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THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS.

serving even the most evanescent. Encaustic painting shows great softness anddelicacy, and does not, like an oil picture, become darker by time. It also reflects,instead of absorbing light, and on this account it is well seen by artificial light.

Fresco painting is altogether a different process from that of encaustic. It isalso, as remarked in the commencement of this article, far removed from what iscalled fresco in the United States,, where this branch of art is almost entirely un-known. Fresco, as its name implies, is painted while the mortar is wet. A pieceof stucco, composed of lime and sand, or lime and marble dust, is laid smoothlyon the wall, when the artist marks out his design, or as much of it as he can com-plete during the day, for real fresco does not admit of retouching when dry. Butfew colors are admissible in this process, as the causticity of the lime destroys allvegetable ones; the earths are used, and some few oxides and minerals; theFrench Guimet blue (the artificial ultramarine) is very valuable, as it affords asubstitute equal in appearance to the ultramarine, which formerly could only beobtained from the costly lapis-lazuli.

Fresco is acknowledged to be the finest variety of decorative painting.Michael Angelo said, that, compared with it, oil was fit only for womenand children; and Vasaei calls it, “veramente il piu virile, piii sicuro, piiirisoluto, e durabile, di tutte gli altri modi.” Great knowledge and skill are re-quired in each department of fresco, for no defects can be supplied, no mistakesremedied; the higher qualities of art, as composition, accurate drawing, and har-monious arrangement of color, are the points to be aimed at; grandeur and sim-plicity take the place of prettiness and detail, all must be masterly and decided;hence fresco is fitted to make great artists, and great designers, and we find thatwherever it has taken deep root in a country, the arts have held a high position,as in Italy, and in our own day in Germany, where the great frescoes of Cornelius,Overbeck, Kaulbacii, Lessing, Hess, and Sohnor, have rendered Munich illus-trious, and the resort of all who study or esteem the fine arts.

The United 'States, at a distance from the great examples of Europeanart, should endeavor to form a high standard of taste, both as a means ofelegant cultivation, and in order to advance their manufactures, for it is impossi-ble for these to flourish where the arts of design are uncultivated. Take away tasteand art from France, and what would become of her commerce ?

Every branch of design, but more especially mural decoration, has a decidedinfluence upon the manufactures of a country. It is natural to admire -and studyWhat is before and around us, and good taste, as well as sound judgment, isthus unconsciously promoted.

THE HEW CRYSTAL PALACE.

I T has always been a subject of deep regret with all who saw the London* Crys-tal Palace that it should have vanished like a beautiful dream, almost beforetheir eyes. It is known to all that the fairy-like structure of Hyde Park hasbeen removed, that the ground which it covered is again a verdant sward, andthat no trace remains to remind the inhabitants of Rotten Row that the mostwonderful structure of modern times once stood upon their inclosure. It maynot, however, be so generally known—and certainly not in the United States—thatthe removal of the Crystal Palace from Hyde Park has been only the prelude toits erection in a new and more beautiful form in the immediate vicinity of London.Many persons have affected to sneer at the Exhibition of 1851 as an ephemeral show,which made no more impression on the world’s industry, than the passing shadowupon the landscape. We do not envy such people either their logic or their per-ceptions, nor do we propose to waste words upon them. It is sufficient to saythat they forget, that as shadows cannot nowadays expect to escape if they fallupon the sensitive surface of a photographic paper or of a daguerreian plate, sothe public mind by its peculiar preparation for the scene in question, receivedfrom the brief exhibition of 1851, an enduring impression, a daguerreotyping ofnew ideas—the leaven of whose vitality will continue to work long after theheads that planned and the hands that realized them, have ceased to be.

One of the great lessons taught on that occasion, was the capacity of themasses to appreciate and enjoy the pleasures which flow from refined culture inwhatever direction. This lesson was so palpably plain, that a company of, enter-prising and most intelligent gentlemen was formed in London, who purchased theHyde Park building of the Commissioners, with a view to erecting it in a newand more favorable situation. This they have accomplished by securing a tractof ground, of over three hundred acres, in an inclosure known formerly as PengePark, near Sydenham, in the county of Kent, about six miles from London.This company possesses a paid up capital of nearly four millions of dollars.(£800,000), and the real estate on which the building is now re-erected, costmore money than the whole structure as it stood in London. Although the estab-lishment is as yet only in embryo, it already gives promise of a new species of enjoy-ment, refined and elevating in its character. There on the brow and summit of ahill, which commands a panoramic view of surprising extent and loveliness, theNew Crystal Palace is rising in loftier and more beautiful proportions than before."With its magnificent surroundings, and the treasures of Art and Nature contained

within its transparent walls, it will be worthy to represent to present and to com-ing time, the wealth of that nation, and that vast and imperial sway, whichDaniel Webster once thought a corresponding magnificence of language fitting todescribe. The arch of the central transept is now two hundred and ten feet fromthe ground, and a transept of proportionate dimensions is erected at each end.By these changes the interior capacity of the building has been materially increased,although the length has been diminished in consequence of them from 1,848 toabout 1,500 feet. In place of the flat, ridge-and-furrow roof, which covered anddisfigured the nave in the original building, a curved roof of glass has been sub-stituted—whose light and graceful arches blend harmoniously with the aerialeffect of the great transepts.

