Art: Fresh Frescoes

Perfect example of the art which grew up in Mediterranean sunlight and in contempt of all barbarians North, East and South (see above) is the art of fresco painting. On the island of Crete and in Egypt as early as 2,900 B. C. artists were already masters in the technique of mixing sand, lime and water to form a smooth wall covering, painting it while still wet with wet pigments in extremely delicate and elaborate designs. From that day to this, however, the skill of the fresco painter has depended largely on his speed, because the time limit for doing any section of wall before the plaster gets too dry to absorb colors has never been more than 24 hours. Artists familiar with centuries of failures to extend this limit were electrified last week at a report from Mexico City that a way had been discovered to keep plaster fresh for nearly two-and-one-half days.

While studying under Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera, Manhattan Artist Elizabeth Ely de Vescovi Whitman met a Mexican chemist, Gonzalez de la Vega, founder of the faculty of chemical sciences at the University of Mexico, who shared her interest in experiments at keeping frescoes fresh. First sign of success in their collaboration came when they used a spray of glycerine, lime, marble dust and water. But no matter how little glycerine they used it would appear later in small beads on the surface of the plaster. Then they tried butyl alcohol (butanol) with the same ingredients. This worked, but made the plaster surface too soft to work on. The final formula was the simplest: equal parts of butanol and water. Muralist Rivera, pleased as Punch, confirmed their claim that spraying walls with this preparation every three or four hours enables a painter to work twice as long on one section or to apply plaster to twice as large an area of wall at one swipe.