PLATE CXLI.

PAINTED ARABESQUE,

BY J. G. CRACE;

WITH DECORATION IN COMPOSITION BY JACKSON AND SONS, OF LONDON.

In offering, by way of illustration to the present plate, a few remarks on the successive changes whichhave led to the present condition of the art of decoration in England, we are attracted by a double interest

—the importance of the subject in its general aspect,—and its peculiar connexion with the career of the

gentlemen by whom the productions we engrave have been executed.

The style of interior decoration most usual in the present day unquestionably derives its origin, ratherfrom the peculiarities of Italian practice than from those of Gothic architecture; and it will be unnecessary,therefore, to refer to those periods in which the latter style obtained ascendancy. So early as the reign ofHenry VII. certain classical forms had intruded themselves into English art, and these, under his successor,became of comparatively frequent occurrence. Any scientific arrangement of such details was, however, scarcelyrecognised until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the mouldings and proportions of the Roman orders

were so much the subject of general admiration that fashion would scarcely tolerate any reminiscence of the

forms which had so long characterised the Gothic styles.

The example which Italy and France had set in adopting a more regular distribution of parts and a moreacademic treatment of facades, was speedily followed in England, and free translations of Lescot and Vignola werenot unsuccessfully carried out by John Thorpe, Robert and Bernard Adams, Lawrence Bradshaw, Gerard Christ-mas, Bernard Jansen, and other artists of the period. They, indeed, in the numerous mansions which theyerected, displayed a considerable mastery over the technical details of decorative art. Not only was the wood-work elaborately carved with quaint repetitions of classical details, but the ceilings were executed in handworkstucco, with great freedom and in many ingenious forms, and the walls were also frequently painted in heraldicdevices and rude arabesques, displaying at least a sympathy with the more perfect works of Italian origin, ifnot the ability to equal them.

As the English artists of the period referred to derived their knowledge of the details of the classic stylesprincipally from the engravings of the Italian masters and of the French and Flemish petits-maitres, considerableuncertainty existed as to the scale to which those details were most applicable. Hence the frequent reproduction,in a cabinet form, of parts suited only for colossal dimensions. As, however, the English became acquaintedby foreign travel with the great works upon the Continent, so their sense of the capabilities of the classicstyles became enlarged and corrected. The travels of John Shute , who, under the protection of Dudley,duke of Northumberland, visited Italy in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; those of Robert Adams, at asomewhat subsequent period; and those of Inigo Jones , at the commencement of the seventeenth century,tended in a high degree to promote a correct knowledge of the features which are most important to externalarchitecture, and of those superficial enrichments which are properly applicable to internal decoration.

In the Banquetting-house at Whitehall , the last-mentioned artist displayed his grandest conceptions ofpalatial magnificence; exhibiting his sympathy with that phase of art which in Italy covered the entire surfacesof important interiors with pictures by Correggio, Guido, Domenichino , and the Caracci. Magnificence was,indeed, essentially the characteristic of Inigo Jones ; and we are probably indebted to him for that profusion