DOI issue:
No. 68 (November 1898)
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19230#0164
Reviews of Recent Publications
A Book of Cats. By Mrs. W. Chance.
(London : J. H. Dent & Co.)—The study of cats
and their ways has for centuries been regarded as
a kind of cult worthy of the attention of the most
serious thinkers of all nations. References to cats,
pathetic or humorous stories about their habits
and adventures, and gossipy anecdotes about the
part played by them in the drama of human life,
abound in books of the most dissimilar types.
Mrs. Chance has therefore chosen a popular sub-
ject for her little volume. Her letterpress is
mainly a compilation of stories gathered from the
pages or other authors, strung together in an in-
formal fashion which is not without attractiveness.
The chief interest lies in the illustrations, which
give the book its real reason for existence. They
are drawings of really excellent quality, charming
in their delicate handling and exceedingly true in
their expression of animal character. As a collec-
tion they deserve high praise.
The Nursery Rhyme Book. Edited by Andrew
Lang. Illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke. (Lon-
don and New York: Frederick Warne & Co.)—
Each succeeding year shows a very marked and
very agreeable improvement in the production of
children's books, and especially welcome is the
attention being paid to the immortal rhymes of the
nursery. The newest edition of Little-Folk-Lore
enjoys the advantage of Mr. Andrew Lang's genial
editorship, while Mr. Leslie Brooke's delightful
illustrations prove him to be thoroughly in sym-
pathy with his subject. These drawings cannot
fail to gain the unstinted applause of the critical
audience for whose entertainment they are intended,
and altogether The Nursery Rhyme Book, with its
tasteful and sumptuous trappings, is a distinct
credit to those responsible for its production.
The Bible of St. Mark. By Alexander
Robertson, D.D. (London : George Allen.)—Ex-
cellent as are the illustrations in Dr. Robertson's
volume, we must confess to a considerable amount
of disappointment with his text and matter. A
guide, complete, simple, and explicit, to the mosaics
of St. Mark's is what has long been wished for both
by the student of art and the intelligent traveller.
We hoped, as we opened the present volume, to
find it, at all events, capable of serving as aid and
avant-courier while we awaited that fuller treatment
of the history and art of mosaic work which is
understood to have occupied another writer for some
years past, and in which, presumably, St. Mark's
will be treated in detail. Dr. Robertson's stand-
point in looking' at the mosaics of St. Mark's—that
of the Presbyterian divine—only concerns us when
142
it leads him to tear out of the Bible of St. Mark
such pages as do not absolutely coincide with his
own Evangelical tenets. Unhappily, his work is
signalised by many omissions, only explainable by
this reason. Several instances occur to us, but it
may be sufficient to cite as an example his silence
as to the very interesting mosaics in the chapel of
the Madonna de' Mascoli. These beautiful works,
signed by Michele Giambono, and dated 1490,
represent the last and culminating effort of the art,
and are perhaps the last word spoken before the
mosaic-workers' voice sank into a feeble echo,
capable only of producing what the picture-painter
could say much more directly and simply. (Coloured
squeezes, by-the-bye, of one of these panels exist
in the South Kensington Museum.) Nor is Giam-
bono's name the only one omitted in the list of
mosaic artists (p. 372). Rizzo, Grisogonas, Vin-
sentini, Alberto Zio, and Turresi might also have
been mentioned in a book pretending to exhaus-
tive treatment, and the number of the cartoonists
(p. 366) considerably increased. At the end of his
work Dr. Robertson does all in his power to mini-
mise in the eyes of any artist who knows modern
Italy his right to speak as an authority. It is
hardly an exaggeration to say that the restorer has
left us no old mosaics in Northern Italy. Yet the
author of the Bible of St. Mark complacently con-
gratulates himself on the fact that Signor Saccardo
is engaged on " clearing the pages of our Bible,"
and on its " textual restoration to something of its
original purity and beauty." Those who knew
Ravenna but twenty years ago and can compare it
with the Ravenna of to-day, those who knew St.
Mark's itself before, say, the eastern apse was
" textually restored," will be depressed on hearing
that the restorer has not yet got through his
unhappy work, and that Dr. Robertson's voice is
lifted to bless rather than to reprobate.
The Gum-Bichromate Process. By W. J.Warren.
(London : Iliffe & Sons, 3 St. Bride Street, E.C.)
—Among the many devices with which present-
day photographers are occupying themselves in
their search for new ways of expressing their
artistic convictions the gum-bichromate process
ranks as one of the most adaptable and convenient.
It allows to the operator considerable freedom of
action, and it gives results which are usually in-
teresting and often pictorially valuable. How it
can be carried out this handbook explains in a
perfectly practical and intelligible manner. The
author writes with a sound understanding of his
subject, and deals with details with which he is
well acquainted. Both the professional and the
A Book of Cats. By Mrs. W. Chance.
