19 DECEMBER 1846, Page 19

FINE ARTS.

THE Society of Arts has made a vigorous move this year for the encou- ragement of decorative art. The great hall of the Society's house in Adam Street, Adelphi, has just been opened, after undergoing a thorough change in its aspect, at the hands of Mr. D. R. Hay, of Edinburgh. The walls, it is well known, were partly covered with paintings by Barry, of an ambi- tious class, and, considering the state of art in this country at his time, not without merit. The colouring of the pictures is of a dry character, as though the painter wished to imitate the appearance of fresco; and they have turned duller with time. Mr. Hay's primary object was to set off these works to advantage; next, to produce a generally harmonious effect. He has succeeded in both objects. The light paint on the walls is replaced by plain purple or murrey-coloured cloth; the ceiling, which was merely whitewashed, is covered with gold and red, yellow and blue, so broken and mingled and disposed in geometrical figures, as to give an air at once of gayety, -richness, and sobriety. From the murrey of the cloth to the skylight, the prevalent tints present an agreeable succession of deep brown, red and yellow, and blue. Barry's pictures have been washed; and, with their new walls, they look as if they had been newly painted: their brown- paper tint has turned to real colours. Nothing, indeed, could make them truly great or effective pictures considered according to their pretensions. The subjects are a most undramatic series of allegories; ancient deities and allegorical giants, designed in imitation of the antique, mix ludicrously with the cocked-hatted, powdered, and broad-skirted gentry of George the Third's early reign; and as to colouring, the pictures cannot rank above coloured engravings. But undoubtedly, Mr. Hay, by an agreeable contrast, has made them look as lightsome and interesting as they can.

At the ninety-third annual meeting of the Society, on Wednesday evening, two papers on decorative art, by Mr. Hay, were read by the Secre- tary. We were unable to attend; but we see from the notices in the jour- nals that the papers must have been interesting. One explained the deco- rations of the hall. The other explained the geometrical principles of symmetry in decoration, which Mr. Hay has deduced from actual mea- surements of ancient Greek works of architecture.

The Secretary also read a report, which stated that the Society had adopted a suggestion earnestly made by Prince Albert, to promote the union..of high art with mechanical skill. The report comprised a long list of prizes that were to be given in various departments of decorative art.