the Madonna (1450) under a canopy of Gothic design.

CHAPTER IX

COLOUR DECORATION IN ENGLAND

It may be said that English decorative art and colouring has, and always had, a certain style and character of its own which has distinguished it from that of other countries, but we must admit that the seeds from whence it sprang were not all of native origin. The English tree of art was not indigenous to the country, but rather an exotic that grew extremely well after it became deeply rooted in the receptive and fertile soil of England. If this be true of the historical beginnings of British art, it must also be said, on the other hand, that the original features and complexion of the adopted art have been completely changed to an aspect of British nativeness.

The brief outlines, given in the previous chapters, of the practice of coloured decoration in Italy, France, and Germany may throw some light on the styles and methods of ornamental design and colouring as practised in our own countries, especially in medieval times.

In the pre-Norman days English churches were decorated in colour, though in a rude manner. The Venerable Bede relates that in the year 678 the Monastery of Weremouth was decorated with paintings done by French artists. Paintings and tapestry hangings were the usual adornment of the pre-Norman churches. As early as 674 Wilfrid, Bishop of York, had the walls, the sacrium arch, and capitals of the columns of his church decorated with sacred subjects, and otherwise richly coloured.

Nothing, however, except a few traces of colour on some very old edifices now exists that dates from the period anterior to Norman times, and even only a little of the colouring on mouldings, carvings, and other portions of the Norman architecture of our great cathedrals and smaller churches, but such portions of colouring as still remain are sufficient to prove that the buildings of the Norman period, in common with all pre-Reformation churches, must have been decorated and coloured from floor to ceiling.

The colours used were very few and simple, such as red, black, and yellow only in some schemes, but in others, blues and greens were introduced.

Mural paintings and sacred subjects, together with the subordinate ornamental decoration, once covered the interiors of Norman churches, but little traces are now left of such. Decorative patterns in simulation of Norman mouldings and diapers were still used in the decoration of later churches up to the end of the first quarter of the thirteenth century.

Frequent mention of colour decoration in England is made in the records, or Close Rolls, of Henry III, dating from the first decade of the thirteenth century. In these documents we find references to the painting of the king’s chambers in his palaces at Westminster, Guilford, Windsor, Winchester, and Clarendon, and mention is made of certain colours and gold, as well as of oil and varnish. References are also made to the making of stained-glass windows; and we know that miniature painting was practised in England at that period. The subject-pictures and ornamentation of the illuminated manuscripts were often copied on the walls of churches and palaces, and also in stained-glass windows of this time.

This English king had a great passion for adorning his numerous palaces and chapels with painted decoration and stained-glass. He also encouraged the art of miniature painting, and, to mention one instance of this, he ordered a large book of miniatures, which contained the illustrations and record of the exploits of his heroic uncle, King Richard I, at the siege of Antioch during the Crusade. It is also mentioned that he “ordered that the exploits should be the subjects of paintings on the wainscot of a room in the royal palace at Clarendon.” These “exploits” also formed the subjects of other paintings that were executed fourteen years later in the Tower of London, and also in the Antioch (Jews’) Chamber at Westminster. One curious and intimate connection with the painting of miniatures, as book-illustrations and mural painting, is shown by the circumstance of the king’s librarian being also the custodian of the colours, which he supplied to the decorators by order of the king. It is evident from this that colours used for the illumination of books and for wall-paintings were possibly of the same kind, and perhaps of the same value.

In some old illuminated manuscripts there are frequently representations of interiors of rooms having various decorative patterns on the painted walls and ceilings, and in some cases they are painted as “Stellari Aureo,” set with stars of gold, on a blue or green ground. In connection with this it is interesting to find that the first mention of a Star Chamber occurs in the Roll of Liveries of Henry III, in these words: “Precept to the Sheriff of Southampton that he cause the Chamber at Winchester to be painted of a green colour, and with stars of gold (and compartments or panels) in which may be painted histories from the Old and New Testaments.”

