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THE NEW-YORK EXHIBITION ILLUSTRATED.

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the support of Sin John LIersciiel, and other distinguished physicists in England.He has also an important plan respecting a uniform guage for ships’ screwbolts,'which he is urging at present upon the attention of the English Admiralty, andalso upon our authorities at Washington—the adoption of which will be a greatblessing to all maritime nations.

The readers of the London Akt Journal have not forgotten the admirablepaper of Mr. Wallis on “ Art, Science and Manufacture as a Unity,” an essayin four chapters, which elicited from Mr. Hall, the distinguished editor of the ArtJournal, a complimentary prize of one hundred guineas. Mr. Wallis is Head Mas-ter of the Government School of Design at Birmingham, to which situation he wasadvanced by his merits from the same post in the Manchester School of Design,which he had formerly held. It is to be hoped, that one result following ourAmerican Exhibition will be the establishment of similar schools of design for thebenefit of our manufacturing districts, in which all who choose may have anopportunity to study the principles and practice of Art.

The Agricultural interest of Great Britain could not have been confided toa better representative than Prof. John Wilson. Ilis long experience as awriter and teacher, fit him peculiarly for this department. Formerly Principalof the Eoyal Agricultural College at Cirencester, and Chairman of the Commis-sion on Juries at the London Exhibition, he has enjoyed rare advantages formaking himself thoroughly acquainted with all that relates to the great depart-ments of Agriculture and the Raw Materials generally. He will give his specialattention to our resources in produce, and in agricultural tools and implements.

A glance at the various Juries and Commissions in the “Report of the Juries”of the London Exhibition, will show that all the gentlemen upon the present Com-mission are men of large experience in their several departments, and quitefamiliar with the detail of management upon such occasions as the present.Mucli of the success of this Commission, in forming a correct estimate of theresources and relative position of the United States, will depend upon the treat-ment they meet, at the hands of the various parties to whom they must resort asthe reliable sources of information, in the several departments to which their Com-missions refer. We cannot for a moment question that they will find every wherethe greatest willingness to forward their views. We hope that they may be ableto say that they have found no doors closed against their entrance, and no narrow-minded withholding of the various information sought. Sucii unwillingness,where it exists, is generally a proof of weakness; and it is certainly true that wehave, in nearly everycase, more to gain than we have to impart, especially in thevarious arts of applied science.

INTERIOR DECORATION.

TNTERIOR decoration has been practised in different countries from the most re--L mote periods, and it has assumed national and marked characteristics, as amongthe Egyptians, Assyrians, Hindoos, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, and Saracens. Fromthe greater freedom of intercourse in later periods, the peculiarities of the art havebeen less decidedly pronounced, yet there has always been in each style sufficientto render it national and unique ; as the Renaissance, the Raffaelesque, and the Ara-,besque. The latter, whose beauty and suitability to modern times, has caused it tobe so widely diffused, commenced, and was invented by Lucius, a painter of thetime of Augustus C.«sar. The exquisite frescoes of the Baths of Titus, buried forcenturies in the devastations of the Roman wars, were resuscitated in the sixteenthcentury, and the sight of them revived the style of the Arabesque, which wasbrought out and perfected by the priiice of painters, Raffael d’UaisiNO, sincewhose time it has received the name of the Raffaelesque style of decoration.

Greece and Italy have been foremost in all the arts of design, and the orna-ments of their dwellings and public buildings have remained as examples and au-thorities of taste, down to our own age. The Greeks carried the arts into Italy,and the paintings at Pompeii and Herculaneum are the works of Greek artists.The Italian houses are still decorated, from the abode of the artisan to the palaceof the noble:, the former in tempera (distemper, or size-color erroneously calledfresco in the United States), the latter in genuine fresco, which is painting on a wotstucco. The colors of genuine fresco become permanent and indelible; distemper,on the contrary, is easily obliterated, and has none of the high qualities of fresco.Germany, in the present day, is following Italy in interior decoration, and has pro-duced some of the finest works of modern times under the patronage and direc-tion of Louis I., ex-king of Bavaria.

In England, where wealth might be expected to minister to taste, the uphol-sterer, not the artist, is consulted by the nobility; there is therefore abundance ofpaper and gilding, but little art, or genuine taste, in the disposition of ornamentin English mansions. New-York, in this respect, bids fair to surpass London, for al-ready there are several buildings that show specimens of good taste and judgmentin artistic decoration. It is true, they are not in fresco, though called so, but indistemper; yet when this fact is generally known, proprietors and societies willdemand the real fresco done in the stucco, instead of that which has only its name,

since the difference between the two is more than nominal. Much has been donehere in cliiaro-oscuro (brown and white), but these decorations seldom go beyondornament, and may be executed chiefly by mechanical means, while fresco requiresa combination of all the highest excellencies of art.

