39421190 Ceilings and Their Decoration Art and Archology 1911

7/28/2019 39421190 Ceilings and Their Decoration Art and Archology 1911

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NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

3 3433 0787275SEEIES

GUYCADOGAN


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?5l_?ouse^ecorarion Series

CEILINGS AND THEIR DECORATION


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THE HOUSE DECORATION' SERIESVolumes in Preparation

Chimneypieces and Inglenooks.Staircases.Porches.Windows.House Antiquities and Curios


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Study for Ceiling of the Banqueting Hail, Whitehall Palace.


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CEILINGS AND THEIRDECORATIONART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

ByGUY CADOGAN ROTHERYauthor ot

"symbols, emblems and devices/'ETC.

" NEW YORKFRKOKRICK A. STOKES COMPANYPUBLISHERS


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PUBUSHER'S NOTEIn this series an attempt is made to dealwith the archaeological and art side ofbuildings. With this end in view the mainfeatures of architecture, which concern atonce comfort and aesthetics, are treated inseparate volumes, the evolution from earlytimes to our own day being traced asclosely as possible. While coming essen-tially within the demain of populararchaeology and art, an endeavour is madeto draw practical deductions from thesestudies. A reasonable interest in, andreverence for, antiquity can, and ought, toassist in applying art to actual require-ments of everyday life. For, after all, oneof the chief advantages of an appreciationof the efforts of past generations is that itteaches us what is worth preservation,what we may usefully strive to restore,and how we may improve upon old prac-tices to meet changed circumstances.


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vi PUBLISHER'S NOTEThe ceiling is so important an expanse

in every room, be it big or little, that wecannot afford to ignore it from the aestheticpoint of view. Unadorned or badly treatedit becomes painfully obtrusive. Ourancestors understood this well, and hap-pily we are once more recognising theceiling's importance in the scheme ofhouse decoration.While the subject has not been alto-

gether overlooked in art and architecturalliterature, there has hitherto been littleeffort to collect and collate the informationfound scattered in many works, or torecord results of the study of actual exam-ples. It is therefore felt that it is fittingto begin the series with the present essay.


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CONTENTSCHAP, PAGE

I. EVOLUTION OF ROOF AND CEILING 1H. CEILINGS OF THE ANCIENTS . . 17

III. THE BYZANTINE AND THEMAURESQUE .... 40IV. MOSAICS 62V. GOTHIC CEILINGS .... 78VI. THE RENAISSANCE .... 97VII. THE RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND . 115

VIII. TIMBER AND CARVED WOODCEILINGS ....

IX. SOME CHURCH CEILINGS .X. PLASTER WORKXI. EARLY PICTORIAL CEILINGSXII. PICTORIAL CEILINGS IN ENGLANDXIII. PRESENT DAY PRACTICE .XIV. SOME NOTES ON LIGHTING

BIBLIOGRAPHYINDEX . " .

133162182207224249265273277

Vll


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSStudy for Ceiling of the Banqueting Hall,

Whitehall Palace, by Peter PaulRubens Fro?itispiece

Loggia, Court of San Damaso, Vatican,Rome. Coloured modelled plasterwork by Giovanni da Udine. Paint-ing by Raphael's pupils. (FromLudwig Gruner) . . . Facing page lo

Loggia, Court of San Damaso, Vatican,Rome. Coloured plaster work byGiovanni da Udine. Paintings byRaphael. (From L. Gruner) . . . ,, 20

Line Ornaments : guilloche, double fret,crenelated and Greek key, brokenbatoon, double crenelated, Greekkey, sloping 5" wave, voluted wave,voluted and crested wave, undulatingwave Page 28

ix


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X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSDetails from the First Floor, Loggia,

Court of San Damaso, Vatican,Rome. Painted by da Udine.(From L. Griiner) . . . Facing page 30

Roman Geometric and Mosaic work fromthe vaults of the Temple of Bacchusand Baths of Diocletian, Rome Page 33

Plan and Sectional Elevation, Hall of theTwo Sisters, Alhambra. (FromOwen Jones) Facing page 40

The Mihrab, Cordova Cathedral (SpanishMauresque from Girault de Prangey," Monuments Arabes "); Mosque ofMeshjid-i-Shah, Ispahan (PersianArabesque work, from Pascal Coste) ,, 54

Vaulted Ceiling in the Farnesina Palace,Rome. By Raphael. (From L.Gruner) ,,62

Ceiling in Small Gallery, Villa Santi,Rome. By Raphael. (From L.Gruner) ,,70


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiGothic Pendant, Henry VII's Chapel,

Westminster Abbey. Original draw-ing by P. J. S. Perceval .... Page 82

Gothic Pendant, Rosslyn Chapel. Origi-nal drawing by P. J. S. Perceval . ,,83

Gothic Tracery, St George's Chapel,Windsor Castle . . . Facing page 84

Upper Cornice, Bishop Beckington'sShrine, Wells Cathedral. Painting inwood on Groined Ceiling, St Alban'sAbbey, prior to restoration. (FromJ. K. Colling, " Gothic Ornament ") ,, 90

Detail from Portico Ceiling, FarnesinaPalace, Rome. By Raphael. (FromGriiner). Painted Plaster Ceiling byGeorge Richardson. Plaster workby Rose ,,100

First Floor Ceilings, Hotel de Ville,Tours. By M. Laloux ,,112


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xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPlaster Ceilings by (a) Inigo Jones,

(6) William Kent, (c) Isaac Ware.(From William Kent) . Facing page 126

Timber Roof, Trinity Chapel, CirencesterChurch. (From Brandon's " OpenTimber Roofs ") Plaster Ceiling,Houghton, by Isaac Ware . . . ,, 134

Double Hammer-beam Roof, KnaptonChurch, Norfolk. (From Brandon's" Open Timber Roof "). Portico,Villa Madama, Rome. By Raphael.(From L. Griiner) ,, 14a

Carved Wood Ceiling, with colouredstucco, (a) Wood foundation, withslight decoration. (&) One cofferand border of the same ceiling, withelaborate stucco decoration. Designby Sebastian Serlio 150

Ceiling, Chapel Royal, St James' Palace.Attributed to Holbein. (From C. J.Richardson) ,, 160


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiiiThe Sistine Chapel, Rome. By MichelAngelo Buonarrotti . Facing page i68

Loggia of Psyche, Palazzo Farnese,Rome. Painting by Raphael. Stuccodecoration by Giovanni da Udine.(From L. Griiner). The Old GermanChapel, St James' Palace. (From^- H- Pyne) ,78

Plaster Ceiling, from old Boston House,near Brentford. Combination ofstrapwork, geometric bands withRenaissance raised decoration, andmodelled panels representing theVirtues. (From C. J. Richardson) 184

Ceiling from Bedchamber, old BostonManor House, near Brentford. Ceil-ing from Chapel, Sir Peter PaulPindar's House, formerly in Bishops-gate Street, E.G. Details from theabove ceilings, from the ceiling inthe Great Chamber, Boston ManorHouse, and from the Chapel Royal,St James's. (From C. J. Richardson) 192


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xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPlaster Ceiling at Houghton. By Isaac

Ware. Part of plaster framing onceiling of Banqueting Hall, White-hall Facing page 202

Fresco Ceiling, Stanza del'Eliodoro, theVatican, Rome. By Raphael. (FromL. Gruner) .. 218

Grand Staircase, Kensington Palace. ByWilliam Kent. (From W. H. Pyne) 244


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CEILINGSCHAPTER I

EVOLUTION OF ROOF AND CEILINGAll early examples of human habitationsare extremely perishable in kind, for inthe nascent stages of architecture the pro-totype of man's dwelling is the nestblending with, and proving little morethan an excrescence on the natural sur-roundings. These nests may be made ofa bundle of reeds, some lithesome treebranches more or less cunningly inter-twined, bent to the builder's require-ments, and so disposed as to form ashelter. Elsewhere we may find a hollowscooped out at the foot of a hill, as in thetroglodytes' caves; or more laboriouslycontrived high up the cliffside, like thoseof the gitanos in Spain, or man's imme-morial refuges in those long ranges ofmountains sweeping with a north easterlyI A


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3 CEILINGStrend across Southern France well nighfrom the Pyrennees to the Alpine

regions.This type we see also in the recluse cellsof Nipaul and Tij^Jpet.Even more rudimentary is the hole dug

in the ground, partly concealed by a pro-tecting wind and rain screen, composed ofmud, which eventually became a built oversemi-dome. Types of these we may seein the Dane or Dene holes of Essex andKent; or further afield in those shell-proof excavations on the banks of theTugela into which General Cronje crowdedhis motley army with all its lengthy tailof women and children, only a brief tenyears ago.

