CHAPTER VIII

COLOUR DECORATION IN GERMANY

There was little, if any, art or architecture in Germany before the days of Charlemagne, except that which found expression in the various articles and objects of personal adornment, such as in brooches, rings, in the costume of the warriors and chiefs, and in some objects of general utility, where the lesser arts--_die Kleinkünste_--were developed and attained to high degrees of perfection, in the Romanesque period and Middle Ages. Charlemagne, who reigned from 768 to 814, was a great art-loving prince, and gave the first impulse to art in Germany when he built his stately church, which he also intended for his tomb, at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). Here he had also his chief palace, but of this, and of the many others he possessed on the banks of the Rhine, no definite traces remain but his palace-chapel, now the cathedral, or the round portion of the latter, which still exists in good preservation, and is a fitting monument to his greatness, and to his zeal for the promotion of art in Germany. This church is said to be a copy in plan of the Byzantine Church of St. Vitale at Ravenna, except that the latter is an octagon in the ground plan, and the former is a polygon of sixteen sides. This round type of building was used in Rome and the south not only for churches, but for baptisteries, and after Charlemagne’s Chapel was erected in Aachen it became the prototype of circular churches that were built in the Romanesque period and style in Germany. The church at Aix-la-Chapelle was decorated with mosaics, similar to those of St. Vitale at Ravenna, but the original mosaics have all perished, and the ones which now adorn the dome and pendentives of the church are modern works by Salviati of Venice, and were executed from a seventeenth-century copy of the old mosaic. The subject of the dome mosaic, on a gold ground, represents Christ and the twenty-four Elders of the Apocalypse. The rest of the central part of the church, ambulatory walls, etc., are adorned with mosaics within the last ten years. The choir of this interesting church is an addition, and is a Gothic building of the fifteenth century. Its walls and vaulted ceiling are richly adorned with ornamentation in colours and gold, the patterns of the ornament being similar to, or derived from, the silk tapestries of that period.

Mosaic as church decoration, except for floor pavements, was not much in use in Germany after the time of Charlemagne; in the northern countries of Europe wall painting in tempera became the characteristic method of decoration for the Romanesque churches, just as mosaic was the chief kind of decoration for churches in Italy and southern Europe in the same period.

In the Romanesque epoch in Germany, the period which is generally understood to extend from A.D. 1000 till about 1200, or a little later, no church was without its painted decoration. The subjects were similar to, and the general design and style of drawing were not unlike the mosaic decoration of churches in Italy and Sicily. Single figures, and scenes from the Old and New Testaments were enclosed in panels, having borders designed in elaborate ornamental forms, derived chiefly from conventional leafage. The figures were usually painted in flat tints, or almost so; very little shading or modelling of the forms were attempted, and the whole work was strongly outlined, so that the finished decoration appeared as an enlarged kind of illumination. The ribs or groups of mouldings of the vaulted ceilings and the soffits of the arches were decorated with conventional flowers, garlands and ribbon work. The apse usually contained a large figure of Christ, or the Madonna enthroned, surrounded with figures of the Apostles and Saints, and often on the other parts of the church, such as the triumphal arch, the ceilings and walls, there were paintings representing the visions of the Prophets, and the imaginative imagery of the Apocalypse.

The Romanesque churches of the Rhineland afford many examples of interior colour decoration, for it was in the region watered by the Rhine that German art was cradled, where it was carefully nursed, and where it developed to an early maturity. Mural painting as a handmaid, or as an auxiliary to Romanesque architecture, can still be studied in many of the old churches in the valley of the Rhine, where it was an important art as early as the eleventh century. The secular buildings also, such as the castles, guild-houses, town-halls, chateaux and private houses were all at this time decorated in colour, but nearly all of their colour decorations and paintings have been destroyed in the course of time, except some remaining fragments which have been removed to local museums. There are, however, a few churches of the Romanesque period that still have a considerable amount of the eleventh and twelfth century paintings on their walls, and though much of this work is greatly faded and has now very little of its former colour and beauty, yet the composition and outlines are still in evidence, and although we cannot well judge of their original colouring there are still much quaintness and charm attached to those examples which have not yet been restored.