That the colour decoration of interiors was common, even before the time of Henry III, appears so from another precept issued by the king to the effect that the wainscot in the king’s chamber in the castle at Winchester is “to be painted with the same pictures as formerly.”

Some native painters were employed by Henry III, as the names of at least two are mentioned—Edward of Westminster and Master Walter—but the Italian, “William of Florence,” the monk of Westminster, seems to have been the principal painter and decorator-in-chief to the king, for, as a rule, the native artists and decorators carried out the work under his direction and supervision.

At this time, and even later, up to the end of the seventeenth century, many Italian, French, and Flemish artists were invited to this country by the English king, and many others were attracted to England owing to the demand for decorated work. Although there were a good number of native artists and decorators working throughout the country, there were also a considerable number of foreign artists who, generally speaking, belonged to some of the religious orders, and who travelled about and decorated many churches and secular edifices in England. It may be mentioned that much of the artistic decoration, painted by the foreign artist-monks, consisted of copies of miniature paintings from illuminated manuscripts.

The great immigration of these foreign painters, decorators, and stained-glass craftsmen, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, served to arouse a healthy competition between themselves and the native English decorators and craftsmen, and a great improvement took place in the work of the native artists, although the best work has generally been ascribed to the foreign painters.

It is difficult to realise to what extent the churches and secular buildings were coloured and decorated in the centuries named in England; but we have sufficient proofs from the remains of the colouring that still exists, as well as from documentary evidence, that the walls, ceilings, piers, arches, capitals and mouldings of church interiors, whether the materials were of stone, wood, or plaster, were all richly coloured and gilt, so that from floor to roof the churches of medieval England glowed in schemes of solemn splendour of colour and gold, the whole effect being assisted by the additional colour harmony of the stained glass windows.

At the present time the interiors of most of these old churches are bereft of their former glory of colour, this being due to centuries of neglect, and perhaps vandalism. Some of them have, certainly, a spotty bit of colour and decoration at the east end, and occasionally a few coloured glass windows. It is only in a rare instance that one of these old churches is treated anew in a full and finished scheme of decorated colouring; the majority still keep to their fashionable whitewash, with a few spots of colour dotted about; their former beauty has ceased to remain to them, and nobody at present seems interested enough to make a serious attempt to bring it back.

Some critics strongly assert and argue that these old churches and other ancient edifices should not be restored, either to the former glory of coloured decoration or in their structural features. One critic follows another by repeating the arguments of his predecessor in art criticism, namely, that old buildings should be permitted to crumble slowly into decay, ruin, and nothingness, and also, that you cannot restore anything that does not exist. These arguments would appear logical enough when applied to the case of structures that are already so far ruined that they cannot be used for the purposes for which they were built, but if an edifice, though hoary with age and weather-worn by stress and storm, is yet sufficiently solid and sound to be used, as in the early days of its prime and beauty, there is absolutely no reason why it should not be carefully and lovingly restored, or repaired where necessary, both in its structural parts and in its colour decoration, so long as it can still be used for the performance of the duties or the fulfilment of such functions as those to which it was originally dedicated.

The best examples of coloured decoration in England, of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, is found in the East Anglian churches, chiefly in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, though in the west and southern midland counties the decoration of churches received great attention at this time, but it was inferior to the work done in East Anglia. Several reasons to account for this superiority of the East Anglian art have been given, the principal one being that at the time of the greatest activity in church decoration in the eastern counties, these parts of the country were in a very prosperous condition, owing to the flourishing state of their cloth and wool trade, and the close connection of East Anglia in intercourse and trade with Flanders. In the fourteenth century Edward III, in 1328, brought over many Flemish weavers to Norfolk, and during the following century and afterwards many Flemish and German painters and decorators doubtless came across to this part of England, and obtained employment in the decoration of churches.

