DOI Heft:
Nr. 106 (December, 1905)
DOI Artikel:A glance at the holiday art books
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26961#0250
A Glance at the Holiday Art Books
ARCHES OE THE MI HR AB, MOSQUE, CORDOVA
EROM “MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN” (jOHN LANE COMPANY)
$2.00 net). Owing tothenatureof the building ma-
terial nearlyeverybitof architecture dating from the
first three centuries of Japan’s civilisation has been
destroyed in the constant wars and incessant mov-
ing of the court. The pagoda of Yakushiji and the
pagoda of Horiuji, of the few remaining speci-
mens, mark respectively the birth of a new archi-
tecture and one of its cherished models of Ivorean
workmanship. The schools of which these are
remains the author ranks with the already recog-
nised schools of classical, mediasval and Renais-
sance Europe. Later, after a long and honourable
course, longer than the periocl of anv of our West-
ern styles, the art finally deteriorated into the
trivialities and decadence of the Tokugawa period.
Yet with this degeneration in architecture it is curi-
ous to note the arts of decoration advanced, at least
until the opening of the ports by Commodore Perry.
J. Wood Brown adds to the Langham Series of
Art Monographs a concise survey, “Italian Archi-
tecture, Being a Brief Record of Its Principles
and Progress.” (Importecl by Charles Scribner’s
Sons, iömo, $1.00 net). To compress the full
sweep of the Roman and the Christian Roman,
the Byzantine, the Lombard and Gothic Roman-
escjue and the Renaissance styles into the compass
of sorne 25,000 words is a task the author performs
with credit. The publishers have given scope to
the illustrations also, with line drawings set in the
text and goocl reproductions of photographs.
Mr. Cram, whose book on Japanese architec-
ture has been noticed, publishes also a pleasantly
reading volume on “The Ruined Abbeys of Great
Britain.” (James Pott & Company, 8vo, $2.50 net).
After a rather full historical introduction, he takes
up Glastonbury, which he holds one of the three
most perfect examples of architecture that ever
existed in England; Lindisfarne and Whitby,
Beaulieu and Netley; Tintern, Gisburgh and Bol-
ton, Jedburgh and Ivelso, Dryburgh, York, Foun-
tains and others. The subject is pursued rather
with an filterest in the significance of the religious
houses in Lnglish life and their fortunes in their
relations with the State than from an exclusively
artistic standpoint. But an architect can hardly
write to such a subject and fail to be interesting in
technical matters. The illustrations are from
charming photographs.
As the English Abbeys were the artistic expres-
sion of a state of society left in ruins by Henry VIII
along with the buildings themselves, so the glories
of the Alhambra and the foreign monuments of
Cordova, Seville and Toledo were the relics of an
ousted invader. Mr. Albert F. Calvert, who has
already published a volume on the Red Palace of
Granada, now offers a complementary work 011 the
Oriental art left in the other provinces which shook
off the Moslem yoke earlier, in “Moorish Remains
in Spain.” (John Lane Company, N. Y., 8vo,
$15.00 net). The book comprises a bfief record
of the Arabian conquest of the Peninsula, with a
particular account of the Mohammeclan architec-
ture and decoration of Cordova, Seville and Toledo.
To present a picture rather than to write a history
of this Spanish-Morisco art has been Mr. Calvert’s
aim. The minuteness and intricacy of Moorish
detail make this indeed the only satisfactory
method. The letterpress has therefore been kept
frankly subservient to the illustrations. The best
of Contreras and Girault De Prangey, of Owen
Jones and James C. Murphy, have been reproduced
here for the first time, while new views of various
Moslem remains have been obtained by photo-
graphers employed for the purpose, and Studios,
libraries and museums have been ransacked. The
eighty-four colour plates will prove particularly
valuable in the study of a school of design in which
colour is so important, and besides these and some
200 other illustrations is included a series of 200
diagrams showing the composition and develop-
ment of various Scheines of Arabian ornament.
xxxvi
ARCHES OE THE MI HR AB, MOSQUE, CORDOVA
EROM “MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN” (jOHN LANE COMPANY)
$2.00 net). Owing tothenatureof the building ma-
terial nearlyeverybitof architecture dating from the
first three centuries of Japan’s civilisation has been
destroyed in the constant wars and incessant mov-
ing of the court. The pagoda of Yakushiji and the
pagoda of Horiuji, of the few remaining speci-
mens, mark respectively the birth of a new archi-
tecture and one of its cherished models of Ivorean
workmanship. The schools of which these are
remains the author ranks with the already recog-
nised schools of classical, mediasval and Renais-
sance Europe. Later, after a long and honourable
course, longer than the periocl of anv of our West-
ern styles, the art finally deteriorated into the
trivialities and decadence of the Tokugawa period.
Yet with this degeneration in architecture it is curi-
ous to note the arts of decoration advanced, at least
until the opening of the ports by Commodore Perry.
J. Wood Brown adds to the Langham Series of
Art Monographs a concise survey, “Italian Archi-
tecture, Being a Brief Record of Its Principles
and Progress.” (Importecl by Charles Scribner’s
Sons, iömo, $1.00 net). To compress the full
sweep of the Roman and the Christian Roman,
the Byzantine, the Lombard and Gothic Roman-
escjue and the Renaissance styles into the compass
of sorne 25,000 words is a task the author performs
with credit. The publishers have given scope to
the illustrations also, with line drawings set in the
text and goocl reproductions of photographs.
Mr. Cram, whose book on Japanese architec-
ture has been noticed, publishes also a pleasantly
reading volume on “The Ruined Abbeys of Great
Britain.” (James Pott & Company, 8vo, $2.50 net).
After a rather full historical introduction, he takes
up Glastonbury, which he holds one of the three
most perfect examples of architecture that ever
existed in England; Lindisfarne and Whitby,
Beaulieu and Netley; Tintern, Gisburgh and Bol-
ton, Jedburgh and Ivelso, Dryburgh, York, Foun-
tains and others. The subject is pursued rather
with an filterest in the significance of the religious
houses in Lnglish life and their fortunes in their
relations with the State than from an exclusively
artistic standpoint. But an architect can hardly
write to such a subject and fail to be interesting in
technical matters. The illustrations are from
charming photographs.
As the English Abbeys were the artistic expres-
sion of a state of society left in ruins by Henry VIII
along with the buildings themselves, so the glories
of the Alhambra and the foreign monuments of
Cordova, Seville and Toledo were the relics of an
ousted invader. Mr. Albert F. Calvert, who has
already published a volume on the Red Palace of
Granada, now offers a complementary work 011 the
Oriental art left in the other provinces which shook
off the Moslem yoke earlier, in “Moorish Remains
in Spain.” (John Lane Company, N. Y., 8vo,
$15.00 net). The book comprises a bfief record
of the Arabian conquest of the Peninsula, with a
particular account of the Mohammeclan architec-
ture and decoration of Cordova, Seville and Toledo.
To present a picture rather than to write a history
of this Spanish-Morisco art has been Mr. Calvert’s
aim. The minuteness and intricacy of Moorish
detail make this indeed the only satisfactory
method. The letterpress has therefore been kept
frankly subservient to the illustrations. The best
of Contreras and Girault De Prangey, of Owen
Jones and James C. Murphy, have been reproduced
here for the first time, while new views of various
Moslem remains have been obtained by photo-
graphers employed for the purpose, and Studios,
libraries and museums have been ransacked. The
eighty-four colour plates will prove particularly
valuable in the study of a school of design in which
colour is so important, and besides these and some
200 other illustrations is included a series of 200
diagrams showing the composition and develop-
ment of various Scheines of Arabian ornament.
xxxvi