CHAPTER II

THE VALUE OF COLOUR AS APPLIED TO ARCHITECTURE

It has been said that Architecture may be compared to a book, and that Sculpture and Painting are the illustrations which serve to explain the text and decorate the volume. It might be argued, however, that the text of the written book may be in itself a work of art, and therefore not require any explanatory illustrations or decorations. To a certain extent this may be quite true, but on the other hand a book will be more valuable, more useful, and more complete, as well as being more beautiful, by having the additional interest of a well-designed and appropriate setting of artistic and explanatory illustrations to embellish the text. And just as the written matter of the book should not be regarded as a mere background for the illustrations and decoration, neither should the architecture be so designed as to appear only as a background for the sculpture and painting, for the building is the important thing, but sculpture, painting, and ornamental decoration should be certainly employed to explain the architecture, to symbolise the use of the building, and to give additional interest and beauty to the fabric.

Colour in architecture ought to be employed in a structural sense, that is, it ought to be so used that it may help out, or confirm, the logical and indispensable features of a building that give to it the essential qualities of repose and stability, and the tones of colour, if judiciously selected and applied, will explain at a glance the various forms, features, divisions and sub-divisions of the architecture more rapidly and better than could possibly be hoped for in, say, a colourless or undecorated building. Therefore, in the diffused and somewhat darkened light of interiors the proper application of colour is of inestimable value, as an explanatory help in revealing the structural lines, the profiling of the mouldings, and the proportions of the architecture.

It is quite possible to decorate interiors in colour schemes of austere and extreme simplicity, in delicacy, in brilliancy, or in rich and full-toned splendour, in accordance with the nature and uses of the building, provided that we do not interfere with the essential quality of repose. In order that this important attribute of good architecture may be secured and maintained it is evident that neither sculptural nor coloured decoration should occur in isolated spots of interiors; they should not be dotted about, or applied here and there on walls, ceilings, pillars, mouldings, or other places, but should appear as essential and integral parts of the natural growth of a broad decorative scheme. It does not follow from this that certain parts of a building, such as the ceiling, the frieze, capitals of columns and the chancel-end or sanctuary of a church should not be more honoured by having a richer application of colour and ornament than the other parts of the building, but the inference is, that the latter should also be intelligently treated in colour and decoration, in a subordinate way, so that they will assist in the gradual leading up to the richer wealth of the more honoured and salient parts, and so become indispensable factors in promoting the unity of the entire scheme of decoration.

Coloured decoration which is only applied here and there in the interior of a building gives a spotty effect that is more than often futile and artificial. In the matter of church decoration it appears in our own country that just now it is more or less the custom to decorate the chancel-end of a church with a wealth of carving, stained glass, and richly-coloured ornamentation, and to leave the rest of the interior plain and colourless. We may be grateful, however, to find that the universal delight in colour, one of those things which we had “loved long since and lost awhile,” is now revealing itself in modern days after centuries of absence, and is expressing itself, timidly, and in isolated spots, but perhaps as time goes on it will spread again slowly, and let us hope surely, from one end of the building to the other.

We must admit that a fine eye for colour is a natural gift as much as a fine perception for form and proportion, or as a fine ear for music, but a love for all these things may be inspired in us from the work and teachings of the great masters of former ages, and certainly a love for colour from the teachings of nature and the great schools of painting and decorative art. That there was a golden age of decorative painting in England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we know from the remaining fragments of colour and decoration on the rood-screens and other parts of our old churches, and though the wall decorations have almost disappeared, the examples of painting which still remain on some of this old woodwork clearly testify to the importance of the English school of painting of the period mentioned.

We are more fortunate in our remaining possession of some of the finest stained glass in the world, which was designed and set up during the Middle Ages and early Renaissance times in England, and these rich and splendid “jewels set in silver setting” are a further proof of the keen delight of our early English decorators and craftsmen in the production of refined and beautiful colour.

Many people ridicule the colouring of the Middle Ages as inharmonious and barbarous. Such absurd ideas in respect to the use of colour by the old decorators may have been derived from the knowledge that in early times the artist’s palette was limited to three or four colours, besides black and white, and

that these colours, such as red, blue, green and yellow, were applied, in decoration, in their full strength, as undoubtedly they generally were. But it ought to be remembered that, however crude the colours may be, it is their arrangement, quantity, and proportion as to surface area in the scheme of decoration, that makes, or mars, the harmony, and not their individual strength, purity or crudeness. The early decorators hardly ever used broken tones or half-tones in their colour arrangements, and perhaps this largely accounts for the mistaken views that some hold in regard to the decorative colouring of the Middle Ages. There is of course a great beauty in broken-toned colouring, which is in much favour in modern decoration, but it is not a matter of much difficulty to harmonise such broken tones and tints. A greater difficulty is to harmonise an arrangement of colours in their full strength of hue, a task for a great colourist; but this we know has often been done successfully in all the best periods of art, and it certainly was done by the old decorators of the Middle Ages in painting, mosaic, enamels, and stained glass, in spite of the limitation of their palette, or, shall we say, because of it?

In all the great periods of art there was certainly the keenest delight in colour. It is difficult for some of us to believe that the Parthenon and other Greek temples, and also all of our old cathedrals were at one time highly coloured, but they certainly were so shortly after they were built. The modern prejudice against the use of colour in architecture set in about the same time that sculpture also became, like painting, an independent art, which was about the beginning of the decadence of the Renaissance, at the end of the sixteenth century.

The architect, sculptor and painter should confer together, and if possible work in harmony with each other, so that when a cathedral, a church, a city hall, or any other public building is about to be erected, the complete scheme of the finished decoration should be formulated when the plans are being made. At any rate, the architect should always determine and keep in mind the style and nature of the subsequent colour effect and decoration, and so design his building in accordance with such preconceived ideas. That would be the ideal way to plan a building, after the uses of the structure were clearly defined, but unfortunately we are aware that the cases are few and rare in which the architect is enabled to do this, or that he lives long enough to see his ideas carried out. We might point out one notable instance of modern work where the architect’s original ideas of the decoration are now being carried out, namely, in the new cathedral at Westminster. When planning this important building the architect thought out, very carefully, what the methods and nature of the colour finish were to be, and it is interesting and gratifying to find that the decoration of the brick shell of the building, including the main walls, the chapel, the crypt, and the sanctuary, are now being finished with a coloured marble sheathing, and with splendid mosaics, all of which he had made provision for in his original design.