It has also been suggested that the superior quality and quantity of decorative painting in East Anglia was due to the greater use of wood for church fittings, especially oak, in this part of the country, and the scarcity of stone. There was a cheap and plentiful supply of wood in Norfolk and Suffolk, but the only kind of stone was flint, of which the churches were mostly built. Wood, therefore, and the plastered walls, suggested painting, more so than stone, which was more used in the building of churches in other parts of England. Accordingly we find that the rood-screens, and other

timber fittings of the East Anglian churches, were all elaborately coloured, and painted with figures and decorative patterns. (Plates 4, 25, 27, 28.)

Flemish painting at that time had attained to great excellence, and there is no doubt that it strongly influenced the English art of the fifteenth century, and especially the decorative school of art which about that time rose to great eminence in East Anglia. Flemish methods and styles of church colouring and painting, and especially that of the rood-screens, roofs and reredoses, were freely adopted by the English decorative artists, and the types of the painted figures of saints, prophets and apostles, as well as the style and character of the floral and geometric ornamentation, which has been found in the existing decoration of the old English churches, had all their counterparts in Flemish church decoration (Plate 24). The best examples of the English work of this period that are still in existence are the rood-screens of Norfolk, particularly those of Ranworth (Plates 4 and 28), Barton Turf, Aylsham, and Cawston, and the screens of Southwold church in Suffolk. The painting on these screens is decidedly English in character and technique, however much the designs of the single figures may be Flemish or German in style.

The interior wall surfaces of the smaller English churches were usually coated with plaster, while the walls of the large ones and those of the cathedrals were of smooth-faced stone. The plaster surface was prepared for painting by simply coating it with a light, cream coloured, or pale grey wash of distemper. The decorative patterns and emblematic devices were painted on these grounds, or on similarly prepared grounds of soft-coloured tints of red, blue, or green. The patterns were sometimes painted in one colour only, but often in two or three, one of which being gold, or yellow, to imitate the colour of gold. On white, grey, or cream-coloured grounds the tints were usually dark grey, red, black, or green, and on the brighter colored grounds the pattern colours were generally in grey or black, or in a darker tint of the colour of the ground.

Although the early English decorators were good colorists, the range of the colour was limited, but they made good use of the small number of the colours they employed by often cleverly transposing and alternating the grouping or arrangements, so that although the same colour on the same pattern might be used, the transposition by alternation of the pattern gave great interest and variety to the general scheme of colour. Reds, yellows, black and white were the principal colours used in the early Gothic decoration; blues, greens and gold were added to these in the later periods, especially in the decoration and figure paintings on the rood-screens and ceilings, and on the woodwork generally.

Mouldings, whether of wood or stone were always coloured, as well as the piers, capitals and

columns; the oak woodwork was invariably painted, as oak was cheap and common in those days, and the natural grain of the wood was evidently not much prized.

Mistakes were, of course, sometimes made by the early English decorators in their over-zealous application of colour, when, for example, they painted over some of the finest workmanship in carved stone as well as some of the costly materials. As instances of such mistakes, it may be mentioned that the black marble shafts in the choir of Rochester Cathedral showed traces of their having been at one time painted red; the beautiful white marble monument of Archbishop Walter Gray in York Minster was at one time painted in various colours, and the shrine of St. Alban, in St. Alban’s Cathedral, though of Purbeck marble, is painted blue and green, the traceries and mullions being gilded.

The character and motives of the decorative patterns were interesting and diversified. A common treatment of the wall spaces between bands, and panels which contained pictorial decoration, consisted in the painting of a simple masonry pattern where double lines of red or yellow were drawn horizontally and vertically, so as to form rectangular spaces which corresponded to the joints of the wall, and in the centre of each oblong there was usually placed a circular flower form. Diapers and checkered patterns were used very much to fill wall spaces and panelling. The diapers were sometimes sparsely arranged, when they would then appear as sprig-like forms, “powdered,” or “sprinkled” at regulated intervals: these were known as “open” diapers; but when the diaper forms were more elaborate and important, and fitted closer together, they were called “close” diapers. The latter variety of diaper pattern was generally copied from the elaborate designs which decorated the rich Florentine and Sicilian silks of woven damask. These damask silks were used as hangings and for sumptuous dress materials, and may be seen represented as such in many of the Italian and Flemish paintings of the fourteenth and fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Examples of the open diapers or powderings may be seen on the backgrounds of the panel paintings on the East Anglian screens, and the more elaborate, close diapers appear on the richly decorated dresses of the figures (Plates 4, 25-27, 28).