In speaking of any architecture as ex-tremely perishable, reference is made onlyto the structures themselves, for the prin-ciples involved, the types presented, arepersistent and lie at the base of our mostdaring practices of yesterday and to-day,evidence of their origin being sufficientlyabundant all around us. It was clearlyfrom these types that the more elaboratestructures were evolved. We haveanother great source of inspiration in the


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ROOF AND CEILING 3beehive huts common to primitive racesthe world over, and generally constructedof bent bamboos, interwoven with reeds,with here and there stronger timber posts,and provided with a domed roof. Thisdome sometimes assumes the conical, andthus becomes the rudimentary pinnacledroof and the tower. Such reed and rushform of coverings, of course, survive inour straw-thatched roofs. Thus for along time in modest abodes roof and ceil-ing were one. Anthony a Wood says thatchambers and humble dwellings of oldhad no ceilings, ''a custom" he adds," not uncommon anciently in the upperrooms of our colleges at Oxford; thesewere vaulted with reeds bruised and flat-tened," the true forerunners of the flatpliable laths. 'Another source of the dome is the dug-out nest with mud screen, which graduallygrew into the hummocky hut, built ofsodden clay, of clumps of turf, or of themore regularly formed bricks, sun driedor burnt. It is, however, well to note herethat the term camera which was appliedin Rome to the barrel-vaulted chamber


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4 CEILINGSand eventually came to denote a room ofany kind, was originally applied to any-thing covered. Herodotus so applied it toa wagon. The same term was used todescribe the garden trellis work. Boththese are sources of the barrel dome : thetent on wheels, and it is interesting toremember that we call a certain patternof barrel vaultwith flat endsa wagonceiling, and we apply the same word to thetrellis-work frame of the rush built hut.The flat dome is a common enough

feature over large tracts of Asia and alsoof Africa, that is, in low-lying landswhere timber is scarce, and mud or sandplentiful. Ferguson points out thatBengal is without stone or wood, and inits advanced stage is essentially a countryof brick buildings. "The Bengalis," hesays, '* taking advantage of the elasticityof the bamboo, universally employ in theirdwellings a curvilinear form of roof, whichhas become so familiar to the eyes thatthey consider it beautiful. It is so infact when bamboo and thatch are thematerials employed, but when translatedinto stone or brick architecture^ its taste


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ROOF AND CEILING 5is more questionable." This is a criticismthat can scarcely be sustained as regardsinterior effects. At all events it is asurvival which has become a permanentfeature of Bengal architecture, finding itsway in the seventeenth century to Delhi,and reaching Lahore some hundred yearslater. In course of time the flat domeoften became concealed from the outside,the building presenting a rectangular formon the exterior, but inside, the roof orceiling shows itself as a series of veryshallow, saucer-like domes, one dome toeach chamber, or a series of domes cover-ing one long chamber.Again we have the stupas or relic

mounds, which the Buddhists have carriedin ever varying shapes over a great partof Asia and the East. ProfessorMacDonell traces the stupa in its earliestexisting examples to a solid mound, sur-rounded by a processional gallery,surmounted by a tee, or ceremonialumbrella. As time advanced the stupawas provided with a chamber, of course,vaulted, and it became less squat, morelike a cone^ and as the structures were set


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6 CEILINGSup in the eastwardly march of Buddhismthey grew taller, the tee especially shoot-ing upwards, one umbrella being super-imposed upon another until it grew intothe Burmese and Chinese pagoda. Un-questionably the stupa, as traced by Pro-fessor MacDonell presents one of themost striking instances of the disturbingand often expanding force of local sur-roundings. It must be remembered in thiscase the form of building was carried froma flat, treeless region to tall timberedlands. But if the stupa is merely aspecialised description of cairn, at once amonument as well as a decency tomb, itnevertheless may be taken as a prototypeof a dwelling for the living. ProfessorMacDonell says the earliest extantexample of the stupa is that at Piprahwa,which probably dates back to 450 B.C.More primitive types must, however, havebeen put up ages before that.The stupa is a mound, in shape it is

moulded on the low reed framed and mudplastered hut. The processional galleryround the top, and the encircling fenceplaced at some distance round the mound,


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ROOF AND CEILING 7althougli for ages past built of stone,heavily carved, still retain the forms andpatterns of wooden palings. However, inmany regions it is probable that the tombsformed the pattern of the more permanentkinds of dwelling houses. Man builthouses of reeds or wood for his own habita-tion, but of stone for that of the dead. Thisis quite natural, for when men were con-tent with the tent and the reed hut, sur-rounding conditions made it necessary toprovide more substantial protection for thedead. Shallow sepulture with the built-over cairn presented the easiest and mostobvious method at once to keep out enemiesand scavenging animals, and to keep inthe departed, for, according to mostghost and vampire lore, the wandering''shadow " or spirit was powerless with-out the body. It is noteworthy that thetee, or umbrella expansion on the stupa,and even over the pagoda, is topped by avase-shaped ornament, which we may taketo be a simulacrum of the head of aprisoner or slave usually placed on theumbrella spike to mount guard and scareaway evil spirits from the tomb and the


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8 CEILINGSdwelling house. Indeed, the weather-cocks, the staff supporting fluttering bunt-ing, and the floreated, often hornedpinnacles which adorn our roofs are merelysurvivals of the older grim guardiansthegrinning skulls of prisoners and slaves, orof fierce buffaloes, which leaders of menplaced over or immediately in front of theirplaces of abode. As Herodotus said of theScythians, " The reason that the heads(of dead enemies) are set up on high is inorder that the whole house may be undertheir protection," and the powers of theair kept away. The same practice per-sisted widely down to our own days.We may see its modification in manyislands of the Malay Archipelago, wherenatives place long poles with horned orna-ments before their houses, frequentlyadorning the roofs with horns, furthermodifications of w^hich may be traced inthe curved lines of the pagoda roof andtheir boss-like vertical ornaments.** Lieut. -Col. Sir Richard Temple, in speaking of

the wild Was of Burma, sa5'^s that human sacrifice,which prevailed all over Burma until recent times," has always risen out of the idea of self-protection.In all its forms its object has been to create a


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ROOF AND CEILING 9Thus it will be seen that the futile

weathercock and too often meaninglessiinial have a fairly ancient, and at allevents awe-inspiring ancestry. Nor needwe hesitate to attribute the same origin tothe wreathed horned ox skulls which theGreeks used with such good effect to adorntheir friezes and fill their metopes. TheseGreek bucrania, with the other hornedbeasts employed by Asiatic architects ascapitals to their columns, such as, theIndian adaptation of two kneelingelephants or tusked elephant heads, oftenfound their way into the decoration of flatsurfaces, and to this day, form apermanent motif in internal frieze andceiling adornment.Another, remarkable funeral monument

and abode of the dead, the pyramid, is acopy in lasting stone of the less enduringdwelling of the living. In this instanceit is the nomad's patchwork tent of skinsguardian spirit to look after the interests of thesacrifiant, the idea being that the haunting ghostof the victim should hover about the spot and keepoff all the evil-minded strangers." He adds: "Notthe least interesting point about this practice is thatwhere it is breaking down, substitution of the headsof animals for human heads takes place."


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lo CEILINGSor rusH mats which served as a model.Here, too, we have a great pile with smallchambers deep in the mass, whereinhonoured remains could be safe fromhuman enemies, ravening carnivora andfrom floods. One result of this evolutionfrom the cairn and cavern was the dis-covery of the many advantages attachingto the employment of thick walls in hotclimates ; for heavy walls and small out-lets mean cool internal chambers. Anotherdeduction from the tent and pyramid wasthe immense advantage of sloping theouter surface of a wall from top to bottomwherever resistance to wind pressure, toearth disturbance, or to drifting sand hadto be faced.

This is a marked characteristic of cer-tain classes of buildings in Egypt, acommon attribute of Assryian architec-ture, and so may be traced across theplains and plateaux of Asia in mud andstone structures, to the forts, palaces,and monasteries of Thibet and Bhutan,standing sure-footedly on the apparentlyinaccessible cliffsides or mountain tops.

Another influence is seen at work on


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Loggia. Court of San Damaso. Vatican.


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ROOF AND CEILING iialluvial plains and the margins of sandywastes, where the horizon stretches far inevery direction; in such places, there isa tendency for most things to be reducedto flatness or hummockyness. Hence, inNorthern Africa, in parts of India andover extensive tracks of the great Asianplains we have the rounded hill-like dwell-ing, though more generally the lowrectangular construction, which, from adistance is lost in the wide sweeping undu-lations which take on the semblance of amonotonous dead level. Quite comxuonlythese squared buildings are vaulted inter-nally, then we have a series of cells eachcovered by a shallow dome, or a singlechamber covered by a series of such domes,as already mentioned. This arrangementis certainly suggestive of the excavatedmound or the cavern, where the internalshape of the chamber is neither influencednor betrayed by the outward envelope. InEgypt, however, the vault was rarelyemployed, at least for large chambersprimitive timber and reed coverings sug-gested the form of the later stone slabroofing and ceiling.

