The Country House (with Designs)Châteauneuf, Alexis de
History
The Country House (with Designs)
Châteauneuf, Alexis de
Architecture -- England -- History -- 19th century; Architecture, Domestic -- England; Country homes -- England
Corridors on the ground-floor, or even upstairs in houses where
pictures do not abound, may be fitly decorated with arabesques. The
same kind of ornament might be applied to garden pavilions, and, in the
present instance, even to your portico next the lake, if there are no
statues there, but not to conservatories, where the conventional forms
and tints of art would contend injudiciously with nature. In these
decorations it is absolutely necessary to set out with an architectural
scheme, and subdivide the spaces with some attention to congruity and
subordination. In the details, pleasing masses and forms are essential,
because here nothing can be concealed; there is, strictly speaking, no
chiaro-scuro, no perspective: form and colour are the chief means. The
possibility of approaching and even coming in contact with the painted
wall, suggests the necessity of a small scale in the objects, and of
precision and delicacy of outline; yet, from the circumstance of the
forms and hues being relieved on a light ground, they are at the same
time effective at a considerable distance.[9] Stucco ornaments in very
low relief, mixed with the painting, are admissible, (as they can
hardly be said to come under the head of sculpture,) but they require a
strong light to display them.
[9] The best examples of decorations of this kind are now accessible
to all, in a recently published work by Thurmer and Gutensohn,
containing the arabesques of the Vatican, the Farnesina, the Villa
Lanti, and the Villa Madama: edited by Ludwig Gruner, to be had of
Mr. Murray, Albemarle Street: with this work may be classed the
publications of Zahn, on the ornamental inventions of Giulio Romano
at Mantua, and on the decorations of Pompeii.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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