In the latter important class of diaper the pattern is often made up of such details as conventional animals, birds, flowers, foliage, ornament and fruit, such as the pomegranate and pine-apple, all cleverly arranged to make repeating patterns, these patterns being later developments of those found in the older Siculo-Arabian silks and Byzantine silk tapestries (Plates 25-27), hence the oriental character of this class of ornament.

Various devices, heraldic and otherwise, and emblems, were sometimes superimposed over the central parts of diapered walls and ceilings, and

painted in different colours or in gold. Mottoes, texts in ornamental lettering on scrolls, and monograms, very much repeated, were all used as decorative motives, and also flat representations of architectural forms, especially of Gothic tracery. Lead stars, wavy-rayed, and gilded, were fastened to ceilings that were painted blue, thus giving a conventional representation of the firmament.

Projecting mouldings of windows and doorways, and arches, and the ribs of groined ceilings of the old churches, were all painted in parti-colours, and the fillets were usually gilded. It was a common practice to colour the groined and flat ceiling ribs and mouldings only a short distance from the bosses which decorated their intersections, and also a similar portion of the web, or ceiling portion around the bosses, but often the whole of the ribs and ceiling panels were richly decorated in colours, and with elaborate patterns of diapered work or arabesques. Stone and carved wood bosses were usually gilded, and the interstices behind the carved foliage, masks, or figures on them, were painted in some very strong colour, usually red, in order to relieve the carving. As a rule carved enrichments were either gilded or painted yellow to represent gold.

In this period of great activity in church decoration in England special attention was given to the painting of roofs with their rafters and beams. St. Alban’s Abbey (Plate 31), Blythburgh in Suffolk, Sall Church in Norfolk, Plymouth Cathedral, Ufford Church, near Ipswich, and numerous others had all richly-painted roofs, although the generality of roofs were simple in colouring, most of them having red, black and grey decorations painted on a white or a blue ground. Sometimes, however, the ceiling decoration was more elaborate, as we have already seen, when it consisted of rich scroll-work, interspersed with emblems, monograms and various devices. Tracery patterns, flower and leaf designs decorated the rafters, and the round bead mouldings were often treated in spiral twistings of lines or patterns, like strips of ribbon round a rod, this kind of treatment being known as “barber-poling.”

Much of the pattern decoration of the old churches had somewhat the appearance of stencilling, which might be accounted for by the flat character of the designs. The painted decoration was, however, not stencilled, but was first applied to the surfaces by the method known as “pouncing,” by means of the pricked holes made in the original tracing or drawing, and the pattern work afterwards executed with the brush. That this method was adopted is proved by the slight variation in the drawing of the painted patterns, and by the characteristic freedom in the execution which brushwork can only give, and further by the absence of the effect which is due to “ties” of the stencil-plate. In some instances the oft-recurring rosettes and diaper powderings may have been stencilled as an easy and preliminary method of placing them in

their regular positions, but if so, they were afterwards finished with the brush, by hand, as they have nothing of the appearance of patterns produced by stencil printing.

