DOI issue:
Nr. 202 (December, 1913)
DOI article:Book reviews
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43454#0250
Book Reviews
living or dead. One hundred and eighty-nine
very clear full-page cuts, along with illuminating
criticisms of masterpieces, make this work indis-
pensable to gallery lovers and art students. An
interesting introduction quotes Hegel, Voituron
and Levegne upon esthetics, after which the
growth of sculpture in France is historically fol-
lowed from medieval and Renaissance times, on
through the reign of Henri II (when sculpture as
understood today may be said to have com-
menced) to Louis XIV and continued to modern
times, artists of the late nineteenth and twentieth
centuries being separately grouped, which is a
very convenient arrangement. Interesting items
follow, such as Cluny, Bonnat’s contribution to
Barye’s Centenary, Carpeaux’s La Danse, being a
translation from Le Nouvel Opera, by Charles
Garnier, until an alphabetical list of sculptors
spells Finis to a capital piece of work.
Art and Common-Sense. By Royal Cortissoz.
(Scribner’s.) Price, $1.75.
There is no art critic in America today that
writes better than Cortissoz. He has always some-
thing to say and has a very incisive way of saying
it; moreover, he possesses, what so very few of
them can lay claim to, the saving grace of humor.
A mere mention of some of his fourteen chapter
headings will show what interesting matter he
has selected to discuss: Ingres—a Pilgrimage to
Montauban; The Post-Impressionist Illusion;
Whistler; Sargent; Spanish Art; Four Leaders in
American Architecture, etc.
His essay on the Armory Exhibition is a scath-
ing attack on “whirling dervishes,” as he styles
many of the independents and post-impressionist
hierophants. Talking of the Cubists, he employs
a Spanish proverb which asserts that it is waste of
lather to shave an ass; une bucolique, by M. de
Segonzac, should be without the “bu,” and so
forth. His criticism of Rodin is robust and fear-
less; he treads firmly where angels hesitate to
enter. Mr. Cortissoz is never dull. His visit to
poor Vierge is charmingly related, and his final
chapter is very apropos in which he treats of the
late J. P. Morgan as a collector. We know of no
art book of recent times that makes better or more
instructive reading.
The Pictorial Life of Christ. Illustrated
from scenes modeled in wax by D. Mastroianni.
(Dodd, Mead & Co.) $2.00.
A beautiful book is here offered, which besides
containing 80 full-page reproductions from plastic
models by the Tissot of sculpture, as Mastroianni
has been so aptly described, tells the old, old
drama in the most graphic and stirring manner, by
the pen of Ira Seymour Dodd. From Bethlehem
to Golgotha each scene and incident has been
staged in Nazareth and Jerusalem, and the figures
stand out in true sculpturesque vigor, background
and accessories being admirably true in character.
The artist’s maquettes, or models in miniature,
have brought him well-merited fame.
The illustrations are fine beyond all criticism.
Turn, for instance, to the picture of Christ as he
utters the memorable words, “Make not my
Father’s house a house of merchandise,” or the
picture of Lazarus. Nothing could be more
pathetically expressive than the Prodigal’s return;
paternal love has never been better portrayed by
brush or chisel. Well typed, on good paper, this
work is a handsome gift for old or young people.
The Cubies. Versed by Mary Mills Lyall and
pictured by Earl Harvey Lyall. (E. P. Put-
nam’s Sons.) $1.00.
This little book is an alphabet heaping every
sort of satirical abuse upon the Cubists, who owed
their incubation to the Association of American
Painters and Sculptors. It is a delightfully funny
ABC, and will cause plenty of amusement at
Christmas, with such merry verses as the following:
N’s for the Nudes that the Cubies portray,—
We willingly vouch for their perfect propriety.
Even while some we regard with dismay—
For instance, the lady as long as Broadway,
With all due respect, we don’t crave her society!
—-N’s for the Nudes that the Cubies portray.
Little Shavers. By J. R. Shaver. (Century
Co.) $1.00.
An American Phil May is very apparent in
J. R. Shaver, who has studied New York’s East
Side to splendid advantage in a 150-page quarto,
which is sure to be an attractive gift book for the
Christmas season. Mr. Shaver has a keen sense
of humor and the children he portrays can be seen
all about the city and parks any day of the week.
In one picture a young ragamuffin at an open
window, his face becomingly enveloped in a scarf,
harangues his comrades on the sidewalk on their
way to school: “I ain’t goin’ to school, fellers. I
got to go to the dentist.” To which they reply in
chorus: “Gee! You’re lucky.” Grandmama care-
fully examining a little shaver who has been
“stung bv a hen” is delicious, and so ad infinitum.