There are four Romanesque churches of the Rhine valley which still have their wall paintings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, namely, the double church at Schwarz Rheindorf, near Bonn, with paintings that were originally executed about 1150, the chapter-house of the Abbey-church at Brauweiler, near Cologne, and the crypt of St. Maria im Capitol at Cologne. The baptistery of the Church of St. Gereon has some wall paintings of the thirteenth century, and still older work in the crypt.

Perhaps the most important and most interesting of these old wall-paintings are those that adorn the lower church at Schwarz Rheindorf, although they have been completely repainted recently, but it must be admitted the present colouring of them is characteristic of the Romanesque colour, and can hardly be very far wrong. The subjects appear to be highly imaginative and poetical conceptions of Biblical scenes, and there are large figures of the Apostles and Hebrew prophets. The treatment is in the usual flat method of colouring with strong outlines. The original paintings were discovered under coats of whitewash in 1853. The Chapter-house at Brauweiler has some examples of wall-paintings, dating from the end of the twelfth century, the subjects being scenes from the Epistle to the Hebrews. In the apse of the church there are other paintings of the later Gothic period.

In the crypt of the Church of St. Maria im Capitol, at Cologne, there are some interesting wall paintings of the twelfth century, but they are in a faded state. This church, however, is remarkable for its rich modern colouring, and furnishes one of the best examples of the revival of Romanesque decoration in Germany. It may be said that every inch of the surfaces of the interior is covered with richly-coloured ornamentation and figure-paintings, which includes the columns and piers. The east end is in plan trefoil-like, having three semicircles with their diameters touching, and the three semi-domes above have figure subjects that were designed, and the painting begun, by Steinle, but finished by other artists.

In the crypt of the Church of St. Gereon at Cologne there is a very interesting series of wall paintings, consisting of single figures of a colossal size, each painted in curved recesses in the walls. The figures are noble in design, but the colouring is much faded. They date from about the twelfth century, and appear to be examples of the original work, that have not been restored. It may be mentioned here that the floor of the crypt is a mosaic pavement of the eleventh century. It is Roman in character, though of German workmanship. The design consists of figure subjects, where David, Samson, and Delilah are represented, and also the signs of the Zodiac. These mosaic pavements were discontinued after the eleventh century, when encaustic and glazed tiles of brown, red or green colours were used instead of mosaic for floor pavements. The walls of the baptistery of this church are decorated with painted figures, of thirteenth-century work. Full length figures of saints and warriors are arranged in pairs, two of them occupying the upper half of each arched bay between engaged pillars, and between each two figures is a small painted column. The lower halves of the bays have each an ornamental border immediately under each pair of figures, and the rest of the space below the border is painted in imitation of suspended tapestries. Altogether this makes a very satisfactory and interesting scheme of decoration. Such schemes were very common in the decoration of the Gothic period in Germany and other countries. The rest of the interior of this church, like that of St. Maria im Capitol, is lavishly decorated in richly-coloured and gold ornamentation being a modern revival of Romanesque colouring. The profuse surface decoration used so much in the Romanesque period was of Byzantine origin, and consisted of an almost endless variety of forms and motives, such as conventional vine leafage, fruit and tendrils, flowers of various kinds, scale patterns, interlacings, frets, geometrical combinations, chevrons, zigzag patterns, ribbons, garlands, and various representations of carved Byzantine ornament, and other architectural features, such as arcading, all treated flatly in colour.

There are other numerous examples of Romanesque painting, colouring and ornamental decoration still found in other parts of Germany, besides the examples we have just noticed. The walls and ceilings of the choir and transepts of Brunswick Cathedral have a complete series of Romanesque wall paintings of the twelfth century. The finest example of this style of painting in Germany is the magnificent ceiling of the great nave of St. Michael’s Church in Hildesheim. It is a flat ceiling of wooden construction. Running the whole length of the central portion of the ceiling the space is subdivided into a series of square panels; on each side of this central space the bands are divided into a great many small oblong panels, and outside these is a broad enclosing border of scroll-work containing in circular spaces in this border half-length figures of saints. The adjoining border has its oblong panels filled with small full-length figures of Apostles and Prophets. The larger square panels of the central part have lozenges and quatrefoil forms inside each square, in alternation. The latter forms contain the seated figures of kings and other personages that illustrate the genealogy of Christ, or the Root of Jesse. The Fall is also represented, and the corner spaces outside the lozenges and quatrefoils are filled with ornament and small medallions that add great richness to the design without giving to it any appearance of confusion. The colour is very strong and rich, and the whole of the decoration is painted on a blue ground.

