FINE ARTS.
DECORATIONS OP THE ROYAL SUMMERHOUSE.
THE Spectator has been favoured with a peep at the Summerhouse in Buckingham Palace Gardens; the Queen having graciously permitted Mr Groner, who superintended the decorations, to admit a portion of the press to a private view. The unpretending and rustic character of the exterior, which is visible from Grosvenor Place, gives no hint of the splendour of its interior; and the visiter on entering is taken by surprise at the sumptuous elegance of this superb little pavilion. The principal apartment is on octagon, and the walls and ceiling are completely covered with the richest decorations— frescoes, arabesques, and sculptured bas-reliefs, heightened by coloured grounds of bright hues and gold mouldings. The coup-d'osil is dazzling: the only blank spaces are the marble floor and the white window-blinds. Each side of the octagon is finished at top by a semicircular compartment, filled by a painting in fresco of some subject from Milton's Comm; four of the designs for which have been exhibited at the Royal Academy. Over the pier-glass facing the entrance, Eastlake's fresco, Virtue Strengthened by Heavenly Aid, attracts attention by its pure and rich colouring, and the simplicity and exalted sentiment of the composition. It is less delicately painted than the oil-picture exhibited, but it has greater force of effect. Turning to the right, Maclise's clever but confused and over-crowded com- position, the Lady in the Enchanted Chair, next meets the eye: the statn7 esque figure of the lady is scarcely visible for the surrounding group of spirits, and the brothers rushing in appear spell-bound also, such is the cataleptic rigidity of their forms and attitudes. In strong contrast to the metallic hardness of Maelise's style, is the lax slightness of the painting in the adjoining fresco by Edwin Landseer—the Transformation of the Sensualista into brutish monsters. The refinement of the painter's skill has redeemed the subject from revolting grossness; and the grotesque and the graceful are skilfully blended with the gusto of the animal-painter. Wanton women with heads of deer and hound, fling their human arms round the bodies of men with brute visages: here a monkey-faced mortal moes and chatters; there a brawny figure, with a boar's head on man's shoulders, wallows prone on the ground, while the enchanter Comus towers regally above his victims. The drawing and composition are masterly, but the painting is WO like the artist's oil-pictures to suit fresco; his facility and slightness of handling give a smeary and superficial appearance to the work, and the colouring is dull and opaque. Next to this is the fresco by Dyce, which has been substituted for Etty's meretricious design: and to prove that Mr. Etty's fresco had not been removed without sufficient cause, it was shown to the visitors. We will only say of it, that the painter himself has reason to rejoice that it was not suffered to remain ; for it would have been extremely injurious to his reputation: it has all his faults of style exaggerated, without any of his excellences. Mr. Dyne has proved himself the best of the English fresciusti: his style is marked by force and decision, and a severe simplicity proper to mural paint- ing. His subject is the restoration of the brothers and sister to their home by the attendant spirit; and though the stately old folks look too grave and stern to answer to the term "Lord and Lady bright," there is an air of dignity about them that is impressive, and contrasts with the youth- ful earnestness of their children. The style is German, but the conception is not derived, and the sentiment is in accordance with that of the poem. The colouring is deep and powerful, and the execution firm and clear; in short, it is what fresco should be. Mr. Dyce has succeeded in modifying his style to suit the requirements of fresco: the other painters have only re- produced the effects of their oil-pictures in this medium, with a greater or less degree of deterioration. Stanfield has painted a picturesque landscape with a stream under moonlight effect, and a distant view of the orgies of the rabble rout by torch-light; but it has not the vividness of his easel pic- tures. Leslie has reproduced his oil-picture in fresco forcibly enough: but the chalkiness of his style is more conspicuous. The frescoes of Sir W. Ross and Mr. Uwins are weak both in design and execution: they look like unfinished water-colour drawings.
The result of this laudable experiment to introduce fresco-painting for decorations of a lighter character, proves that the manner of painting adopted by the generality of English artists is unsuited to this material, even on a small scale. It requires certainty, vigour, and knowledge of form, that but few of our painters possess, and not many can acquirei while the best need some previous practice both in design and execution to qualify them to do justice in their frescoes to the reputation they have acquired by oil-painting. The arabesques are painted in kaLsomine by some pupils of the School of Design, very creditably for learners; but the muddling and timid touch does not say much for the method of practice. The little bas-reliefs, by Nicholl, are clever.
Two smaller apartments—mere square closets—are also richly deco- rated. One of them, in the Pompeian style, with ornaments painted in encaustic by Aglio, in a feeble and flimsy manner, has a heavy and sombre effect. The other is lined with marble; the roof and cornice only being richly decorated in the Italian style, with sculpture and paint- ings from Walter Scott's novels and poems. The pictures are small semi.. circles, designed and painted in distemper by Messrs. Townsend, Severn, Stonhonse, and James and Richard Doyle. The two young artists last named evince talent of a very promising kind: they both possess the rare power of depicting an incident dramatically without theatrical manner. The bas-reliefs are by Messrs. Bell and Timbrell, and the heads and figures by Pistracci.
Regarding it as an experiment in decorative art, there is much to ad mire in the spirit that prompted this attempt to convert a plain garden- summerhouse into an elegant pavilion, vieing in richness with Italian pa- laces; and also in the ingenuity and taste with which it has been effected. The result, we think, goes to prove that neither the Pompeian nor the Italian styles of decoration are exactly suited to modern English dwellings. The extreme richness of Italian decoration requires saloons more lofty and spacious than are to be found even in the palaces of this country; and in a little pavilion like this it is overpowering. Elegant simplicity is the characteristic of the finest modern English taste in ornament; and a style of decoration, to become naturalized here, must accord with this pre- ference for what is light and chaste before that which is gorgeous and magnificent. Our decorators may be content with reproducing the effects and details of the Gothic for public buildings in that style; but if they would enrich the walls and ceilings of our parlours and drawingrooms, it must be with something different from any thing we have yet had. The French have adopted the cumbrous and rococo style of La Renaissance: but neither this nor its cognate style, Elizabethan, is suited to modern-built houses ; and the Moorish is as foreign to our tastes and habits as the Italian. The age calls for a style of its own; and if our decorators under- stood the philosophy of their art, they would produce it: but they are imitators, not originators.
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