Persisting traces of the primitive use of


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12 CEILINGStimber are afforded by pillars and shamrafter ends. The Egyptian pillar haswell defined base or root, shaft or stem, andcapital or foliated head. It representseither the palm tree or a bundle of reeds,both forms being used and in some cases itis realistically carved and painted. At alater period the column appears as a singlelotus or papyrus stem, with basal leavesand terminating with a single flower or agroup of blooms. Curiously enough theband used for tying the bundle of reedswas regained half-way up the single lotusstem column, a useless relic of tradition.In certain Greek temples wooden columnssupporting the ceiling beams were coveredwith bronze, beaten to represent the scalesof palm trees, the metal being gilt. Inclassic architecture we often see smallcubes of stone slightly projecting atregular intervals between the top of thewall and the frieze, or between the friezeand metope, which have no structuralduties and are unrepresented inside thebuilding. These are merely a mimicryof the abandoned wooden rafters, servingno useful purpose, but often of realdecorative value.


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ROOF AND CEILING 13Some forms of the pillar and certainly

the niJp.ster, or pillar partially imbeddedin the wall^ are reminiscent of quarrypractice. To this source, too, we must goback for a curious and elective form ofceiling decoration, the stalactite ornamen-tation, consisting of closely set pendantcones, with corrugated sides, such as wefind in a conventionalised form crowningthe Hall of the Abencerrages in theAlhambra.

In certain regions the tent evidentlygave rise to the high pitched dome. Andin other regions where wood, in the formof substantial timber^ was the prevailingbuilding material, where mountains andtrees surrounded man, an aspiring type ofarchitecture arose, notable for its shelving,water-shedding roofs, drooping eaves pro-tecting the walls and openings, and itsinternal upward slant designed to trainsmoke from the smouldering fires to acentral hole in the roof. All of this wasan unconscious mimicry of local environ-ment. In this way we come by the forestand Alpine type of cottage.Akin to the forest, too, is the Gothic,

which was developed among timber-using


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14 CEILINGSfolk as an evolution from the Romanesqueor Norman order, itself a modification ofthe classic style. As it graduallydeveloped and rose to its apogee itbetrayed a constant tendency to revert towoodland types, and forms. This isshown in the grouped columns, as, forinstance we see them in the Early Englishstylea number of circular pillars form-ing a circle round a larger one, or as thecolumn is later presented to us, with itscapital expanding, splitting up likebranches and merging directly into thespreading ribs of the arches. So we walkunder the dimly lit forest avenue. In thedomestic Gothic we have wondrously tim-bered roofs, and still more suggestive is thediagonal joining, an ornamentation con-sisting of small beams (later carried out inbrick or tiles) placed obliquely, chevron-wise (V joined to inverted A) in panelsformed by larger beams, running at rightangles.As for the ceiling itself, we may, for

our present purpose, take the term in itswidest sense, coelum, the sky, or coveringof the chamber, though technically theword is applied more particularly to the


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ROOF AND CEILING 15inner lining of a roof, and to the lining ofthe under part of a floor. We are oftenloosely told that the type most apt to cometo our mind, the plastered ceiling, is amodern thing. Of course the stucco ceil-ing, both flat and vaulted, was known tothe Greeks and Romans, and to theEgyptians before them, and was, indeed,as we have endeavoured to show, the directoutcome of the above mentioned mud semi-dome, and the wattle and daub method ofconstruction, in which matted reeds orintertwined twigs and branches were plas-tered over outside and inside with clay inorder to make them weather-tight.

This reed and twig tradition was pre-served by the Egyptians even when theyhad substituted stone slabs, for theypainted their stucco ceilings with waterplants and matting designs; on the otherhand the intricate criss-cross of timberconstruction has given us the effectivecoffering, or deep square and oblong pitsin carved and plastered ceilings, typeswhich we shall deal with in subsequentchapters.

In his ' ' Grammar of Ornament ' ' Joneslays down the proposition that : " Archi-


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i6 CEILINGSlecture is the material expression of thewants, the faculties and the sentiments ofthe age in which it is created " to whichwe assent with the addition : that it is alsosubject to the profoundly modifying andoften fettering traditions of the immediateor forgotten past. He goes on : " Stylein architecture is the peculiar form thatexpression takes under the influence ofclimate and materials at command." Buttradition plays at least as important a partas climate or materials. No style is all ofone piece. It has its roots in the past, andits growth is subject to quickening breezesor blighting currents from many outsideclimes. Perhaps the happiest styles,those having the most lasting effect, arethose which have been introduced from aforeign source, absorbed by an artisticpeople and bent to their own needs. TheGreeks, the Mauresques, the mosaicworkers of India, the Japanese arewitnesses to this, and to the fact that theprinciples underlying architectural anddecorative practice are survivals of a pastoutlived, but still gripping us for good orevil.


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CHAPTER IICEIUNGS OF THE ANCIENTS

Such knowledge as we possess of ancientEgyptian architecture relates chiefly tothe temples and palaces. Flat stone slabscovered these buildings, vaulting appar-ently being reserved for narrow passagesand occasionally some inner cell-likechamber. The interior surfaces of thestone structures, walls and ceilings, werefrequently rendered smooth with a coatingof plaster. Colour schemes were handledwith great boldness, both on the flat andon the low and high relief carvings. Amost interesting procedure was adopted.The whole surface to be decorated wasdivided up by lines drawn at right angles,thus presenting the appearance of"squared" paper. With this assistancethe drawing was outlined in red chalk.Another artist went over the whole with


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i8 CEIUNGSblack paint, improving the drawing as hewent along. Then came the sculptor whocarved out the design, and finally, thepainter, who, with his brushes and trainedeye, gave life to the whole. The corrodinginfluence of time which reveals manysecrets, has betrayed the methods of thesecunning men of past ages. We see howthe work was improved step by step. Eventhe carvers' completed efforts were subjectto destructive criticism on the part of themaster painter. Limbs of figures, detailsof pictures finished in alto-rilievo, have inmany instances been chipped away ; newattitudes, altered combinations, beingproduced by the simple process of model-ling a lump of stucco in situ.

Ceiling decoration, however, was mostlyon the flat, but a combination of methodswas used when the favourite scheme ofcarving the ceiling to symbolise the bluesky spangled with yellow stars wasadopted. Additional symbolism was intro-duced when the signs of the zodiac weregrouped about a central rosette, or placedas a border round the chamber. Amongother symbols was that poetic rendering of


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CEILINGS OF THE ANCIENTS 19the sun's daily flight cross the heavens,the winged disc. This reversal of adiurnal miracle has arrested the attentionof all races, who have endeavoured to givepictorial expression to the phenomena inmany ways. The Egyptians and Semiticpeople gave the sun wings. In far Asia ittook the form of a wheel, or more mysti-cally the cramponed cross. Another formof this is the familiar three bent nakedlegs of Sicily, conjoined by a central sunin splendour or a plain disc, which wasbrought by the Norman conquerors of theMediterranean isle to Mona in the form ofthree conjoined and bent armoured legs.The Greeks and Roman picture Phaetondriving his chariot drawn by milk-whitesteeds across the sky and setting theheavens aflame. All of these have becomecommon property among many ceilingdecorators.That other Egyptian sun symbol, the

open-winged vulture (replaced by the eaglein the East, Greece, and Rome), was oftenseen on ceilings, holding in its paw eithera key of lifethe andk, or tau tipped bya ring ; or a great plumed quill suggesting


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20 CEILINGSthe soul's journey to the under-world.Lotus and papyrus buds and blooms wereused as central rosettes or as borders justabove the cornice, the colours being greenand white, picked out with red and yellow.Speaking generally, Egyptian ceilingdecorations partook largely of the geomet-rical ; intricate combinations of curves andstraight lines. There is much that isinteresting about these, because in manyof them we can trace a conventionalisedpattern of reed matting (arrangements ofyellow, white, red and green thin stripes),which in the far avv^ay past had formed animportant part of the builders' materials.In the interwoven patterns we find the weband woof of the papyrus and lotus stems,though these designs were elaborated torepresent those interminable knots belong-ing to the concealed part of religion, andsymbolising those ** Words of Power "known only to the inner circle of theinitiate. With the mat and knot patternsare associated those conventionalised sym-bols of water, the wavy line, the chevron orbroken line, and the whirlpool, or threelines starting from a central point and


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Loggia, Court of San Damaso, Vatican.