Sir Joseph Paxton is fully empowered to convert the surrounding groundsinto an Eden of rural delights. The form and situation of the property are admira-bly suited to the highest triumphs of landscape gardening. The sloping hill-sideattains an altitude so commanding, that a panoramic view is obtained on allsides. The parks and fresh fields of the luxurious vale of Kent in the foreground,and London and the misty hills beyond, open like a map beneath the spectator.Here the weary artisan, the pleasure-seeking, or the toil-worn citizen may share inall the newness and joy of the country, within sight of the mighty capitol,—thegreat throbbing heart of Christendom,—whose cloud of murky smoke which ever-lastingly hangs over it, speaks of wealth and power derived from a thousandwork-shops of 'industry. For eighteen pence (about 35 cents), visitors are takenup and back to London, the visit to the Crystal Palace and its grounds beingincluded. That is to say, a ride of twelve miles, and an enjoyment ad libitumin all the pleasures of the place, may be had for a little less than the sum else-where paid in England, for twelve miles of railway travelling alone.

The gentlemen who have formed this gigantic scheme to gratify and instructthe public, have done well to remember that its success depends upon itsbeing perfectly accomplished, and that a restriction of expenditure which shouldmar any of its attractive features, would make the whole a magnificent failure inplace of a triumphant success. Thus a million of dollars are devoted to the hy-draulic arrangements alone. Water is pumped by very powerful steam enginesto supply fountains and jets d’eau of every variety and of surprising height, whilecascades and lakes and streams are all created by the same illimitable power.Statues, temples of roses, and architectural decorations lend their power toembellish the rural attractions. The arrangement of the plants and trees, and floraldecorations of the grounds, is made with reference to their geographical distribu-tion and character, as well as their beauty and picturesque effect. The principleeverywhere prevails of uniting pleasure with instruction.

Within the building there will be an epitome of the great world without.The visitor in wandering down the nave, will pass in succession the characteristicvegetation of every zone, represented by the choicest and most perfect specimensof its living plants and trees; for under the lofty vaults of this new structure, themost ambitious palm-trees may rear their tufted heads. The immense collectionof exotics formed during the last fifty years by the Messrs. Loddiges, near London,has been purchased for the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds, to adorn theestablishment at Sydenham. These are disposed in the main entrance, halj, andporticoes, and are interspersed with statues and fountains, and at intervals, withaviaries of birds remarkable for their brilliant plumage or exquisite song.

As the great original works of art can be seen only by a long and carefulstudy of numerous museums scattered over the whole of Europe, and the wondersof ancient architecture only by still more laborious and costly explorations ofcountries now not always civilized or easily accessible; it is plain that suchpleasures must be restricted to the few, who may possess the wealth and leisurerequired for such undertakings. It has therefore been the design to group toge-ther at Sydenham models—-copies of exact size and color—of all the most notedstatues and groups which have come down to us from ancient Greece and Rome.For this purpose alone some sixty thousand pounds sterling have been applied,—andmany unique pieces ofsculpture have been thus reproduced for the first time. As, forexample, the renowned equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, at Rome, upon theCapitoline Hill, which was never suffered to be modelled before. Numerous similarobjects have been procured from the Museo Borbonioo at Naples, and from othermuseums.

The arrangements to exhibit ancient and foreign architecture, decorative artsand manners, both public and domestic, are upon a scale of corresponding com-pleteness. Across the grand entrance transept, four large and distinct courts areprovided,—“one devoted to the exhibition of the Italian and revived classicalstyles of art in various branches; another to the Elizabethan, French, and Flem-ish renaissance; a third to the Mediaival style, from its cloisters and tombs to itsivories and enamels; and a fourth to the Byzantine, Romanesque and Normanworks of Decorative Art. On the opposite side the visitor will wander throughan Egyptian Hall, with its multiplicity of columns all richly painted with deitiesand hieroglyphics, and pass into side courts constructed under the direction of Mr.Layard, after the fashion of the palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis. From thence hefinds his way into the less gorgeous, but more exquisite halls of Greece, wherevases of the finest contour, statues of faultless proportions, and models of the most•