International studio (14.1901)

Reviews

Viitura Italiana antiqua e Moderna. By
Alfredo Melano. (Milan : Hoepli.)—This is
an admirably arranged and most useful little
volume somewhat spoiled in its general appear-
ance by the very narrow margin of its pages,
the result probably of its author’s wish that it
should serve as a pocket guide to travellers. It
begins with Etruscan and ends with Neo-classic
and modern painting, passing in exhaustive review
all the most typical examples of the pictorial
art which the Italian peninsula has produced.
The illustrations are excellent, and include a
great number of reproductions of works of art
which have not hitherto been rendered easily
accessible to the student. The frescoes and
painted pottery from Cometo, Vulci, Pompeii and
elsewhere are well chosen and characteristic,
whilst the examples of early Christian art from
the catacombs and churches are equally felicitous.
The gradual evolution of painting from its
subordinate position as a mere adjunct to architec-
ture to that of an independent art, can be readily
traced in this admirable series of pictures; and,
alas, its gradual decline in Italy during the 17th
and 18th centuries, when the religious zeal
which had produced so many masterpieces was
waxing cold, is equally well brought out. The
author expresses great hopes of a revival in his
native land of the art which made her a leader
in Europe for nearly two hundred years, and gives
a list of modern Italian painters of talent, many
of whom, notably Segantini, have shown some
of the reverent feeling for truth and beauty which
characterised their great predecessors. The
Vittura Italiana is one of a series of hand-books
which would well repay translation into English,
for unfortunately few of those to whom it would
be most useful are likely to be able to read it
in the original.

Spanien. By Jozef Israels. (Berlin : B. and
P. Cassirer. 1900.)—A delightful book by a great
artist! The future biographer of Jjosef Israels
has only to read this volume to find out all he
desires about the man. The man is higher than
the artist; but only an artist, only a painter, indeed,
can invest landscape with its own character, its
own mood—so to speak—its own colours, as
Israels has done in his representations of these
solitary Spanish mountains, these lovely Mediter-
ranean sea scenes. Only occasionally is any
reference made to the art of the past. The Lauzas
of Velasquez reminds the author of Rembrandt’s
animated Night Watch, In Seville he discovers,
besides Murillo, whom he finds too sugary and

uniform, the hard and ungainly Morales. The
book is very well produced, and contains numerous
reproductions of drawings by the author—rapid
sketches of bits of scenery, groups of figures.
One and all they are full of character, and, mere
sketches as they are, display the deep significance
and the beauty of tone characteristic of this great
artist. Thus Israels’ book will worthily occupy the
modest place it is intended to fill among the books
written by artists.

Attraverso gli Albi e le Cartelle (Sensazioni
d'Arte). By Vittorio Pica. (Bergamo: Istituto
Italiano d’Arte grafiche.)—This album of modern
black-and-white work, got up something in the
style of the special numbers of The Studio, is
the first of a series dealing with the art of illustra-
tion. It includes specimens of the drawings of
men so widely different as Redon, Rops, Goya,
Hokusai, Utamaro, Caldecott, and Walter Crane,
with the result that the work of Japanese and
English artists contrasts very favourably with that
of the French, Belgian, and Spanish. Odilon
Redon’s grotesque faces, birds such as never
flew, flowers which never grew except in his
imagination, are accorded a lion’s share of space.
He is succeeded by Felicien Rops, whose Belgian
fellow-countrymen consider him the greatest etcher
of the present day, but whose book illustrations,
full though they are of dash and cleverness, are
scarcely more alluring than the extraordinary pro-
ductions of Redon; whilst Henri De Groux and
Pkancesco Goya are ranked as equal, the numerous
examples of their work justifying this classification.
It is a relief to turn from all these very advanced
impressionists to the poetic Japanese masters,
whose decorative work has never been surpassed
in Europe. Self-restrained, dignified, suggestive,
the pictures of Hokusai, of Utamaro, -and the
rest of the great fraternity never fail to please;
they are as full of rest as those of Rops and Redon
are of unrest, and their subtly delicate tone values
are almost as impressive as colours. Amongst
the English names selected as representative it is
a pity that Aubrey Beardsley should have been
omitted; but the very appreciative notice of such
men as Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, and
Anning Bell speaks well for the acumen of the
Italian critic. It is, indeed, interesting to note
how well the characteristics of each master are
recognised. Some of the reproductions are un-
fortunately too much reduced for full justice to
be done to the originals; but larger ones, notably
that of the portrait of G. F. Watts, by Walter
Crane, leave nothing to be desired.

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