The small stained-glass windows of the Romanesque period add a further note of colour to the interiors, although coloured glass was quite secondary to the painted decoration of this time. The only figure-work attempted in the glass was that in the small circular medallions and lozenge-shaped panels, containing scriptural subjects, which were placed at intervals amidst a rich setting of leaf patterns and other ornamental forms.

In the Gothic period, from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, when the walls of churches became less in extent and area, and the windows became larger and more numerous, glass painting gradually became the chief factor in providing the colour of church interiors, and consequently the art and craft of the glass painter or “glazier,” as he was called in the old documents, became a more important one than that of the painter and decorator. When the Gothic builders perfected the rib vaulting system, their greatest discovery, and the keynote of the style, they found that walls were not necessary as active agents of the construction, but of use only in filling up the spaces between the voids, and were therefore more or less inert masses. They found that they had no use for walls except to close in the building from the weather, and so we find that walls began to disappear in Gothic buildings, and the windows being more numerous and larger, the Gothic churches were becoming great glasshouses. To prevent this look it was necessary to fill the windows with coloured glass, which subdued the otherwise great glare of white light that would come through clear glass, and would give the interiors a more comfortable appearance, at the same time adding colour decoration to the buildings. Many Gothic churches have more area of glass than of walls; the clerestory of the choir in Amiens Cathedral, for example, has forty times more area of the void or window space than of the solid stone, and in some cases there are no walls, as in the highly scientific construction of the upper portion of the choir in the Cathedral of Prague, where all is glass set in the stone vaulting shafts. Other large churches or cathedrals built in the Gothic style might be given as illustrations where the proportion of void to solid is very great and consequently the windows are very large, such as Chartres, Cologne, Canterbury, Lincoln and York. In the smaller Gothic churches of England, or on the Continent, this proportion of void to solid was generally reversed, and owing to this, and also to the greater use of wood in the roofs and screens, the smaller churches everywhere were at this time more richly treated in colour than the larger ones. The painter and decorator also found more employment in the treatment of secular buildings with coloured decoration in the Gothic period than he did on the cathedrals. It was only in rare instances that important wall paintings have been found in churches of this period; the colour and decoration, apart from the stained glass, was, especially in the case of the cathedrals, confined to mouldings, vault ribs, capitals, piers; and sometimes the webs, or ceilings of the vaults, were wholly filled with arabesque decoration, but often only partially so, around the bosses that marked the intersection of

the ribs. (Plate 24.) It was in the smaller churches, and in the chambers and chapels attached to larger churches and cathedrals, in the crypts, sacristies, baptisteries, and sanctuaries, that complete schemes of colour decoration were carried out, or attempted in the Gothic period. It might be mentioned that some effective colour notes were obtained by the richly-coloured and gilt carvings and sculpture in wood and stone screens, altar-pieces, and the carved and painted tabernacles, which have been found in great numbers in the Gothic churches of Germany.

The stained-glass windows of the Gothic period, especially of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were the finest and best understood colour decoration in the glass material that has ever been done. Though many fine windows belonging to this time are found throughout Germany, Flanders, Bohemia, and Austria, the best examples are found in France, as at Chartres, and in England at York. The colouring of the glass of this period has never been surpassed for its splendour and beauty, and the figure-work and general ornamentation are designed and drawn in a suitably flat and architectonic style, in harmony with the material. The flat tapestry-like effect of the designs gives the work an appearance of mosaic in glass, and the result is what it should be, namely, a decorative work in “stained” glass, not “painted.” In the fifteenth century and later, stained glass became degraded to the imitation of pictures, or light and shade paintings in glass, and consequently lost its legitimate character as a mosaic in glass. In a word, it became eventually pictorial in character, and ceased to have the true quality of stained glass. This later degradation of coloured glass was common to Germany, France, Italy and England.