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CEILINGS OF THE ANCIENTS 21circling outwards to give the effect ofgyration. Often the latter symbol wasdrawn in endless series, the tails of oneornament joining others, to form anotherpoint of departure, so that the whole sur-face presented a mass of involuted figures,conveying an accurate notion of a turbu-lent, eddying flood.Colour, as we have said, was employedboldly, the schemes being based on thelaws of contrast. We see patterns tracedin black on red or buff, white on black orbuff. But vivid effects were obtained bythe daring juxtaposition of blacks, brightreds, blues and greens, yellow beingbrought in as a harmonising medium, aswell as a means to throw into apparentrelief a pattern traced in other colours.Of the Babylonians and Assyrians we

know that they affected rather long,narrow rooms, with vaulted ceilings,though the dome was also employed andthe cupola not infrequent. The walls wereimmensely thick, built of comparativelysmall sun-baked or kilned bricks. Thesewalls were often thicker at the base thanat the top, having an outward slope. The


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22 CEILINGSroofs were generally rectangular, con-cealing internal vaultings.A form of stucco covered both walls andceilings, which were decorated with vividcolouring. Their flora was of the radia-ting description, branches reaching outfrom a central stem, like an espalierfruit tree; they represented the pome-granate thus. We also owe to them thepalmated fan-shaped ornament consistingof central leaves or club leaf with similarleaves spreading out right and left. It wasa favourite with the Greeks. The Assy-rians also used pine cones freely as amotive in decoration, these being con-nected with tree worship.A peculiarity of the structural designwas that, although the doors were tall andwide, windows were unknown. It wouldappear that light and air were admittedhigh up in the lofty ceiling by means ofcylindrical brick tubes, placed in the thick-ness of the building at such an angle as toexclude all direct sunrays, while allowingshafts of light to penetrate into the in-teriors. It is a device utilised in a modifiedform by the Greeks and Romans.


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CEILINGS OF THE ANCIENTS 23It is noteworthy that colour, even vivid

contrasts of primary colours, has alwaysbeen not merely a decorative, but an essen-tial part of the best periods of architecturein sun-bathed latitudes, the idea that white,or monochrome, would be more grateful tothe eye and give an appearance of coolnessnot entering into the philosophy ofbuilders or the mass of the people. Thetruth is, of course, that the builder's firstanxiety under such conditions has everbeen to keep out the sunrays and tonedown all glare. This end was attained byadopting such means as were resorted to bythe Assyrians ; by placing small windowsdeep set in thick walls high up in rooms,screened by such devices as the Mauresquemushrabayah traceried woodwork; byhaving great blank walls, as in the charac-teristic Spanish cathedrals, with theirsombre mysterious feeling, the richness ofcarving, colouring and gilding beingvisible in glimpses, illumined by thinshafts of light from the rare deep-colouredwindows; or by the methods used by theGreeks in the construction of theirtemples. With these precautions it was


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24 CEILINGSboth possible and desirable to give freescope to the healthy love for brightnessand natural mingling of colours by adorn-ing walls and ceilings with the purestpigments, because such a system assistedin producing fine illuminating effectswith the feeblest admission of light fromoutside. We find this state of affairsprevailing all over Southern Europe,in Asia and countries overrun by theArabs.

In prehistoric times the dwellings of theGreeks were circular, having a frameworkof wood or stone filled in with rushesdaubed over with mud. Probably theroofs were of the pointed and flat-domedtypes.Coming down to historic times we find

that the roofs of their temples were mostlyflat, or nearly so. In the most simpleform, the single cell temple, the oldestexample of which we have records beingthat on Mount-Ocha in the Island ofEubcea, the roof consisted of large thinslabs of stone, each slab projecting beyondthe course below, till they met at the ridge.Eight and air were admitted through a long


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CEILINGS OF THE ANCIENTS 25narrow slit in the roof, tlie hypeetliralopening. In later periods the roofs weresometimes formed by timber rafters sup-porting baked clay tiles, the ceilingsconsisting of boards either painted orcovered with stucco or encaustic tiles.But slabs of stone and marble continued asthe favourite materials, being most care-fully dressed so as to form perfectlyweather-tight joints. Simpson says theceilings of the exterior ambulatories wereof marble. This was usually so as regardsthe peristyle, and certainly in some in-stances as regards the pronaos and theposticum. The great slabs of stone ormarble were placed under the roof, andwere decorated with deeply sunk coffers,called lacunari from lacus, a lake. Theywere cut in the solid, and though of greatdecorative value undoubtedly representedthose pit-like spaces naturally formedwhen a network of roof timbers were leftbare. These lacunaria were enriched withdelicate mouldings on their edges, andpainted designs filled the centres. Asregards the inner parts of the temple, twomethods seem to have prevailed. Some-


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26 CEILINGStimes the under side of tlie roof was ex-posed, both the supporting woodwork andstone slabs being painted and gilt, oftenwith elaborate designs. Many marbletiles have been discovered with their undersides painted with ornaments. At Tyriusfragments of alabaster frieze not only boredelicately carved designs of rosettes andspirals, but were studded with bits of blueglass or paste, giving a charming jewelledeffect. Other pieces of this kind have beenfound at Mycense and elsewhere. Flatceilings of wood and of stone tiles werealso used, all visible parts were paintedand gilt. Vitruvius speaks of roof panelspainted blue by the wax encaustic process.Red and blue w^ere the prevailing colours,with gold employed to mark out designsand to harmonise the whole. But black onred or buff, as well as red and black onwhite, also came within the colourschemes, and, as we have seen, glass wasintroduced to heighten effects. The de-signs included rosettes, floreated scrollsdeveloped in moderate lines, and wonder-fully intricate traceries of narrow bands.The innate love of the Greeks for the


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CEILINGS OF THE ANCIENTS 27beautiful is revealed in the graceful treat-ment of these lines.What an astonishing variety of forms

the fret as developed by them bestows onus. No wonder that they have beenaccorded the freedom of the universaltreasure-house of decoration. Considerthe fret in its simplest form, with itscontinuous horizontal and vertical linesshaping into crenelations, or with theselines inclining inwards producing thosewedge-like figures forming the brokenbatoon ; or, again, that other modification,where the right vertical line is bent in-wards, so that we have the tooth of theupper part of the letter E, this insignifi-cant change giving us the dignity of theGreek key pattern. How well those canbe blended, superimposed one upon an-other, until we obtain the endless varia-tions of the meander. Germane to these,yet how different is the guilloche, withthree loosely plaited withies, so effectivewhen placed between the two pairs of hori-zontal lines, each pair enclosing its rowsof pellets, olives or billets. Thoroughlycharacteristic of Greek methods was the


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CEILINGS OF THE ANCIENTS 29treatment of those universal graphs ofwater, the wave and undulated lines andthe chevron. With them the usual joinedsloping S's were given an elaboratelyvoluted form, and often foam was repre-sented by a backward sweep from the crest,which developed into a dentated leaf withvoluted tip. The undulated lines with itscontinuous series of flat domes and depres-sions of equal depth underwent manyvariations, while the chevron was usuallydoubled and given a sculptural finish,blending well with its architectural sur-roundings, as its esoteric meaning becameobscured. All these were utilised as beau-tiful frames, delighting the eye on ceilingsand walls, full advantage being taken oftheir flexibility and fluid nature.Thus by their help and the judiciouscombination and well thought out modifi-cations of horizontal and vertical propor-tions, the length, breadth or height of aroom could be accentuated or visuallyrectified. With these wavy and brokenlines the artist may train the sight,occupying and pleasing the eye withoutfatiguing it.


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30 CEILINGSIn the domus, ceilings were commonly

of the semi-circular vault or*

' barrel '*

type. The extrados, or hollow spaceabove, was filled in with concrete to formthe roof or a floor above. This appears tobe the old, persisting form, but there wasa special reason for the roof being flat andprotected by a parapet, because it wasused as a solarium, where the enervatedcitizen exposed his skin to the revivifyingsunrays.