The materials and mediums used in the painting of walls, ceilings, or woodwork, were the dry colours ground in water, and mixed with parchment or egg size. The latter size, with or without the addition of fig-tree juice, was chiefly used in the painting of the figure subjects and pictorial work, while size made from cuttings of parchment, by boiling them, or from ordinary glue, was used for the larger surface colouring. The general medium of the work was therefore tempera, or distemper, though sometimes, but rarely, oil was mixed with the colours. Pictorial and ornamental paintings on the screens were varnished with an oil varnish over the tempera painting, but in many instances such paintings were left unvarnished. Most, if not all, of the decoration on the screens, pulpits, and the woodwork generally, in the English medieval churches, was certainly executed in tempera, with the egg-size medium, which was the common method of picture or panel painting on the Continent at that time, and most of the pictorial decorations were varnished afterwards, so that those which remain to this day have the appearance of oil paintings, and this has led many to class them wrongly as such.

The subjects on the screens, pulpits and reredoses were generally representations of saints, apostles, prophets, kings, queens, knights and angels, etc. The figures were usually placed on alternate red and green grounds, the latter being diapered over in small patterns in white, purple, or gold. In some cases a raised gesso diapered ground of gold has been prepared, as in the Southwold screens. The robes of the figures were also richly decorated with elaborate patterns, in colours heightened with gold.

There are still some remains of decorative painting on the screens of many medieval churches in Devon and Cornwall, but as a rule the work on these screens does not possess so high an artistic value as that of the East Anglian painting. In Devon most of the screens are found in churches between Totnes and Exeter. The best examples are those at Ashton, Plymtree, Buckland-in-the-Moor, Wellcombe, and the miniature-like paintings at Hennock on the hill above the Teign valley. Some painted screens in Devon of a later date, at Southpool, Blackawton, and Chivelston, are the only ones, according to Father Camm, out of forty in Devonshire that contain fillings of arabesque ornament, all the rest having painted figures. The ornament on these is in the Italian Renaissance style, with the Elizabethan English influence. The colouring of these arabesques is white, on grounds of red and green.

We have treated the subject of medieval colour decoration in England at some length, but our excuse for this must be that the period it embraces was one of the greatest activity in the history of decorative art in this country. Further, it may be said, it was in this time that churches and other buildings were coloured completely throughout, and not as in the more modern custom, where, with a few exceptions, churches and secular buildings are treated with a few isolated bits of colour, which being also done at different times, and by different hands, cannot possibly have any sort of homogeneity or unity as a suitable colour finish for the building. When any of us are fortunate enough to be trusted, or favoured with an opportunity to decorate the interior of a building completely throughout, we might do worse—we cannot do better—than take some lessons from the practice and methods adopted and followed out so successfully by the early English decorators.

Though little now remains of this old coloured decoration, that little enables us to construct from the fragments the scheme and colour of the entire work, as the anatomist is able to construct a prehistoric creation from the skeleton, or even from a portion of it.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries colour decoration of buildings was almost non-existent in England, for interiors that showed any pretension to decoration were finished, or unfinished, in schemes of white and gold. Sometimes, however, the decorator was permitted to revel in pale shades of pea-green, “French grey,” very pale blues and still paler pinks, so that many interiors of the Adam and Georgian styles, though famous for their delicate ornamentation in stucco plaster work, were either left white, like brides’ cake decoration, or in the pale tints of other kinds of sugar confectionery, a dainty, but timid type of colour decoration which we borrowed from France (Plate 33).

About the latter half of the eighteenth century, after the discovery of Pompeii, in 1753, with its richly-coloured wall decoration, colour began to show itself on the interior walls and ceilings of some English buildings, both of a public and private nature, but not in churches, for it was not until about the middle of the nineteenth century that there was a partial revival of church decoration, a sort of renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth century work, that was brought about chiefly by Pugin, Sir Gilbert Scott, and other neo-Gothic architects. Many churches were decorated in England about this time in schemes of rich and strong colouring, and with similar types of ornament to those used by the early English decorators. Two very elaborately-coloured and decorated examples may be mentioned, namely, the chapel or crypt at Westminster Houses of Parliament, and that of the Catholic Church at Cheadle, in Staffordshire, after Pugin’s designs. The colour decorations of these two churches are among the rare examples of Gothic colour revival, where the interiors have been finished in complete schemes of strong colouring.

During the last fifty years there have been many