THE LIFE OF ART.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1739, 2 May 1913, Page 5

THE LIFE OF ART.

THE WAYS OF OLD MASTERS. AN INTERESTING TALK. "You cannot guess how much more satisfaction thcro is in working at an old paint.ing, as compared with a modern one," said Mr. W. 3?. Colley, tho English restorer of paintings, now at work in tho Town Eall on 'threo or four of tho City Corporation's art possessions. "The reason is clear," continued Mr. Colley, "for even if a painting is only GO or 70 years old, the material used, both as regards the canvas, its preparation - for painting, and the pigments, were better then than they are to-day. This is strange, one might think, 'bccause one would naturally Teason that with tho enormous advantages of scientilic advancement, materials would improvo, They don't! Bather is it tho case that they deteri orate—not in appearance, perhaps, but in bedrock quality. Science in chemistry has evolved a wide range of beautiful colours, which do 'very well for a t'ew years, twenty or thirty years, perhaps, but. after (hut they begin to lose : tho!r brilliancy and cannot suffer the treatment that an old master could. Tho?e old fellows know so much. They not only knew how to paint, but they knew how to weave itheiv own canvas, nrul look n world of pains in preparing it before they thought of applying tho brush. Why, their pupils were never allowed to handle « brush at all until they had mastered tho art of making and preparing their canvases. But nowadays, an artist obtains a. canvas, and commences to paiut his picture right away—he knows nothing of the preparatory processes which give tho old masters life, nor do they know anything of tho qualities of the paint and oils they use, which, in days of old, were all prepared by tho artist himself. I know this by practical experience in restoring' moderns" and ancients in the Old Country, and not infrequently have pointed out to prominent artists—masters nt their work—tho short life their pictures must have.

"Take Alma-Tadema, for example—tho artist who could paint marble that was marble —beautiful work! But that beauty disappears in a quarter of a century. Tho art is there, but the fine quality of his pearly grey tints' gradually become a dirty whito under the ravages of time. The action of the air gradually destroys tho finer beauties of the work of the modem artists simply because they havo not taken that wonderful care in tho preparation of tho canvas, and they do not develop from their gronnd-work that glaze which is so protective.

"Hero is a case in point. That old portrait of Judge Chapman is painted on canvas of infinitely better quality than those -of Mr. Bell or Mr. Brandon, and will outlive them both for (hat reason. Probably at the time that, was painted (the portrait, of .Tudgo Chapman) they did not know how to make such poor canvas as is used ill the other two. Modern invention is all very well in some tilings, but-if had not been any aid to these essentials in art that is long. . It is the same with the pigments. Chemical research has worked wonders in their preparation, but they do not hold up against, the common enemy—lime—liko the old vegetable and mineral pigments (hat were so carefully prepared by (ho old artists."

Mr. Colloy stated that in most of the big galleries on tlio Continent and in the National Gallery in London a professional restorer was engaged continuously. Most of the paintings of value were taken from their hermetically sealed frames, and microscopically examined, and if the least sign of any decay was noted the work of checking it was done at once. Tn most of the galleries, the pictures were protected from the light bv curtains drawn across tho faces, and only pulled hack during tlio hours specified 'for visitors. In this way the priceless art treasures were jealously safeguarded year in and out, for modern material ami methods do not tend to give life to pictures, no matter how high in artistic quality the paintings might be originally.