OTHER METHODS by the
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namely, Buon-Fresco the process adopted painting should be executed on a surface of plaster of Paris and sand. It is of some interest at this point to consider what the Northern tradition was in the matter of painting on walls. Mr. Noel Heaton found on certain remains of Roman villas in this country that, in order to carry out a fresh painting, a thin coat of plaster had been laid on the older
which makes it probable that the Roman method was Buon-Fresco. In some samples which I examined from the foundations of the new Post Office in London, in which the plaster was sound and the pigment firmly adhering, I could find no indications of any organic medium, which is a further confirmation of the view that the Roman method was some modification of painting,
Mr. Cran, while of the opinion that size in England for wall decoration in the Middle Ages, mentions a similar case of new plaster laid over an old painting at Chichester, which again suggests Buon-Fresco. That size was probably often used for temporary decorations of no great importance is quite probable, but it can hardly have been used for permanent and important works. We possess in England a great number of accounts for painting of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In the account rolls of Henry III, Edward I, and Edward II, oil is mentioned, and again in the accounts of Ely Cathedral from 1325 to 1352. The account for the decoration of St. Stephen's Chapel from 1352 to 1358, and in the account of Edward I, 1274 to 1277, relating to the painted chamber, white lead, oil, and varnish are mentioned. The varnish is sold by the pound, and may well therefore be, as Eastlake suggests, the resin, possibly sandarac, which was purchased and dissolved in oil to Buon-Fresco.
was largely used
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