Flat ceilings, however, were seen inordinary houses, and at all events in themore public rooms. Considerable luxurywas displayed in decorating surfaces,coffers and panels forming part of thescheme of design, in the carrying out ofwhich not only painting, but ivory, ebony,precious marbles and even gilt bronzeplates were used. Plato refers to paintedceilings, though the general spread ofsuch lavishness came after his days.Even amidst the triumphs and luxuries

of the Empire, Rome kept alive memoriesof her primitive simplicity and humbleorigin, for on the Palatine Hill were keptstanding the casa Romuli, small straw-


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CEII.INGS OF THE ANCIENTS 31thalched wattle and daub huts. Althoughin private houses flat ceilings of wood,stone or brick, generally covered withstucco, were common enough, the semi-circular vault preserved old traditions. Inmany of the larger chambers, where thegreater part of the surface was flat, thesides were concave, producing the covedceiling.As regards their temples, the architec-

lure was derived from the Etruscans, theearlier examples being of wood, with steeproofs, ornamented with painted terra-cotta,while cornices and ceilings soon becameloaded with sculpture. Later, both intemples and public buildings generally,the dome, either circular or octagonal, be-came the prevailing feature, while longand square chambers were more or lessdeeply vaulted. It is to be noted that thecupola, that inner lining forming theceiling, often differed both in size andcharacter from the outer covering or domeproper. This is, of course, the principleof what we now strictly call ceiling. InRome the principle was also applied topainted walls. We have seen that the first


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32 CEILINGStemples were built of wood, and a reminis-cence of this remained with the Romanbuilders to the end. A large percentage ofceilings, whether of wood, brick or stone,bare or stuccoed, flat or vaulted, weredivided up into rows of deeply sunkpanels, the lacunaria or coffered type,which had also been developed in Greecefrom the same starting point. Theselakelets were richly decorated, both on thebevelled sides and the centres. Quite atan early period the mud lining wasreplaced by a splendid plaster in whichpowdered marble was the principal base.

This stucco dried with a brilliantlypolished white surface, and became as hardand durable as stone. Fine specimens ofit have come down to our days. Threemethods of painting were adopted. Thewater-colour frescoes gave a beautifullysoft effect, but inasmuch as brilliance anddepth had to be secured by repeated appli-cations of washes as the colour sank in thedamp plaster, the speedier and more sureway of obtaining richness associated withtempera, where the glue used as amedium enabled gradations of tints to be


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34 CEILINGSsecured without opaqueness, came intogeneral use. Even sharper and richerresults were obtained with the encausticmethod of mixing the dr\^ pigments inmelted wax, and applying them hot to thehalf-set plaster. In any case a con-siderable depth of the stucco was per-manently; stained, while the very nature ofthe material provided a light-reflectingsurface, giving brilliancy and trans-parency to the finished pictures. ButRoman artists were not content withdipping their brushes in gorgeous pig-ments or applying resplendent gold. Theyenriched their ceilings with decorated tilesand slabs of variegated marbles. Woodenceilings were inlaid with ivory and ebonyboth for the sake of display and the effec-tive contrast of the satin-surfaced whiteand black materials. Horace, as evidenceof his modesty, declared that his househad no walls adorned with ivory ; on theother hand, Pliny writes of ceilings deco-rated with bronze plates. Varro recom-mends the painting of ceilings in imitationof the sky, with a movable centre star ofmetal, its index rays passing over a radius


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CEILINGS OF THE ANCIENTS 35to indicate the direction of the wind andthe passing hours. No doubt the windscould easily be indicated by the star beingcontrolled by an outside vane, but in orderto mark the passing of time from sunriseto sunset we must suppose a hypsethralopening, by which a thin shaft of lightcould travel over the radius.

Central decorations were among theearly canons of the decorator's art, verycommonly taking the form of a rose or ofan elaborate palmated boss, such as stilloppress us, and evidently a survival of thedays when a bunch of straw marked thehighest point of conically thatched cot-tages, or the ornamental fringe surround-ing a tent pole. As regards Varro'sreference to mechanical devices, we findthe Abbe Montfaucon stating that :" The ceilings of ancient palatial buildingswere covered with ivory plates, whichmoved and turned round in such a mannerthat at intervals they could make theceilings rain flowers and perfumes," acontrivance highly suggestive of someexotic custom brought back by Imperialgenerals from their eastern conquests, or


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CEILINGS OF THE ANCIENTS 39records of those wonders which adornedthe Domus Aurea, and the baths ofDiocletian, we find floral scrolls blossom-ing out into human heads, twisting aboutweirdly until they merge into birds andbeasts ; if brutish and vegetal men hob-nobwith humanised animals, all endowed withan impishness that places them in adifferent category to the calmly unrealsymbolism of Egypt, we are also con-fronted with the very real beauties of thegeometrical work and its accompanimentof rope and ribbon tracery, and therestrained translation of flowers and leavesinto purely decorative forms.


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Plan and elevation. Hall of the Two Sisters. Alhambra.


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42 CEILINGSsmooth spaces presenting themslves to theeye, and little or no carving, there yetexisted a lively desire for ornament and akeen appreciation of its fitting application.A gorgeous ritual and a riotous displayof brilliant colours in nature fostered a lovefor polychromatic decoration, both paint-ing and incrustation of the flat androunded surfaces with marbles and vitri-fied substances being used. Of the pompand splendour of mosaic art we speak else-where. But we may remark that thefullest use was made of the brilliance bothin tints and in scintillating effects ofpolished marbles and lustrous glass.These embellishments were applied to thesurface as an enrichment both inside andout of an otherwise plain structure. Some-times the decorations appear in a masscovering extensive vaulted ceilings, inother cases we find the use of mere bandsor panels : a series of ovals in the cupola,a shimmering glory of floral tracery orgeometrical patterns on the broad undersurfaces of arches, or thin bands emphasisetheir outlines, or are carried from end toend of an edifice, while long or square


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THE BYZANTINE 43panels are placed over windows and door-ways. Even columns bear polychromebands, placed vertically or rising in grace-ful spirals. It is the art of inlayingcarried out with a studied regard to effect,combined was this judicious admission oflight through small apertures placed highup, the slanting beams gradually revealinghalf-concealed beauties, which gives a gor-geousness and mystery quite indescribable.The designs, floral and geometrical, arecarried out in bright primary and secon-dary colours, with an unsparing use ofgold. Floral forms are built up of littlecubes, but are often given a flowing, in-volved outline. Indeed, the Byzantinesretained a great liking for the Greek flow-ing lines, though their flat scroll andribbon work reminds us more of the Egyp-tian and Celtic traceries, but flattened outas we afterwards see it in the plaster strap-work of the Tudor period.The religious feeling was against the

employment of the human figure forpurely decorative accessories, and evenbirds and beasts and fishes are rarely in-troduced except as prominent symbols.


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44 CEILINGSOn the other hand, pictures were anintegral part of the decorative scheme, andare seen as great panels and smallmedallions.The drawing both of figures and floral

ornaments is usually exceedingly crude ifclose scrutiny is attempted, but most effec-tive w^hen viewed from a distance, as theartists intended they should be. It is sur-face treatment, with little attempt at pers-pective, and none of foreshortening, yetthe vividly coloured figures, though so flatand angular, seem to stand out withstartling realism from a shimmeringbackground of broken-up gold. We mustnot, however, fall into the error of think-ing that Byzantine art ceased to exist as aliving force in 1204, the very definite dategiven by makers of reference books. Itexerted its influence long after that inCentral Europe, is to-day a very realsource of power and beauty wherever theGreek Church has sway, witness theBalkan vStates and Holy Russia. The oldMSS. already mentioned show that thestyle of domestic ornamentation differednot at all from that in the churches. And


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THE BYZANTINE 45so it is to-day. The Imperial apartmentsin the Kremlin at Moscow, with its lowvaulted ceilings and deep spandrels, aredecorated with pictures of Emperors hav-ing all the devotional feeling, the proces-sional grouping of saints in the churches.Some of the churches are as thickly en-crusted with scrolls and miniatures as thebest work in Italian sacred buildings, andthe flowing floral painting covering thewhole surface, though more open in design,differs little from that to be seen incathedrals.Mauresque or Saracenic decorative art is

of importance as imposing itself on theMohammedan world, with a by no meansslight reflex action on both European andEastern practice. It is said to have beenderived from the Byzantine, being a sur-face style built up of fragments, prismsreplacing the small cubes of the artists inmosaic. It is founded on three elements :geometry, flora and script. At its puresteven floral forms are subject to the influ-ence of religious feeling and are conven-tionalised almost out of recognition, inobedience to the law that created things


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46 CEILINGSshould not be represented. Exceptions tothis rule are found, usually as the result oflocal influence, for instance, the universalMohammedan star and crescent moon,which the Turks took from the Byzantines,who had derived them from the Magi ofBabylonia and Persia; the eagles andhawks of certain Arab tribes; and theinterlaced serpents seen on the archi-vaultsof the fortress palace at Aleppo, all sug-gestive of sun worship ; the peacock ofPersia; the open hand with key in palmand the lions of the Spanish Moors.The Alhambra, besides giving usexamples of the open hand and lions, alsofurnishes us with two very remarkablepictorial ceilings in the Hall of Justice.There are three large panels representingthree crowded groups of people andanimals. In the first we see the learnedmen sitting in a Court of Justice; thesecond gives us a hunting scene in two sec-tions, one showing Moors and the otherChristians; the third, battle scenes, inwhich both Moors and Christians are de-picted, the former being, in the main,victors. These pictures were first drawn


