Studio: international art (37.1906)

Russian Peasant Industries

rud)

leafy forms carried down one side of the text—
severe and simple in drawing and colour, but very
effective. The writing is clear and beautiful, and
the smaller capital letters of blue are surrounded
by red lace-work design, but much less elaborate
C32ff3bOtTi in treatment than that of a later date.
WholbCtH Many other books might be mentioned, but these

J / two alone, to an artist with the capacity for adapting

C3OX) , U11sJ Of th£6€ such material to new use, should be a whole store-

two cometh the third house °lsuggcstion- ,;rhe/ccuompanyiung il,ustra"

Q „ tions will give some idea of what may be done in

ttjattS a })Olp lUiif- this direction. Much might be said, if space

T?dlilTQ ^CltOht 111 allowed, on the use to be made in the present

/e*'fr\\*\ * " * day of illumination. We still hope to see beau-

tiful altar books in our churches written and illu-
0£ # minated with something of the love which the

monks ot old bestowed upon their missals ; and
there are countless other ways in which the art
might be brought into use. E. A. I.

illuminated page by edith a. i bbs

R

USSIAN PEASANT INDUS-
TRIES. BY AYMER VAL-
LANCE, M.A.

decorated with delicate designs in white; these
leaves end in a curved sweep of stalk from which Although the peasant handicrafts- of Russia
grow full ivy-leaves, or in the long neck and head continued to be practised, without the loss of any
of a grotesque animal. of their traditional characteristics, until within

The other book is a Bible in the Royal Collec about half a century ago, the outer world knew
tion (r D. i), British Museum. This was painted practically nothing of them. The earliest
in England, and is typical English work of the occasion for the West to become acquainted
fourteenth century. Here we find beautifully with the Russian revival was the Paris Exhibi-
finished initial letters placed on square backgrounds tion in 1900. So well was the movement repre-
of colour and surrounded by a plain band of bur- sented there that the Russian village, as also the
nished gold. Lovely miniatures are sometimes Finnish pavilion, proved, it is no exaggeration
enclosed in these letters,
sometimes they are filled
with conventional designs
simply and beautifully ^VUk;::
treated. In many cases
the coiled foliated stem Ojpjj, J

ends in the neck and head r "'\.. :;r
of a strange beast, the W
whole design fitting into jjt ,.?' /■'■
the space allowed it in a 'A-'
delightful manner, the back-
ground being always of ^0
some plain colour — blue j§p A^MuSls,.

or deep rose-pink, laid on p^^^:;;:;;;:;:;:'
flat and decorated with »*V* S^H::;!!':

tiny dots or curves painted %^f%M^Mi:::i ' '

in white. There are few llp^lljljlj;^^
set borders in this book, ;aS8^«i"ia«m'fas^

but from the initials in antique drawn-thread work from the district of vei.iki ustioui;
some cases spring long and embroidery province of Vologda

241