The American Architect
Vol. CXIV
Wednesday, July 3, 1918
Sgraffito
By Maximilian F. Friederang
Number 2219
The grfTorj, The American Architect:
Affihlb time of my first visit in January, 1913, you inviteJjamje to write a series of articles on my re-discovery of gjjrlffito and fresco buono. I promised at the time, but upon looking over the field of investigation and tkewgkif I decided to let the matter rest for at least five years.
This time has expired, and a comparison of other artists’ work and my own for the last twenty-five years is full of interest and scientifically very valuable. The experience needed for such serious artistic undertakings must be great, indeed, and only the decorator and artist of superior quality is able to judge of its monumental character. From all the trials and struggles there may be gathered solid and harmonious information, both as to the practical and the artistic sides of the question.
It is only an artist of advanced education and experience who will have courage to step into new fields with any degree of confidence. Another, not so sure of himself,
and less happily balanced, will progress more slowly, will take smaller steps and investigate painstakingly and with diligence. It is true—“Be on your guard; distrust traditions. Tradition is only a guide.” Here as elsewhere the element of discrimination must play a large part in one’s activities. Go not to the most brilliant, the most surprising and unusual for your traditions, but to the sincerest and simplest, and the most thorough.
In sgraffito this matter of discriminating must be the artist’s guide to a very large extent. He must learn to discard the lesser truths, and to know that as all art lives by sacrifice, this art also can live only by the sacrifice of certain phases of artistic practice. True simplicity must ever guide the designer and decorator who explores the dignified realms of sgraffito. The basic laws of equilibrium, repose and proportion must be maintained, often at the expense of the lesser clevernesses of practice, and often used to conceal defective technique.
Maximilian F. Friederang.
T
HE term Sgraffito is derived from the Italian word, sgraffiato or sgraffito. It signifies a method of scratch work, or hatching, on fresh plaster, black and white work, or any other dark and light color combination, and the chiaroscuro of writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The system of plastic decoration is that in which we are interested.
Sgraffito, in its simpler forms, constitutes a very elementary sort of artistic expression. Indeed, it is claimed by some writers that sgraffito was the earliest form of drawing. Drawing in the sand, on snow, on the bark of a tree, or on stone, are all primitive expressions of this art. The same method of workmanship is also found in early pottery, and was used very extensively in Egypt, India, Persia, China and Japan, as well as in Greece and Rome. On this side of the globe we find excellent sgraffito work in Mexico and Peru.
However, little is known at the present time of the methods and scope of its use in the early history of these countries. It first comes into prominence as a type of architectural decoration during the Renaissance. At the time of the exhumations of
the Baths of Titus, in the sixteenth century, sgraffito was re-discovered by Pietro Luigo.
Luigo, together with Andrea Feltrini, sought to revive this method of plastic decoration, and finally succeeded in bringing it into considerable prominence. Due largely to the efforts of Feltrini, also called di Cosimo, who profited extensively by the efforts of Luigo, sgraffito attained a wide popularity for purposes of external decoration. It is said that a very large percentage of the sgraffito to be found in Florence is his work, that of his pupils, or can be traced to his influence clearly.
His method was to apply to the surface to be decorated an intonaco of dark plaster, which, while fresh, was covered with a white or light colored stucco. The cartoons were transferred, cut through with a graving iron to expose the dark surface underneath. Finally the whole composition was glazed over with a silicated transparent wash.
Cosimo applied sgraffito very successfully to the facades of a number of important Florentine buildings, the first of which was the Palazzo Gondi in the Borgo, followed by the Palazzo Agnissanti, and many other buildings, which still invite our students
Copyright, 1918, The Architectural & Building Press (Inc.)
Vol. CXIV
Wednesday, July 3, 1918
Sgraffito
By Maximilian F. Friederang
Number 2219
The grfTorj, The American Architect:
Affihlb time of my first visit in January, 1913, you inviteJjamje to write a series of articles on my re-discovery of gjjrlffito and fresco buono. I promised at the time, but upon looking over the field of investigation and tkewgkif I decided to let the matter rest for at least five years.
This time has expired, and a comparison of other artists’ work and my own for the last twenty-five years is full of interest and scientifically very valuable. The experience needed for such serious artistic undertakings must be great, indeed, and only the decorator and artist of superior quality is able to judge of its monumental character. From all the trials and struggles there may be gathered solid and harmonious information, both as to the practical and the artistic sides of the question.
It is only an artist of advanced education and experience who will have courage to step into new fields with any degree of confidence. Another, not so sure of himself,
and less happily balanced, will progress more slowly, will take smaller steps and investigate painstakingly and with diligence. It is true—“Be on your guard; distrust traditions. Tradition is only a guide.” Here as elsewhere the element of discrimination must play a large part in one’s activities. Go not to the most brilliant, the most surprising and unusual for your traditions, but to the sincerest and simplest, and the most thorough.
In sgraffito this matter of discriminating must be the artist’s guide to a very large extent. He must learn to discard the lesser truths, and to know that as all art lives by sacrifice, this art also can live only by the sacrifice of certain phases of artistic practice. True simplicity must ever guide the designer and decorator who explores the dignified realms of sgraffito. The basic laws of equilibrium, repose and proportion must be maintained, often at the expense of the lesser clevernesses of practice, and often used to conceal defective technique.
Maximilian F. Friederang.
T
HE term Sgraffito is derived from the Italian word, sgraffiato or sgraffito. It signifies a method of scratch work, or hatching, on fresh plaster, black and white work, or any other dark and light color combination, and the chiaroscuro of writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The system of plastic decoration is that in which we are interested.
Sgraffito, in its simpler forms, constitutes a very elementary sort of artistic expression. Indeed, it is claimed by some writers that sgraffito was the earliest form of drawing. Drawing in the sand, on snow, on the bark of a tree, or on stone, are all primitive expressions of this art. The same method of workmanship is also found in early pottery, and was used very extensively in Egypt, India, Persia, China and Japan, as well as in Greece and Rome. On this side of the globe we find excellent sgraffito work in Mexico and Peru.
However, little is known at the present time of the methods and scope of its use in the early history of these countries. It first comes into prominence as a type of architectural decoration during the Renaissance. At the time of the exhumations of
the Baths of Titus, in the sixteenth century, sgraffito was re-discovered by Pietro Luigo.
Luigo, together with Andrea Feltrini, sought to revive this method of plastic decoration, and finally succeeded in bringing it into considerable prominence. Due largely to the efforts of Feltrini, also called di Cosimo, who profited extensively by the efforts of Luigo, sgraffito attained a wide popularity for purposes of external decoration. It is said that a very large percentage of the sgraffito to be found in Florence is his work, that of his pupils, or can be traced to his influence clearly.
His method was to apply to the surface to be decorated an intonaco of dark plaster, which, while fresh, was covered with a white or light colored stucco. The cartoons were transferred, cut through with a graving iron to expose the dark surface underneath. Finally the whole composition was glazed over with a silicated transparent wash.
Cosimo applied sgraffito very successfully to the facades of a number of important Florentine buildings, the first of which was the Palazzo Gondi in the Borgo, followed by the Palazzo Agnissanti, and many other buildings, which still invite our students
Copyright, 1918, The Architectural & Building Press (Inc.)