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48 CEILINGSgeometrical forms : triangles, rectangles,ovals and their component parts are used,together with involved line tracery, somefew simple floral motives and script. Veryeffective results are obtained with longbands of Arabic script, or elaborate mono-grams and short sentences placed inpanels. With purely African designssingle blossoms, star shapes and the singlerose type are seen, but going eastward asAsiatic influence predominates, foliage,though conventionalised is more elaborate,and is seen to flow from a single stem.However complicated the design, the twin-ing tendrils can be traced back to the stem.This is characteristic of the tree symbols ofAssyria and the Semitic people, the manybranched tree of life, seen in the quaintpalmated forms of Egypt and Babylonia,the seven-branched candlestick of the Jews,the genealogical tree of Jesse and the vineof Christianity. Much of the mosaic workis very beautiful, as we shall see later on.Most striking and original, however, isthe built-up method, whereby great charm

and endless variety are obtained by verysimple means, although the round and oval


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THE BYZANTINE 49forms and flowing tracery have necessarilyto be discarded. Prisms of plaster are tothe Mauresque decorator what wood is tothe carver, stone to the sculptor, andplaster to the modeller, a medium for giv-ing expression to thought. These prismsare square or long rectangular cubes, rightangles and isosceles triangles, the latteralso being doubled. It will be readilyunderstood that by using these as a childuses a box of bricks, with an addition of anadhesive substance, an endless diversityof designs can be obtained, for one piecemay be combined with any other piece byany one of its sides. As Owen Jones says,the system enables combinations to bemade ** as various as the melodies whichmay be produced from the seven notes ofthe musical scale. With these stalactiteplaster bricks they formed cornices, arches,domes and pendants with the greatestfacility." Another available resource isthe niche, chiefly of service in building updomes and vaulted ceilings, where we see asuccession of deep depressions, like thesections of a series of hollow roundedcones. It is said that this built-up method


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50 CEILINGSoriginated in the Byzantine mosaics, thecubes of which gave the first idea ofstrongly projecting incrustations. Be thatas it may, it is curious to find the roughstalactite used by Mauresque decorators,while many of the predominating formsare strangely suggestive of local models;for instance, the palm tree with its geome-trical scars left by fallen leaves and itsbuilt-up bunch of dates, and its crown ofdrooping fronds, forming a naturalcanopy ; the vine also with built-up in-verted pyramid of grapes, just as the vividdabs of red and yellow in a mass of blue orgreen suggest those gorgeous waxenblooms of the oleander, the cacti and fleshyleaved creepers peculiar to the sun-scorched plains and unhospitable rockyregions.

It is remarkable, foo, that the strongpure colours (tertiaries are but sparinglymingled in the artist's palette) are em-ployed on a principle conformable tonature's own teaching. We have theprimaries above, the secondaries below,and so we gain an impression of fairyairiness, although we are dealing with an


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THE BYZANTINE 51agglomeration of angular solids. AMauresque interior, therefore, even whenthe sunrays are largely excluded, remainslight, and its beauties are revealed byflashes from a thousand reduplicated facetspleasingly outlined, brilliantly hued. Thecompleted whole differs vastly in feelingand effect from the sombreness of theRomanesque as we see it in the gemmedbut dark Spanish churches, from thesolemnity of the Gothic in its sublimeaspirations, the mystery of the Byzantinewith its solidity and half-concealed enrich-ments.No less an authority than Violet le Due,speaking of the geometrical foundation ofArabic decorative art, says that while it isself-contained and complete, it is devoid ofnatural symbolism or expression of anideal; the inspiration is abstract and theexecution devoid of plasticity. Surely anastounding judgment when we rememberthe glories of the Alhambra, of certainsplendid buildings on the northern littoralof Africa, of the best work in Constan-tinople, and much of that in Persia. Withall its rigid formality it gives a wide rangeof expression, in which natural symbolism


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52 CEILINGShas a real influence. Though the mediumbe solid prisms and concave blocks, theplasticity is marvellously achieved, as isdemonstrated not so much in the variedoutlines of arches, but in endless changesin corbelling ; in the flat, domed and irregu-lar outlined ceilings ; one mass of pendantsdiffering as widely in form and proportionas anything in nature can do. That theMauresque decorative style has livingelements in it is proved by its pliability,its adaptability to local needs as it conquersnew regions and races, without losing itsfundamental peculiarities. We must al-ways remember, too, in speaking ofMauresque decorative art that it consists ofthree elements : colour applied to flat sur-faces, flat incrustation, and the built-upprojection incrustation, any two of which,or all three, may be combined.Wyatt cites the dome of the tomb of

Selim I., at Constantinople, as the mostperfect example of the Turkish phase ofMauresque. There are great white curves,foliated to some degree, combined withknots, picked out with black on a red back-ground, the whole design being unified by


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THE BYZANTINE 53the great central star of sixteen pointsformed by a series of triangles. Contrastthis simplicity with the great mosque atCordova, with its low-vaulted ceiling, itscrescent arches of red and white bands,supported by 850 columns, all alike ingeneral form, but differing in detailedornamentation, colour, and material. It isa forest of red, purple, green, and whitecolumns arched over in all directions, anordered maze, in which one hardly knowswhether to admire most, the entrancingchromatic scheme or the impression con-veyed of endless vistas, turn whithersoeveryou may. Before this gem was ruthlesslydealt with by his vandalic majesty,Charles V., all these vistas converged onthe Mihrab, which was one mass of gor-geous arabesques. At the Alhambra,again, we wander from one wonder to an-other. Consider the Court of Lions, withits ranges of slim columns, placed singly,or in sets of two and three, their decoratedcapitals supporting tall, narrow arches,merging into a mass of scalloped beauty ofred and gold, with occasional tints of blueand green, so suggestive of an African


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THE BYZANTINE 55very complicated designs are worked out.Though the general colouring is a blend ofblues, whites, pale green, bright red andbuff are also used but sparingly, the redsespecially appearing in thin broken linesor little dots like a flame-coloured star in ablue firmament, or a glaring flower amidstgreen foliage. Buff is rather unexpectedlyused in masses, occasionally in the sides ofcupolas. Although blue is again the pre-vailing colour, a very different effect isrealised at Pavilion of the Eight Doors ofParadise which Fetteh Ali Shah built forhis eight favourites at Ispahan (latter partof the eighteenth century). Here the talloctagonal cupola, with its eight greatarches is built up, tier upon tier, with eightalcoves, the whole being a mass of niches ofconsiderable size.

Girault de Prangey speaks of ceilings ofwood with incrusted decorations in theAlcazar at Cordova, while Bourgoin haspreserved a coloured reproduction of a mostinteresting flat ceiling from Cairo. Hisbrief description reads thus : '' Plafond dSolive apparentes, en troncs de palmiers,recouvers d^une envelope de planches


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56 CEILINGSdecoupes.'' The palm-tree beams arerecessed in the framing of planks, and inthese deep square caissons are cut. Theframing runs right round the long ceiling,with two broad bands separating the threelongitudinally laid beams. The end crosspieces and the longitudinal strips for abouta quarter of the length are painted brightred and ornamented with buff floral de-signs sparingly gemmed with white andturquoise blue. The remainder of the plankframing is painted a darker blue with goldarabesques. The beams are gilded andcovered thickly with blue arabesques. Thecaissons are blue with gold arabesques,gemmed with white and red. It is a daringconstructional and decorative scheme,marked by a rich elegance racy of the soil,which has given us the polychromaticenamelling of ancient Egypt and religionscharacterised by the weird imaginings ofthe King-gods and Priest-kings of old andof the Koran. Does it not add to ourappreciation of this perfect piece of workwhen we know that the ceiling was not de-signed to adorn a palace or a dwelling ofsome wealthy member of the community,


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THE BYZANTINE 57but to cover in a public fountain, for theedification of the whole community? Togive water to the thirsty in this parchedland is an act of humanity in conformitywith the religious sentiments of the people,and in a sense a fountain becomes a shrine.The ceiling of the Ibn-Touloun mosque inEgypt, figured by Girault de Prangey,shows exposed beams covered with carvedpanels, both large and small, on so&ts andsides.

