Painted Ceilings.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 6, 2 April 1906, Page 138

Painted Ceilings.

Rubens received for his painting of the grand plafond at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, the sum of The space covered b/ this painting is about 400 yards, so that he was paid nearly a yard. In addition to this remuneration, he was knighted, and a chain of gold was also presented to him by Charles I. Sir James Thornhill, the -first Englishman who received knighthood for his ability in art, was paid only a yard for the laborious work on the ceiling of Greenwich Hospital, and only £1 a yard for painting the ornaments on the walls. " The Duke of Montague," says Sir James Thornhill, in his memorial to the commissioners for building the hospital, " paid Monsieur Rosso for his saloon /2,000, and kept an extraordinary table for him,

his friends and servants for two years, while the work-was doing at-an expense estimated at per annum." Signor Verno was paid for the whole palaces of Windsor and Hampton Court —ceiling, front, and back stairs —at Bs. a foot, which is £3 12s. a j'ard exclusive of gilding and wine daily allowed to him, lodgings in the palaces and when his eyesight failed him a pension of £220 per annum, and an allowance of wine for lite. Numerous other

instances might be given to show the large amount of employment this now comparatively unused description of house decoration once afforded to artists of ability.