International studio (27.1905/1906(1906))

A Glance at the Holiday Art Books


GHIRLANDAIO
FROH “THE NATIONAL GALLERY”
(erederick WARNE & CO.)

ing means of livelihood. For, as the writer says
with emphasis, the portrayal of incident hinders the
expression of artistic thought. He even suggests
that “patriotic or military aspiration and sympa-
thy, in all their forms, from pity to rejoicing,”
should be forbidden expression in colour, and
limited to black and white.
Arm-in-arm with this author cornes Mr. Charles
FI. Caffin with his book, “How to Study Pictures.”
(The Century Company, 8vo., $2.00 net). He
would not object to having the volumes braced
together as comparison is the scheme of his. As in
the case of the other, the title suggests a more gen-
eralized application than, happily, no doubt, is
found. Mr. Caffin runs the gamut from Cimabue
and Giotto to Monet and Gaho, taking his repre-
sentative men in this mann er by pairs. The device
can hardly be too well commended. It brings
appreciation instantly down out of the thin air to
the solid earth of a Contemporary foil. At times
the grouping is obvious of itself, as when the repro-
duction of Botticelli’s Madonna Enthroned faces
that of Memling’s.Firg'-m Enthroned, conventional

religious expression in two moods, allegorical and
naive. At other times the juxtaposition is bolder
and the comment correspondingly ingenious, as
when the author compares Correggio’s Mystic
Marriage of St. Catherine with Michaelangelo’s
Jeremiah. Except for this driving ideas in double
harness, the material and judgments are not un-
familiar; but the task is done thoroughly and rnany
things are happily put. The apparatus for work
includes a good index, glossary, bibliography and
chronological table, all serviceable to the Student,
to whom the volume is aclmirably adjusted.
Among the collections that go to the making of
books this year, the London National Gallery is
represented by the publication of some 57 plates in
photogravure with over 150 smaller half-tones in-
terspersed in the text of Gustave Geffroy. Sir
Walter Armstrong, director of the National Gal-
lery, Ireland., contributes an historical introduction.
Great pains have been taken with the mechanical
perfection of the reproductions, and the work ranks
well. (Frederick Warne & Co., N. ¥., demy 4to
half-white vellum, $10.00 net).
The Royal Gallery of Fine Arts in Venice is the
subject of an exposition raissonne by Mary Knight
Potter, who, following her earlier books, “The Art
of the Vatican” and “The Art of the Louvre,”'
gives this the title, “The Art of the Venice Acade-
my.” (L. C. Page & Co., Boston, 8vo, $2.00 net).
The author, in an endeavour to follow chronological:
sequence, largely disregarded in the numbering of
the rooms and in the contents thereof, compromises-
by taking room by room, but in her own order.
Phebe Estelle Spalding has prepared a topical
Collection of a populär sort under the title,“ Woman-
hood in Art.” (Paul Eider and Company, San
Francisco, 4to, $1.50 net). The Venus de Milo,
Mona Lisa, Beatrice Cenci, the Sistine Madonna
and the Madonna of the Chair are grouped with
Dagonet’s Eve in the Luxembourg.
Of a different scope is a “history of biblical
art,” by which is rneant the illustration of the
Bible and the treatment of its subjects in sculpture,
painting and clecoration, written by Estelle AI.
Hurll under the title, “The Bible Beautiful.” (L.
C. Page & Co., Boston, 8vo, $2.00 net). The
subject is as vast as it is extraordinarily interesting,
and the book, pleasantly illustrated, is packed with
mention from the Catacombs of St. Callixtus to the
Boston Public Library.
In biography, a volume on Hogarth, by G. Bald-
win Brown, professor of Fine Art in the University
of Edinburgh, is added to the series edited by J. A.
Manson on “The Alakers of British Art.” (Im-

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