This reminds us of certain Chineseceilings described by Ferguson. TheChinese scheme of colouring is akin to theSaracenic. Light blue is used for the pre-dominant colour of upper decorations. Forinstance, their roofs are covered withglazed blue tiles, their ceilings are blue,except in Imperial buildings, where thesacred yellow replaces the cerulean hue.Green is used for the friezes, red for thepillars, with gold for the tracery designs.Ferguson says : ** As a rule the halls areceiled above the tie-beams, the ceilingbeing divided into coffers ; more impor-tance is given to the central bay, which issunk into deep coffers with bracket friezes


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58 CEILINGSround them . Some of the walls are coveredwith open timber roofs, in which theunwrought rafters covering the roof con-trast with the elaborate painting andgilding of the columns and the heavy-superimposed beams of the roof." Cer-tainly, the first part of this paragraphdescribes a constructional and decorativemethod very similar to that adopted in theCairo ceiling.

Bourgoin's example of the morecommonplace flat ceilings from roundabout Cairo ornamented with polygonalsand cubes, painted on flat, show the end-less designs that can be produced by thesegeometrical figures alone, or supplementedby knots and tracery. We find ceilingsone mass of red picked out with gold orblack. Blue and yellow are employed inthe same way. At other times, in place ofmassing the colours, we see them brokenup by the intermingling of smaller figures.In these simple forms we find the basicexpression of a system betraying a men-tality very different from our own, but ofthe grandeur of this ordered method wehave no doubt, for in it are these re-


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6o CEILINGSand other stone. Some of the finest speci-mens of these were put up in the tomb ofthe Caliphs at Cairo. As for the woodtracery panels, these were placed inwindows flat, or with the aid of smallerside, top, and bottom panels forming intoprojecting casements. They are also usedas screens above arches, reaching to theceiling, adding to the intricacy of light andcolour effects overhead. Then again,while over timber roof work is rare withthem, beams are sometimes worked into ascheme of decoration, as we see above ; butboarded ceilings not only form the founda-tion for the built-,up pendant, the panelsare covered with a smooth coating ofplaster, or the boards themselves paintedwith all the elaboration of geometricalscience.We have mentioned the great carebestowed on the problems of natural light-ing. There can be no doubt that both theByzantine and the Mauresque schoolshandled sunlight as they did colour, with aconscious art aim. The Byzantines filledtheir comparatively small windows,deepset in the walls, with richly coloured


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64 CEILINGSas regards periods and locality. We findthe Romans adorning the vaults and ceil-ings of the Baths of Caracalla with plainblack and white mosaics. In some casesthe ceiling was framed romid with linesand foliage, then the whole surface dividedup into big oblong panels with intersectingsmall circles and squares, the oblongs con-taining coarsely drawn gigantic figures ofathletes very spirited in appearance, thesmaller panels filled in with laurelwreaths, a discus or other article used inthe circus and training school. Suchsimple contrasts scarcely satisfied the tastefor luxury, and so both large and smalltesserae of coloured marbles, alabaster, andother costly stones rapidly came intofashion and long remained popular, thoughcomponent parts often differed according tolocality. This adaptation of materialsclose at hand for decorative purposes isquaintly and strikingly illustrative in thevolcanic mosaics. In these cases, lava ofdifferent shades is cut into thin slabs,divided into cubes, or broken up intoirregular fragments, the fine grained sur-face being highly polished, and then,


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MOSAICS 65imbedded in plaster, elaborate designs pro-duced. Perhaps the best specimens of thisstyle are to be seen on the Duomo and greatcloisters of Monreale in Sicily, constructedout of lava belched forth from Etna andbrought in a molten flood to the very handsof the designers. Other notable examplesare to be seen in the churches of Amalfiand Ravello from the lava cast out fromVesuvius, and in those of the puy-du-Dome from material deposited in past agesby long since extinct craters. Anotherschool, that of the Easternised Greeks ofByzantium, fired by the sensuous glories ofAsia, added glass as a predominatingmaterial, thus introducing the most vividcolours, scintillating effects, and the mar-vellous foil of gold beneath clear or tintedvitrious glazes. A variation on this is in-troduced with the use of small self-colouredglazed tiles, or tiles decorated with filigreepatterns.

Ciampini, who has probably writtenmost fully and learnedly upon the subject,divides the art of mosaic into four greatclasses. Tesselalum consists of smallcubes of marble Jin. square (tesserge),

E


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66 CEILINGSusually black and white and worked intogeometrical patterns, and sectile is com-posed of slices of marble (sectilia) , generallyemployed to produce broad effects, rarelyfor elaborate subjects. Both of these, ourauthor puts down as pavement work. But,as we have seen, black and white mosaicswere used in the vaulted roofs of theBaths of Caracalla. The third class isfigilnum, known in Italy as lavoro disnialto, fictile work, composed of verysmall fragments of a compound ofsilica and alumina, coloured by oxides,and, of course, produced in the glass-maker's furnace. In this way, any colourcan be obtained, with great brillianceand softness. This is used on walls andvaulted spaces. Vermiculatum is a mix-ture of cubes of coloured marbles(figilnum), gold beneath enamel, and evenprecious stones employed to produce com-plete pictures, with human figures,animals, plants and so on in their naturalcolour. This, too, is for adorning wallsand ceilings. A fifth class is the opusGrecanicum, consisting of incrustation ingrooves cut in white marble, or other


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MOSAICS d^stone, of tiny cubes of coloured and gildedsmalto, together with cubes of serpentine,porphyry and other costly materials. Itis usually handled to produce conventionaland geometrical designs, in thin ribbons,broad bands or smallish panels, outliningthe semi-circle of an arch, or embellishingits intrados, ringing the capital of a pillar,emphasising a window or lending colourand distinction wherever most needed.Opus Grecanicum was used to outline theentablature, arches and capitals at SanLorenza-fuori-Mura, Rome, while in thecloisters of San Giovanni Laterano thevariously shaped columnscircular, octa-gonal and twistedare adorned with thisform of mosaic in vertical bands or inspirals.As regards style, the Roman mosaicswere employed chiefly in carrying out geo-

metrical and conventional designs, thoughnatural objects were by no meansexcluded, as we see by the above men-tioned athletes, and as we know from thatchained house dog, ** Cave Canum,"found at Pompeii and reproduced in allkinds of materials ad nauseam for many


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68 CEILINGSyears past. In the early days their firstwork seems to have been reserved forpavements, and also for conventional muraland vault decoration. When naturalobjects were attemptedj^ coarse work is therule, as this appears to be most effectivewhen seen at a distance, more especiallywhen placed at a considerable height.Serlio gives reproductions of some veryfine, exquisitely conceived mosaics fromthe temple of Bacchus and the Baths ofDiocletian, which was mixed with carvedStone and stucco work in the vaults.

Originally Byzantine work had strongtraces of the Roman and Grecian love ofconventional incidental decoration, thoughexpanding in the luxuriancy of the Orient.Nevertheless the religious sentiment pre-vailed, and the Byzantine artists inmosaics also set the law in this for thewhole of medieval Europe, and employedtheir art largely to depict natural objectssuitable to adorn their basilicas. Therich cubes are imbedded in cement cover-ing the walls and vaults. Picturesusually Have a background of goldtesserse, and are elaborately framed with


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MOSAICS 69conventional line or foliated designs.Specimens of this work are to be seenalmost all over Europe, but the bestadorned are the Cathedral of San Marcoand other churches in Venice, where theart was carried to a pitch of perfection . InSicily, and certain Southern Italiantowns, the Byzantine mosaics have a pecu-liar character, apparently influenced bySaracenic taste. Wonderful specimensare to be seen in the Cathedral ofMonreale, near Palermo, which, with itsprecincts, is lavishly enriched withmosaics of the polychrome vermiculatumand the monochrome volcanic types. Themost celebrated is the half-figure of ourSaviour, greatly exceeding life size,shown in the act of benediction in accord-ance with Roman ritual, which occupiesthe semi-dome of the apse. Vivid coloursare used, and the background is of thecharacteristic broken gold type. The tes-serae are rather large and of irregularoutline.With the Renaissance freedom wassought from the rich yet austere formal-

ism of Byzantium. Michel Angelo,


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70 CEILINGSRaphael and other foremost artists of theday designed set pictures, and decorativepieces for mosaic work in churches,ecclesiastical and other buildings. Theypainted in mosaic as they painted in frescoor oils, and if they adopted some of theexuberant grotesques and other acces-sories from antiquity, they discarded theolder style of the Latins of outlining bymeans of a series of rectangular steps,such as we see in needlework tapestry, amemento of the large square cubes. Verybeautiful work was produced under thesemasters and their successors, in which,however, occasionally naturalism jostlessomewhat incongruously with weirdarabesque fantasies. Naturalism, how-ever, was not altogether neglected by themen of old ; witness the huge spreadingvine incrusting the whole vault of the bap-tistry dedicated by Constantine to SantaCostanza, which stands near the basilica ofSant' Agnesi-fouri-le-Mura. It conveysthe idea of a pergola in some monastery orcountry villa, although amidst its leavesare introduced numerous symbols ofChristianity. The vine itself, of course,


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Ceiling in Small Gallery, Villa Santi, Rome. Raphael.