The love for colour decoration, as applied to the interiors and exteriors of secular buildings and private dwellings, was more marked in Germany than in other European countries during the Middle Ages, and, as we would expect, Germany, with a tenacious and faithful conservatism, has clung more closely to her old traditional love for colour and decoration, and still takes a greater pride in all the circumstance of civic processions and pageantry, than any other nation in Europe. If we seek for an explanation of this we shall find that it is an inherited love from their ancestors, the old Germanic warriors and chiefs, who ruled the country before the days of Charlemagne, and who took a passionate delight in colour and in personal adornment. We may take one illustration of this artistic conservatism, among many others, by pointing out that the Germans paint and decorate their restaurants to-day, for example, in the same way as they did in the days of the fifteenth century.

The museums of Cologne and Munich especially, contain many fragments of interior decorative painting that were taken from the old houses in their neighbourhoods. Such specimens of the old work are generally treated very flatly and only in a few colours, resembling tapestry designs, all of them having strong outlines that mark out the forms, like the constructive outline leads of window glass. We may point to one of the many fragments of this work which is now in the museum at Cologne: it consists of a portion of a deep and battlemented frieze, having three panels painted with scenes from the story of the Prodigal Son (_der lieblose Sohn_), and is executed in tempera in flat tints of reds, blues, pale yellows and greys, outlined in black. This frieze once formed a part of the decoration of the dining-hall _des Hauses Glesch auf der Hochstrasse_, Cologne.

Wooden panelled ceilings of private dwellings in the Gothic and Renaissance periods were strongly coloured, and the deep friezes on the walls were painted with figure subjects, heraldry, foliage, flowers and birds, or sometimes with conventional ornament alone, all the work being usually painted in tempera, while the walls below were either panelled with inlaid woods, or carved in wood or stone. In some cases the lower portion of the wall was painted on the wood or plaster, or hung with figured tapestries. It may be mentioned that the Germans have always made the greatest possible use of decorative heraldry, which was designed with great skill, in an elaborate and sumptuous manner, and used by them in every form and material of decorative art.

The adornment of the exteriors and interiors of their public buildings, and also of the better class of private houses, has always been a passion with the Germans. Many of the old houses in such cities as Lübeck, a northern German town of the Renaissance, Brunswick, Hildesheim, Frankfort, Strasburg, Nuremberg, Rothenburg, and the Swabian city of Augsburg are enriched with a wealth of carving and painting, of one or of both, on their façades, and in the interiors of their principal rooms, many examples of which are still in existence. The carving and painting in and on the houses of the Germans were in most cases designed and executed by native artists and craftsmen, but in some instances there are records of foreigners being employed, as in the case of the Fuggerhaus at Augsburg, where Hans Fugger, a member of that powerful and wealthy family, had his house decorated in the Italian Renaissance style, in 1570, the work being done by Italian artists.

The native love for decoration and colour has always been respected in Germany by the ruling powers, by the municipalities and wealthy citizens, who have always encouraged and fostered the decorative arts. The Germans take a civic pride in not only having handsome town-halls, theatres, railway stations, art galleries, museums, colleges, universities, and other public buildings, erected as the best possible examples of fine architecture, but in the adornment of such buildings with sculpture, fresco, mosaic and other colour decoration.

PLATE 25.--EXAMPLE OF DIAPER ORNAMENT, LARGELY USED IN ITALIAN, GERMAN AND ENGLISH DECORATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]

We might extend these observations on the colouring of architecture in Germany with a brief description of a few examples of modern work of the art which has engaged our attention.

The Teutonic love for the Gothic style and for its auxiliary colour and ornamentation is manifested in the decoration of almost every public building in modern Germany. This is even apparent in the fittings and decorations of the luxurious saloons of their great and latest-built passenger ships, where the dining-rooms and drawing-rooms of the modern liners are often, as in the case of the _Imperator_, designed and decorated in the style and true spirit of Medieval Gothic, so that the passengers might almost imagine that they were living in some castle or baronial hall of the fifteenth century instead of being on board the ship.