CXLII
living or dead. One hundred and eighty-nine
very clear full-page cuts, along with illuminating
criticisms of masterpieces, make this work indis-
pensable to gallery lovers and art students. An
interesting introduction quotes Hegel, Voituron
and Levegne upon esthetics, after which the
growth of sculpture in France is historically fol-
lowed from medieval and Renaissance times, on
through the reign of Henri II (when sculpture as
understood today may be said to have com-
menced) to Louis XIV and continued to modern
times, artists of the late nineteenth and twentieth
centuries being separately grouped, which is a
very convenient arrangement. Interesting items
follow, such as Cluny, Bonnat’s contribution to
Barye’s Centenary, Carpeaux’s La Danse, being a
translation from Le Nouvel Opera, by Charles
Garnier, until an alphabetical list of sculptors
spells Finis to a capital piece of work.
Art and Common-Sense. By Royal Cortissoz.
(Scribner’s.) Price, $1.75.
There is no art critic in America today that
writes better than Cortissoz. He has always some-
thing to say and has a very incisive way of saying
it; moreover, he possesses, what so very few of
them can lay claim to, the saving grace of humor.
A mere mention of some of his fourteen chapter
headings will show what interesting matter he
has selected to discuss: Ingres—a Pilgrimage to
Montauban; The Post-Impressionist Illusion;
Whistler; Sargent; Spanish Art; Four Leaders in
American Architecture, etc.
His essay on the Armory Exhibition is a scath-
ing attack on “whirling dervishes,” as he styles
many of the independents and post-impressionist
hierophants. Talking of the Cubists, he employs
a Spanish proverb which asserts that it is waste of
lather to shave an ass; une bucolique, by M. de
Segonzac, should be without the “bu,” and so
forth. His criticism of Rodin is robust and fear-
less; he treads firmly where angels hesitate to
enter. Mr. Cortissoz is never dull. His visit to
poor Vierge is charmingly related, and his final
chapter is very apropos in which he treats of the
late J. P. Morgan as a collector. We know of no
art book of recent times that makes better or more
instructive reading.
The Pictorial Life of Christ. Illustrated
from scenes modeled in wax by D. Mastroianni.
(Dodd, Mead & Co.) $2.00.
A beautiful book is here offered, which besides
containing 80 full-page reproductions from plastic
models by the Tissot of sculpture, as Mastroianni
has been so aptly described, tells the old, old
drama in the most graphic and stirring manner, by
the pen of Ira Seymour Dodd. From Bethlehem
to Golgotha each scene and incident has been
staged in Nazareth and Jerusalem, and the figures
stand out in true sculpturesque vigor, background
and accessories being admirably true in character.
The artist’s maquettes, or models in miniature,
have brought him well-merited fame.
The illustrations are fine beyond all criticism.
Turn, for instance, to the picture of Christ as he
utters the memorable words, “Make not my
Father’s house a house of merchandise,” or the
picture of Lazarus. Nothing could be more
pathetically expressive than the Prodigal’s return;
paternal love has never been better portrayed by
brush or chisel. Well typed, on good paper, this
work is a handsome gift for old or young people.
The Cubies. Versed by Mary Mills Lyall and
pictured by Earl Harvey Lyall. (E. P. Put-
nam’s Sons.) $1.00.
This little book is an alphabet heaping every
sort of satirical abuse upon the Cubists, who owed
their incubation to the Association of American
Painters and Sculptors. It is a delightfully funny
ABC, and will cause plenty of amusement at
Christmas, with such merry verses as the following:
N’s for the Nudes that the Cubies portray,—
We willingly vouch for their perfect propriety.
Even while some we regard with dismay—
For instance, the lady as long as Broadway,
With all due respect, we don’t crave her society!
—-N’s for the Nudes that the Cubies portray.
Little Shavers. By J. R. Shaver. (Century
Co.) $1.00.
An American Phil May is very apparent in
J. R. Shaver, who has studied New York’s East
Side to splendid advantage in a 150-page quarto,
which is sure to be an attractive gift book for the
Christmas season. Mr. Shaver has a keen sense
of humor and the children he portrays can be seen
all about the city and parks any day of the week.
In one picture a young ragamuffin at an open
window, his face becomingly enveloped in a scarf,
harangues his comrades on the sidewalk on their
way to school: “I ain’t goin’ to school, fellers. I
got to go to the dentist.” To which they reply in
chorus: “Gee! You’re lucky.” Grandmama care-
fully examining a little shaver who has been
“stung bv a hen” is delicious, and so ad infinitum.
CXLII