Studio: international art (20.1900)

Reviews

beyond indicating the varied reflections from the
opposite bank. A landscape by Maurice Cullen,
A.R.C.A., bathed in the thin sunlight of early
autumn, and an Early Moonrise by W. Brymner,
R.C.A., were other pleasing contributions. The
landscapes of Homer Watson, R.C.A., mostly
woodland scenes, were distinctively Canadian in
theme; The Black Schooner, by W. Brymner,
R.C.A., was a beautiful bit of colour ; and F. S.
Challener's Singing Lesson contained much good
painting. J. G.

TOKIO.—The Spring Exhibition of the
Nippon Bijutsuin, the Japan Institute
of Fine Arts, has had a fair measure of
success. Among the pictures there are
two by Mr. G. F. Curtis, an American, presumably
a pupil of M. Beisen Kubota. They are entitled
Spring Sea and Winter Morning, and they are
attractive for two reasons: partly because the
artist is a foreigner, and partly because he works
admirably for a foreigner. There are also some
good pictures by Messrs. Gyokudo Kawai, Taik-
wan Yokoyama, Shunso Hishida, Kogyo Terasaki,
Toshikata Midzuno, Tomone Kobori, Gekko Ogata,
and Kwanzan Shimomura, all of whom take their
subjects from Japanese ballads, and try to express
concretely the meaning implied in each song.

The Hakubakwai—a society of Japanese artists
who paint in European methods—recently held its
annual exhibition at Uyeno, and much interest
was excited by Mr. Shinya Watanabe's Fisherman's
Wife, and by other paintings of a realistic ten-
dency. Mention must also be make of Shukei
Naganuma's bronze statue of Prince Tadamasa
Mori, former lord of Nagato. It is a life-sized
statue, and it represents the great man on horse-
back, dressed in his jinbaori (a military cloak
without sleeves) and his jingasa (or military hat).

I. S..

REVIEWS.

The History of Gothic Art in England. By
E. S. Prior, M.A. (London : Bell & Sons.) Price
j£i us. 6d.—This history of Gothic art is a most
valuable addition to Architectural literature. Mr.
Prior undertakes to prove that our English art was
a monastic development of our own traditions,
whereas the French style was secular. While
acknowledging many important interchanges of
ideas, as at Canterbury and Rouen, Laon and
Westminster, he sums up by saying :—

"The two countries were as sisters, succeeding
134

as coheiresses of the same estate, but taking no
wealth one from the other."

In the admirable chapter on the Church Plan
the divergence of the English and French Gothic
is clearly illustrated by comparison of the typical
plans of old St. Paul's and Notre Dame.

Mr. Prior's view of the vexed question of the
origin of the pointed arch is, that it was English
and based on a structural expediency arising from
the transitional style.

Mr. Prior accepts the usual divisions of Gothic
architecture and further defines the 13th Century
as " sculptural," the 14th as " romantically de-
corative," the 15th as "vigorously architectural,"
and his arguments and illustrations bear out these
definitions. He points out that the development
and over-lapping of these styles was due to religious
causes and local conditions. For instance, while the
Benedictines were still building their romanesque
nave at Peterborough, St. Hugh began his great
work at Lincoln, and before the " decorated " Choir
of Selby was finished, the Gloucester mason had,
in 1337, achieved the purest Perpendicular.

The summit of Gothic Art was reached in the
Angel Choir at Lincoln, a town so situated as to
be geographically the meeting point of all the local
styles of our English work, which Mr. Prior takes
immense pains to define.

The various reasons given for the decline of
Gothic Art are of unusual interest—the decay of
monastic influence, the rise of individualism with
the increased prosperity of the country, and,
finally, in 1348, the Black Death—all tending to
lower the high standard reached in 1300.

It is impossible in the short space at our disposal
to follow Mr. Prior through his varied, if somewhat
complex, arguments on the growth of the English
styles. His book is not easily read or digested,
and requires a familiarity with our architecture
which is too often wanting. But the numerous
drawings by Mr. Horsley will help the reader in
his task; many of these are excellent, but some
have evidently suffered in reproduction. It is
difficult to imagine that the drawings of the screen
at Christ Church, Hants, or the door-way of the
Chapter House at Wells are by the same hand as
the view of the Chapter House at York.

It seems a pity that Mr. Prior stops short at the
year 1400; there is much work after that date,
which would not only make an interesting volume,
but would bring the History of Architecture up to
Mr. Blomfield's volumes on the Renaissance.

Taken as a whole, the book is a fine and
scholarly performance, and it is to be hoped