The staircase walls and ceiling of the Museum at Cologne present a fairly good scheme of modern German decoration. The walls have fresco paintings by Steinle, which are important examples of this modern German painter. The ornamentation that surrounds the frescoes, and that on the lower parts of the walls are not so good in colour or form as that of the vaulted ceiling. The work on the latter is good in colour and successfully carried out. The vaults have crimson-red, and blue background alternating, on which are painted a well-designed scroll-like ornamentation in lighter shades with some gold introduced on the mouldings and other parts, the whole effect being rich and pleasing.

Richly coloured carved wood ceilings, in low relief, which contain numerous heraldic shields arranged in panels, and set in suitable ornamentation of foliage forms and ribbon-work, are found in nearly all of the more important rooms in the German town-halls. One of the finest examples of a coloured and carved ceiling is the one which adorns the Kaiserhalle in the Römer, or town-hall, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. This magnificent ceiling is carved in low-relief which gives it a suitable flat appearance. The rich tinctures of the charges on the shields, combined with the gold and silver that is used, produce, with the dark background of the natural brown colour of the wood, an extremely satisfactory example of refined decoration. This ceiling is certainly the best of its kind that we can remember to have seen in any German city. The walls of this magnificent chamber are decorated with good full-length portraits of the German and Prussian kings and emperors. At the entrance end of the hall there is a seated figure of Charlemagne, by Veit, and in the panel above is a wall painting by Steinle with the subject of “The Judgment of Solomon.” The full-length portrait of Frederick I (1152-90), is an unusually fine work by Lessing.

Another example of a finely carved and painted ceiling, is that of the Council Chamber in the Rathaus, or town-hall at Hildesheim. Here also are seen the heraldic devices, with figures and elaborate scroll-work which compose the design of this ceiling. The general scheme of the colouring is rich and deep in tones of red, blue, gold, on the background of dark brown wood. The walls of this Gothic chamber are decorated with fine paintings in fresco by H. Prell, begun in 1892. With the exception of there being too much darkness in some parts, they are otherwise brilliant and luminous in colour, and may be said to be among the best examples of fresco technique in Germany.

The interior of the town-hall at Aix-la-Chapelle is admirably decorated, and in a similar manner to those of Hildesheim and Frankfort. The Coronation Chamber in this building contains the celebrated historical fresco paintings by Alfred Rethel, four of which were painted by this artist, and the other four were designed by Rethel, but painted by Professor Kehren. The vaulted ceilings and piers are richly decorated in colour, and windows with stained glass.

The principal staircase walls of the New Museum in Berlin are decorated with six great frescoes by Kaulbach, representing certain epochs in the history of mankind. These wall paintings are executed in the water-glass method of fresco. As wall decorations they are too pictorial in design, and the treatment, in the matter of colouring and technique, lacks simplicity. They are over-modelled in their light and shade, and the colouring presents too many violent contrasts, which greatly injures their value as monumental examples of legitimate wall decoration. Wherever white or light yellows occur in the work, these parts of the painting have evidently become disintegrated, and at present show a disagreeable chalkiness or bloom. This, together with the presence of many black and heavy shadows, which appear to have gone darker, if possible, with age, combine to throw the painting out of tone. In composition and drawing they are not without grandeur of style, but if they had been more simple in treatment, and less violent in colour and light and shade effects, they would be more pleasing as wall decorations.

In the Hall of the Gods, and in the two adjoining rooms on either side of the small vestibule in the Glyptothek at Munich there are some important frescoes by Cornelius, painted in 1820-30. The subjects of these paintings are classical, and represent the Abode of the Gods, the Legend of Prometheus, and the Trojan wars, all painted in rich and brilliant schemes of colour, but bordering on harshness. There is a great deal of auxiliary decoration in these rooms consisting of good examples of ornamentation in the Greco-Roman style of Grottesche in painting and in stucco-reliefs. The new Town-hall of Munich is well decorated with wall paintings, ornament, and heraldic work. The Council Chamber has a very large wall painting executed in oil on canvas by Piloty. The subject is an Allegorical History of Munich, and the magistrates’ room has paintings by Lindenschmit and is also adorned with a finely carved and painted ceiling.

