International studio (15.1901/1902(1902))

American Studio Talk

the words, “Executed in glass by Thomas Wright,”
a graceful acknowledgment of the latter’s long and
faithful service and of his far more than ordinary
skill and taste, which have contributed so largely to
the superiority of La Farge’s windows. Theirs has
been a remarkable companionship in labor, the one
so fertile in ideas, the other in expedients; the
craftsman so intuitively divining the artist’s desire
and possessed himself of a rare discernment and
subtlety in the sense of color. It is a characteristic
of La Farge’s design that it is conceived in color
and with close relation to the medium in which it
is to be executed, and in this gifted craftsman he
has found one who was much more than an assist-
ant, who could, in fact, collaborate.

The window when set in place will receive a cool
light, and it is probably with this in view that the
color scheme is one of more than usual glitter, a
margin having been allowed for the subduing effect
of its permanent environment. As it is, seen in
the bright southern light of the studio in Washing-
ton Square, where it has been temporarily exposed,
the effect is at first amazing in its bewilderment of
sparkle. Some little time is needed until the eye
becomes in a measure habituated to the radiance
before the essential richness of the color scheme is
realized. The chief drapery of the central figure is
a rosy geranium, its folds disposed with a marvel-
lous feeling for decorative lines as well as for the
structure of the figure, offering a labyrinth of softly
fluted curves, the raised and channelled parts of
which reflect in infinite diversity the hide-and-seek
of the colored light. Above this glowing centre
the canopy is pale, translucent gold, these two
main color motives being balanced in the larger
spaces by a ground of deep blue and warm green.
The blue is echoed in light tones in the drapery of
the old man, and the costume of the youth responds
to the red in notes of stronger scarlet and to the
gold with embrowned yellow ; while throughout the
composition are fluttering correspondences and
oppositions in primary or complementary hues.
These meagre words may possibly suggest what a
brilliant fantasy of color the window presents. It
is, indeed, an effort of splendid imagination,
though, probably, lacking in that quality of elemen-
tal control exhibited in many of this artist’s other
windows. In studio jargon it is not so simple
architectonically, and perhaps for this reason is not
so inherently significant.

But, if there be any lack of structural significance,
it is in a measure remedied by the solemn meaning-
fulness of the three principal figures : the youth, so

strongly passive, waiting on the brink of life, as it
were, for the moving of the waters ; the old man,
patiently passive, aware alike of the power and the
futility of wisdom, and Wisdom herself, passive
also with something of the Buddhistic impenetrabil-
ity of calm. For it is interesting to try and trace
the sources of the various memories co-ordinated
in this window. "Fhe general scheme is that of an
Italian altar-piece, and the architecture is Renais-
sance in suggestion. But in the softness of its out-
lines and the languorous fervor of movement and
color there is more of Byzantine feeling, while the
elaboration of the angels at the top is not a little
reminiscent of Baroque. The drapery of the cen-
tral figure is purely Greek in character, and again
the head of the old man is of the sort that Rem-
brandt painted. Such diversities of interest, whether
or not their provenance be correctly traced, are char-
acteristic of La Farge’s work, for from a mind stored
with memories he selects consciously or uncon-
sciously whatever will subserve his own independent
creative impulse. — From New York Sun.

BOOK NOTICES.

The Study and Criticism of Italian Art. By

Bernhard Berenson. George Bell & Sons.

Imported by The Macmillan Company, 66 Fifth

Avenue, New York Price, $3.00.

This is a gathering into one volume of essays on
the following subjects: “Vasari in the Light of
Recent Publications ; ” “ Dante’s Visual Images,
and his Early Illustrators; ” “ Some Comments on
Correggio in Connection with his Pictures in Dres-
den ; ” “The Fourth Centenary of Correggio;”
‘‘ Amico de Sandro;” “Certain Copies after Lost
Originals by Giorgione;” “Venetian Painting
Chiefly before Titian, at the Exhibition of Venetian
Art.”

The motive more or less pursued in these essays
is what Mr. Berenson himself in the preface urges
as the desirable one, that of qualitative analysis ;
getting, in fact, at a knowlege of the painter through
a knowledge of his works; disregarding, as far as
possible, the mass of literary and documentary
records, the innumerable anecdotes and readily
believed fiction, and applying to his pictures the
study of intelligent and refined connoisseurship.
The article on Sandro is particularly characteristic
of Mr. Berenson’s fearless and studious method.

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