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72 CEILINGSmade of clay, squeezed into moulds of dif-ferent shapes, glazed, and then fired(baked) . The edges were slightly bevelledto facilitate removal and give a good key.

In India a particular school of mosaicart seems to have had its centre at Agraand Delhi. It is said to be foreign to thecountry, imported by Italian workersimbued with the Byzantine feeling. Ifso, the Indians knew how to accept a goodthing and make it their own. But there ismuch in native decoration both of architec-ture and in the enamelling of metals thatsuggests a much older origin. Indianmosaic consists of an incrustation of verysmall pieces of marble, jasper, agate,blood-stone and other precious stones,placed very close together. It is finework, almost luscious in colouring. Thedesigns are good, but quite Hindu in feel-ing, with practically no attempt to copynature, though with an underlying hintsufficient to give animation and to suggesthighly conventionalised symbolism. Wehave historical evidence that the pietradura work in the Diwan-S'-Aur Hall in thePalace of Delhi was carried out by Austin


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MOSAICS 73of Bordeaux, and here we have a certainadmission of birds and figures. In theTaj Mahal the spirit is Asiatic, the span-drels, angles and more important detailsbeing incrus!ed with mosaic in preciousstones, arranged in wreaths, scrolls andfrets. Indeed, looking at the glowingbands of mosaics, it is difficult not tobelieve that the root idea of this embellish-ment is derived from the festal garlandingof persons and shrines with flora of thecountry. It must be remembered thatIndian gardens and forests are greencaskets afire with crimson and goldflowers, softened by sky-blue blooms andwaxen white petals. Sir George Bird-wood, writing of the red silk cotton tree,says he ** came upon a grassy glade over-hanging the profound forest depths below,and there, at its furthest edge, stood acolossal specimen of this tree, quite fiftyfeet high, the trunk straight as the mast ofsome great ammiral, deeply buttressed atits base, and sending out horizontalbranches, like the yard-arms of a ship, inwhorls of five and seven, gradually taper-ing to the top, and at this seasonthe


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74 CEILINGSmonth of Marchleafless, but covered onevery branch, in place of green leaves, withhuge crimson flowers (by reflected lightcrimson ; by transmitted, the radiant red ofa ruby), each from seven to five inches indiameter, and forming in the mass a vastdome-like, symmetrical head that, with thebeams of the rising sun striking throughit, shone in its splendour of celestial, rosyred like a mountain of rubies." He alsospeaks of the golden flowered bava, thepurple taman, vermilion chrome yellowflowered pulas, the scarlet pangri, allfine trees. Then there are the olean-ders and rhododendrons, the roses andjasmines, and hundreds more, both bigand little. With all these wonders ofnature about them, is not a jewelled styleof decoration the most obvious and appro-priate, whether on ceilings, on handsomevessels, or personal raiment?

Necessarily, practice in laying mosaicsdiffers rather widely according to thematerials used. Indian mosaic, like theriches of vermiculatum, is made up ofsmall pieces, and these are imbedded in thecement so as to form a close jointing, the


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76 CEILINGSbe seen that the jointing is very wide. Onthe other hand, grouping and drawing areas perfect as they can be. This is right,for they are meant to be looked at from adistance ; they are essentially brighteningmotives in a general scheme of decoration.Now, under these conditions wide jointingand other lack of finish is not seen, indeed,too elaborate a finish would, under certainlight conditions, produce the effect of mereflat washes of colour. But the quality ofgrouping and drawing is easily appreciatedfrom a distance, and some regard to per-spective must be paid. The best artistsalways emphasise drawing by outlining allprofiles with a row of tesserae of the samematerial and colour as the background.This throws up the figures, while it pre-vents the outline being broken upon by thehorizontal or vertical lines of the back-ground, which would destroy much of theeffect.While mosaic is commonly employed to

give brilliancy, to bring light into darkplaces, it is also exceedingly useful whencarefully handled to correct defects of plan-ning and construction. Horizontal lines


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MOSAICS 11give length and breadth, vertical lines giveheight. This is true whether bands orpanels are selected by the designer.Quite happy results may be achieved whendecorating a ceiling if this is borne inmind, while for adorning cupolas thismethod is invaluable. The very structureof mosaic decoration is an aid to trainingthe vision in the way desired, emphasisingthe general flow of the design This holdsgood with all schools of mosaic, though, ofcourse, it is most marked when smalltesserae are the medium.


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CHAPTER VGOTHIC CEILINGS

Northern Italy cradled the Romanesquestyle, whence sprang the Gothic. In thatregion of high alps and dense forests therearose during the period of strife and tur-moil following the break-up of the RomanEmpire a style of architecture which,retaining certain features of classicexamples, developed along lines stronglyinfluenced by local surroundings. ThisRomanesque style gradually travellednorth-westwardly across Europe, reachingour shores with Willam I., so becomingknown to us as Norman.

It is essentially the child of a dour,fighting age, characterised by heavily builtstone walls (though brick, concrete andtiles were also admitted), round-headedwindows, doorways and arches, barrelvaults, and, in non-vaulted chambers, by

78


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8o CEILINGSinvolved tricks dear to the hearts of Latingarden makers.As we turn to Gothic work, however, we

recognise the effort of men face to face withnature, whose caste of mind was mouldedby the forest and the countryside in itsundressed aspects. It is emphatically thepointed style. Both inside and out thelines end upwards more or less in sweepingcurves, diversified with pendants frominner roofs, and ever more and moreelaborated finials outside. The windows inthe early English period were lancetshaped, tall and narrow, placed singly orgrouped, like openings in a wood. Andwhen the windows grew larger some ofthem took floral formstrefoils, quarter-foils and rose-petalledwhich brings aboutreinforcement with stone mullions, arran-ged mostly in geometrical tracery, foliageand branch forms. Indeed, we sometimessee, as in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire,the mullions elaborated into a regular treeform, the tree of Jesse, springing from thebowels of the recumbent patriarch, itsspreading branches blossoming forth withlittle statuettes representing his posterity.


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GOTHIC CEILINGS 8iSo it is with the pillars. In the early

stages we have slender columns groupedround a more massive central column.The capitals are often subordinated so thatthe impression is that the column itselfbranches out in all directions to form thefar-reaching groins of the roof. InLondon we have good examples of this inthe round Temple Church (1185), theGuildhall crypt (fifteenth century), withvery little decoration ; in the BeauchampChapel, Warwick (fifteenth century),where the slender columns merge directlyinto the ribs forming the intricate groiningof the roof, the ribs braced by ribs runningat right angles and forming pentagons,slightly voluted, but showing considerablereserve in the matter of foliation. In spiteof this, however, this rather flat stone roofgives the impression of a network of twin-ing branches, the surface being far morecovered than in the other two cases cited.In the Chapel of Henry VII., WestminsterAbbey, the ribbing of the stone roof is mostelaborate, each rib springing from capitalsdecorated with foliage. The roof itself is a

F


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8a CEILINGSmass of tracery, very complex in design, inwhich circles, squares, octagons and other

PENDANT, WESTMINSTER ABBEYfigures appear, with bosses and great pen-dants at the intersections.


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GOTHIC CEILINGS 83The bosses are well-carved branches of

holly, while the pendants are purely archi-

:r^%PENDANT, ROSSLYN CHAPEL

tectural in form, only retaining a sugges-tion of their vegetal ancestry in the waythey spring from the ribs adorned with


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84 CEILINGSstrawberry leaves, and their circlingwreaths of holly. Enormously as Gothicpendants differ from each other, and whilefar less close to the representation of abunch of flowers or fruit than the sametype of ornament met with in the built-upstyle of the Mauresque, yet they have obvi-ously grown out of the bosses. Frequently,however, we find them developing intominiature tabernacles, with niches protect-ing small figures, as in the remarkableexample, one of many, from RosslynChapel. As regards the Henry VII.Chapel, the tracery, the eastern end overthe founder's tomb is divided into numer-ous compartments, in which astonishingvariations are produced, the tracery herealso forming circles, square and otherfigures. The central point of the schemeis a big pendant, with six others as second-ary centres, where the ribs converge.Further modifications are introduced overthe nave and oratories. In St George'sChapel, Windsor, the pillars expand intomany branches and form over the organ-loft a ribbed ceiling of remarkableintricacy. The tracery consists of a circle


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lACJow-ac

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39421190 Ceilings and Their Decoration Art and Archology 1911

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Transcript of 39421190 Ceilings and Their Decoration Art and Archology 1911