Interior decoration, as practised by the Egyptians in their temples and palaces,though abounding in fine examples from which to learn principles of grandeur, is notcalculated for adoption, owing to the exclusively national character pervading it, cir-cumscribed still more by peculiar religious laws. The best specimens of decorativepainting among the Egyptians, are to be found on the coffins of their kings and nobles.These are in tempera, or size-color, afterwards varnished; burnished gold also formsparts of these elaborate decorations which resemble in some degree the highlywrought illuminations of the fifteenth century. The Egyptian mural decorationspainted on stucco, and modelled or incised into form, were inverted representa-tions like a seal engraving, and painted simply with local color; the flesh isreddish, without shadow or lights, cliiaro-oscuro forming no part of Egyptianpainting; rod, green, yellow, and black were used for tlie draperies, and blue,sometimes studded with stars, for the ceiling; while the walls were covered withhistories, legends, and ceremonies, painted on a white ground. Without perspec-tive, anatomy, or light and shade, Egyptian painting possesses dignity and eleva-tion. Its simplicity and severity of outline form the true elements of the sub-lime, and these high qualities characterized all tlieir architecture, as well asdecoration; vulgarity and commonplace were utterly excluded from both.

The interior decorations of Assyria and Babylon (with which the excavationsof Botta and La yard have made us acquainted), were based on nearly the sameprinciples as those of the Egyptians, except, that instead of being colored intaglios,they wore bas-reliefs in alabaster, showing motion and action, while in the formerall is passive. The eye, like that in Egyptian painting, is always full, evenin a profile view of the face. Many of the historic subjects arc on a blue ground,and must have bad a charming effect when first painted; the gorgeous chariots,with prancing horses, and the winged deities of colossal proportions, possess a de-gree of grandeur that compensates 1 for the absence of all lesser excellencies, andare well worthy of observation and study.

Tho Greeks, unlike the Egyptians and Assyrians, called into exercise all the agen-cies of art; though they gained rich stores of power from those nations, the Greekswere untrammelled and free to use every appliance that nature in lior infinitevariety presented. Egypt served ns a firm basis to the Greek, while Assyrian artsupplied him with materials for a superb superstructure, which lie carried to aheight that still makes men wonder and admire. The Greek temples and edifices,public and private, were decorated with infinite taste. Piiidias sculptured their ex-teriors, Polygnotus and Micon painted interiors in encaustic, as is recorded of thoPoecile, where, among many exciting subjects, the triumph of TnESEus and thovictory of Marathon, were executed by tho public desire.

The Greeks wore tho inventors of encaustic and fresco painting for decora-tion and these are tho two most valuable and durable modes for that purpose,Tho Romans eagerly adopted Greek art, for they discerned its pre-eminent excel-lence. Tho cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, originally Greek colonies, showGreek painting exercised under Roman influence and adapted to Roman customs.The encaustic and fresco paintings of Pompeii arc models of mural decoration ; andthe best we possess in modern times, is but a distant imitation of them. Thebeauty of the polychromatic stylo is there seen, transcending all the false pre-tensions of gilt, papier-mache and mirrored walls; and when exhumed after aburial of seventeen centuries, it reappears to instruct the eye of this enlightenedage, and to put to shame tho gewgaws and tinsel that are miscalled taste. Ephe-meral fashions, however good for trade, should be excluded from the arts, espe-cially in mural decorations; for want of observing this rule, there are numerouspalaces and churches, even in Italy, that exhibit all tho defects and corruptions ofthe period of Louis XIY. and Louis XV., and these, now that the fashion is past, areseen in all their native deformity; those on the contrary that combine fine tastewitli excellent workmanship, please now, as at first, and are esteemed by allnations. - *

It is to be regretted that cultivated Americans who enjoy the luxury of artabroad, should- be content with whitewashed walls at home. If any attempt ismade to decorate mansions here, it is generally in distemper (brown and white)only, without figures, and this, though often costly, adds little to the value or in-terest of a house.

Encaustic is a method of painting with wax and color. The wax is dissolvedin naphtha, or some essential oil, and with this the wall or canvas is well saturated,and the preparation driven in by the application of heat. Tho ancients, as we see inspecimens from Pompeii, frequently used a coat of black, upon which they paintedthe subject with wax in a liquefied state mixed witli gum-mastic, or any adhesiveresin. After this a coat of wax varnish was given, and the whole submitted to asufficient heat to amalgamate and incorporate the painting and varnish together.In this state it is without glare, but a polish may be afterwards given by merefriction, if desired. When properly done, it is very durable, exceeding eventho durability of fresco, as may he seen by the works that still exist. Any, andevery color, may be. employed in encaustic, for wax possesses the quality of pre-