International studio (59.1916)

Reviews and Notices

accustomed to. To be sure, a great many are
stumbling and faltering, while others stubbornly
hold to their own. Yet a large number of aspiring
artists are struggling bravely through the confusion
of this transitional period in our art as well as in
other phases of our national life. Harada-Jiro.
REVIEWS AND NOTICES.
The Picture Ramayana. Compiled and illus-
trated by Bhavanrao Shrinivasrao, alias Bala-
sheb Pandit Pant Pratinidhi, B.A., Chief of
Aundh. (Bombay: The Union Agency.) 215-.net.
The “Ramayana” has been made familiar to
English readers by Mr. Manmath Dutt, and though
probably the number of those who have in this
way become acquainted with the great epic is not
large, it has undoubtedly been instrumental in
disseminating a better understanding of the vast
population of India in
whose lives this storehouse
of legendary lore and
traditional morals still
•exercises a deep-seated in¬
fluence. As a further step
in the same direction this
“Picture Ramayana” is to
be cordially welcomed.
“ The great charm of the
Chief of Aundh’s book for
English readers,” says Mr.
Kincaid, who has contri¬
buted to it an outline of
the narrative, “ is that it
places before them clear
and definite conceptions
of how the story presents
itself to Indian minds.
Drawn by the Chief’s
skilful pencil we learn what
the heroes, their allies the
monkeys, and their enemies
the demons, of Lanka,
looked like according to
the fancy of modern
Indians.” A task such as
this is beyond the power
of an alien artist, however
accomplished; as Lord
Sydenham remarks in his
sympathetic foreword,
in which he pays a
tribute to the high
character of the Chief as
an administrator, “ only

an Indian mind could make the selection which
is most typical of Indian thought, and only an
Indian artist could present the pictures which corre-
spond most faithfully to Indian imagination.” The
pictures are sixty in number, and having apparently
been executed in water-colour, are all reproduced
in colour, with explanatory text facing each plate.
Attraverso gli Albi e le Cartelie. By Vittorio
Pica. Terza Serie. (Bergamo : Istituto Italiano
d’Arti Grafiche.) 10 lire.—More than fifteen years
have elapsed since Sgr. Pica brought out the first
fascicolo of this work, which may be described as a
series of illustrated monographs chiefly concerned
with modern graphic art, and in the three fascicoli
making up this third series the good typographic
qualities which we have noted in the earlier instal-
ments are fully maintained. As historian of the
international exhibitions of art in Venice the author


PORTRAIT OF ATOMI KAKEI OIL-?AINTING BY KURODA-SEIRI
(Mombusho Art Exhibition, Tokyo)

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