Coloured Bas-reliefs

which fired clay is sure to suffer, and the compara-
tive poverty of the palette in earthenware glazes,
there is much to be said in favour of this simple
method. Possibly with further experiment some

cherub's head, which, despite its unreality, has
witched artists and laymen for so many centuries
until it seems as normal as the portrait of a living
creature. But the similarity extends scarcely

cherubs' heads, from a frieze in coloured plaster, by r. anning bell

worker to-day may be as fortunate in this art of
coloured relief work as Lucca della Robbia, who, we
are told, found suddenly a glaze of almost endless
durability, so that he may be said to have begun
and completed his invention with one stroke.

Like Andrea della Robbia, Mr. Bell delights in
the charm of that impossible convention, the
54

beyond the choice of subject; the dull vacant
features which imitators of the Delia Robbias chose
to the degradation of their model are not seen in
these baby faces, which are as fresh and dainty as
are the heads by Reynolds in his well-known group,
and yet have much more than prettiness to recom-
mend them. In this work on archaic lines, as