§ MR. CAVENDISH BENTINCKsaid, be wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, Whether the Commission appointed to investigate the causes of the decay of the Frescoes in the Houses of Parliament have made a Report; and whether, if so, it will be presented before the close of the Session?
MR. COWPER, in reply, said, the Fine Arts Commission wore last year induced to inquire into the decay and unaccountable deterioration in the Frescoes in the Houses of Parliament, and more particularly those in the upper waiting hall. The Fine Arts Commission committed the inquiry to eminent connoisseurs, who united a practical acquaintance with fresco painting with a general knowledge of art. On this Committee were Sir Coutts Lindsay, Mr. Ruskin, Mr. L'Estrange, and Mr. Gambler Parry; and as chemical causes might have occasioned the decay, Mr. Hoffman was associated with them. Those gentlemen examined very minutely and elaborately into the state of the wall paintings in the building, and questioned the artists who painted them. Many causes for the decay were suggested to them—such as the influence of the gas on the paintings, the adulteration of the pigments, and the possibility of the artist having painted on the lime after it was dryer than it ought to have been. But the Committee were unable to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. The Commision had brought their labours to an end, and had made their final Report, which would shortly be submitted to the House, and therefore they would not be able to assist further in the solution of the difficult problem. He might say, however, that the money voted for fresco paintings would not, in future, be spent upon the same method of painting as that in which the decay had hitherto unhappily occurred. It would be employed in painting according to the water glass method, which was more impervious to atmospheric influences.