Studio: international art (10.1897)

Reviews of Recent Publications

poet of love, the great musician
of passion; and he is also the man
who, in his misery, sees the new
life arise before him, and to it lifts up
his aspirations, and all loved forms
and all dreams, as though to bathe
them in a purifying atmosphere.
Among all the poets of the Renais-
sance, he is the one who represents
woman as figured forth by turbid
passion and as seen by the spirit in
serene contemplation ; he is the poet
of torment and extravagance, and the
seer to whom, in the hour of sad
resignation, appears, among the
visions of art, a hope of forgetfulness,
a promise of glory."

Signor Conti's words are always
aptly chosen; his style weighty and
concise, with, however, a tendency
to the epigrammatic which some-
times gives an impression of affecta-
tion, and impedes the full develop-
ment of the thought. There is no
doubt, however, that the book, which,
by the way, is beautifully printed and
illustrated, is a most interesting pro-
duct of the newest tendencies of
Italian thought.

The Alhdmbra. By Washington
Irving. Illustrated with drawings of

"MOT FIEXDEX " FROM a paixtixg BY pekka haloxex , j , T n

the places mentioned, by J oseph Ten-
(See HehingforsStudio-Tali) (London : Macmillan & Co.

Ltd.)—There is a good deal of Mr.

The author concludes with an interesting discus- Joseph Pennell in this new edition of an old friend,

sion on the incommunicability of the artistic inspira- Almost every one of its 436 pages contains an illus-

tion, and hence the futility of classifying artists into tration from the brush or pen of this indefatigable

what the critics call schools ; he lays great stress on worker. Many of the drawings are good, and some

artistic psychology, which he maintains to be the are very good. The only fault we find with them is

real method of penetrating the meaning of works that they for the most part do not illustrate the text,

of art, as opposed to the common critical method They are mere ornaments, and the greater portion

of grouping artists together according to the out- of them are not even titled. They may represent

ward characteristics of their work. The essence portions of the Alhambra or Granada, but some of

of criticism, he holds, is to interpret the artists not the sketches would do equally well for scenes in

only to the public, but also to himself. To the Italy, Greece, or Turkey; and as there is nothing

artist, who in his work obeys a mysterious comma/id to indicate to the reader what particular locality

of nature, the critic speaks, expounding his mystery they portray he naturally fails to take the interest

to him. His ultimate conception of Giorgione in them he otherwise would do. Some of the

and his work he expresses as follows : " He is, most important of the drawings are of the decorated

among all Renaissance painters, the first modern; courts of the Alhambra, and the elaborate and in-

his soul is nearest to our souls; he is the artist volved patterns upon walls and spandrils have been

who has transfused into his works the visible admirably suggested in line-work by the illustrator,

image and sentiment of the most profound human Mr. Pennell is particularly happy in his power of

sadness—the sadness born of pleasure. He is the " leaving out " what it is to the advantage of his

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