(London : J. H. Dent & Co.)—The study of cats
and their ways has for centuries been regarded as
a kind of cult worthy of the attention of the most
serious thinkers of all nations. References to cats,
pathetic or humorous stories about their habits
and adventures, and gossipy anecdotes about the
part played by them in the drama of human life,
abound in books of the most dissimilar types.
Mrs. Chance has therefore chosen a popular sub-
ject for her little volume. Her letterpress is
mainly a compilation of stories gathered from the
pages or other authors, strung together in an in-
formal fashion which is not without attractiveness.
The chief interest lies in the illustrations, which
give the book its real reason for existence. They
are drawings of really excellent quality, charming
in their delicate handling and exceedingly true in
their expression of animal character. As a collec-
tion they deserve high praise.
The Nursery Rhyme Book. Edited by Andrew
Lang. Illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke. (Lon-
don and New York: Frederick Warne & Co.)—
Each succeeding year shows a very marked and
very agreeable improvement in the production of
children's books, and especially welcome is the
attention being paid to the immortal rhymes of the
nursery. The newest edition of Little-Folk-Lore
enjoys the advantage of Mr. Andrew Lang's genial
editorship, while Mr. Leslie Brooke's delightful
illustrations prove him to be thoroughly in sym-
pathy with his subject. These drawings cannot
fail to gain the unstinted applause of the critical
audience for whose entertainment they are intended,
and altogether The Nursery Rhyme Book, with its
tasteful and sumptuous trappings, is a distinct
credit to those responsible for its production.
The Bible of St. Mark. By Alexander
Robertson, D.D. (London : George Allen.)—Ex-
cellent as are the illustrations in Dr. Robertson's
volume, we must confess to a considerable amount
of disappointment with his text and matter. A
guide, complete, simple, and explicit, to the mosaics
of St. Mark's is what has long been wished for both
by the student of art and the intelligent traveller.
We hoped, as we opened the present volume, to
find it, at all events, capable of serving as aid and
avant-courier while we awaited that fuller treatment
of the history and art of mosaic work which is
understood to have occupied another writer for some
years past, and in which, presumably, St. Mark's
will be treated in detail. Dr. Robertson's stand-
point in looking' at the mosaics of St. Mark's—that
of the Presbyterian divine—only concerns us when
142
it leads him to tear out of the Bible of St. Mark
such pages as do not absolutely coincide with his
own Evangelical tenets. Unhappily, his work is
signalised by many omissions, only explainable by
this reason. Several instances occur to us, but it
may be sufficient to cite as an example his silence
as to the very interesting mosaics in the chapel of
the Madonna de' Mascoli. These beautiful works,
signed by Michele Giambono, and dated 1490,
represent the last and culminating effort of the art,
and are perhaps the last word spoken before the
mosaic-workers' voice sank into a feeble echo,
capable only of producing what the picture-painter
could say much more directly and simply. (Coloured
squeezes, by-the-bye, of one of these panels exist
in the South Kensington Museum.) Nor is Giam-
bono's name the only one omitted in the list of
mosaic artists (p. 372). Rizzo, Grisogonas, Vin-
sentini, Alberto Zio, and Turresi might also have
been mentioned in a book pretending to exhaus-
tive treatment, and the number of the cartoonists
(p. 366) considerably increased. At the end of his
work Dr. Robertson does all in his power to mini-
mise in the eyes of any artist who knows modern
Italy his right to speak as an authority. It is
hardly an exaggeration to say that the restorer has
left us no old mosaics in Northern Italy. Yet the
author of the Bible of St. Mark complacently con-
gratulates himself on the fact that Signor Saccardo
is engaged on " clearing the pages of our Bible,"
and on its " textual restoration to something of its
original purity and beauty." Those who knew
Ravenna but twenty years ago and can compare it
with the Ravenna of to-day, those who knew St.
Mark's itself before, say, the eastern apse was
" textually restored," will be depressed on hearing
that the restorer has not yet got through his
unhappy work, and that Dr. Robertson's voice is
lifted to bless rather than to reprobate.
The Gum-Bichromate Process. By W. J.Warren.
(London : Iliffe & Sons, 3 St. Bride Street, E.C.)
—Among the many devices with which present-
day photographers are occupying themselves in
their search for new ways of expressing their
artistic convictions the gum-bichromate process
ranks as one of the most adaptable and convenient.
It allows to the operator considerable freedom of
action, and it gives results which are usually in-
teresting and often pictorially valuable. How it
can be carried out this handbook explains in a
perfectly practical and intelligible manner. The
author writes with a sound understanding of his
subject, and deals with details with which he is
well acquainted. Both the professional and the