One of the finest schemes of modern German decoration is that of the great staircase of the Albertinum Sculpture Gallery at Dresden. The frescoes, by H. Prell, on the ceiling and walls have subjects of Greek mythology and are painted in bright and light schemes of colour, the general effect being very luminous, and the work is vigorous in execution. The dado and lower stonework has panels of bronze with low-relief decoration, and in the corridor of the landing there are some fine panels in mosaic.

Fresco, mosaic, tiles, and coloured marble have frequently been used, as the means of obtaining colour decoration on the exteriors of many public buildings in Germany, in modern times. On the upper part of the façade of the Kunst-Gewerbe Museum at Berlin there are a fine series of square-shaped panels containing mosaics in colour on gold grounds, designed by Professor Ewald, and by Geselchap.

The exterior wall of the Royal Historical Museum at Dresden has an important decoration, consisting of a long and deep frieze, executed in a light yellow stone-colour and black on a gold-coloured ground. The material is a kind of porcelain or tile composition, having a sgraffito-like treatment. The work was made in the Royal Porcelain Manufactory at Meissen. The subject of this frieze is a procession of kings and warriors of Saxony on horseback who ruled from 1170 to 1873, and who are represented in chronological order.

There are many buildings in Germany that have had their exteriors decorated with paintings in fresco, but much of this work is now in a decayed condition. Many modern houses, such as restaurants and shops, have exterior decorations painted in oil. The outside walls of the Old (Alt) Museum at Berlin have an extensive arrangement of panels painted in fresco, having mythological subjects, such as the Labours of Hercules, etc., but they are now in a dirty and faded condition. As an example of exterior colouring we might mention the beautiful Gothic fountain, the Schöne Brunnen, erected about 1360, in the market place of Nuremberg. This fountain is built in the shape of a pyramid, in a rich Gothic style; it has, however, been restored several times. It is decorated with many figures of kings, prophets, apostles, and other worthies, and is always kept painted in its original colouring of blue, red, and gold.

We may conclude this review of German coloured decoration of buildings by a brief notice of some of the painted wood and stone carvings which are found plentifully in old German churches, and more particularly in those of Nuremberg. The Church of St. Lawrence at Nuremberg contains several examples of carved wood altar-pieces in the form of triptychs, the centre panels of which are carved with scriptural subjects, the figures being in high relief and painted in rich colours, in order to harmonise with the colour of the two painted leaves on either side of it. Hanging from the roof in the centre of this church is the celebrated circular wood carving by Veit Stoss, all richly coloured and gilt. It consists of a representation of the Annunciation, and the surrounding circular frame is of a beautiful design of open work ornamented with roses, and with seven medallions with representations of the Seven Joys of the Virgin. In this church there is also a very interesting fourteenth-century altar-piece in Gothic stone-carving which is erected in a bay on the left of the east end of the church. It is a good example of the colouring of the period, and is painted in tints of yellowish-red and warm green, with a soft dull blue in the background parts, and the salient points and narrow mouldings are gilt. On many of the structural parts and mouldings of this Church there are still remains of the fourteenth and fifteenth century colouring. Remains of similar colouring are found in many parts of the Church of St. Sebaldus, at Nuremberg, more particularly on the ribs of the vaults, piers, and ceilings, etc. In this church may be seen the celebrated Crucifixion with the figures of the Saviour, the Virgin, and St. John, in carved wood and richly coloured, which is the work of Veit Stoss (1520). Another example of painted and gilded wood carving in this church is the statue of the Madonna (1450) under a canopy of Gothic design.

PLATE 26.--EXAMPLE OF DIAPER PATTERN, USED IN ITALIAN, GERMAN AND ENGLISH DECORATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]

PLATE 27.--EXAMPLE OF DIAPER ORNAMENT, USED IN ITALIAN, GERMAN AND ENGLISH DECORATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]