DOI Heft:
No. 79 (October, 1899)
DOI Artikel:Reviews on recent publications
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19783#0083
Reviews*'of Recent Publications
times the cost of the number. Excellent as the
design of the original binding undoubtedly is, we
should much prefer to see a new design specially
adapted to the process employed in its production.
Imitation hand-tooled bindings are as bad as imita-
tion jewellery, and the cause of art cannot be
furthered thereby. With this exception, we have
nothing but praise to accord; and there are no
qualifications to our wishes that it may have a long
and prosperous career.
The Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on Goldsmith-
ing and Sculpture. With an introduction by C. R.
Ashbee. (London : Edward Arnold.) Price 355.
net.—As the revival of art-craftsmanship extends,
the demand among artists for works dealing with
the technique of the crafts will increase. Mr.
Ashbee has done good service in translating and
printing Cellini's admirable treatise on precious
metal work and sculpture. The numerous recipes
and valuable technical hints with which they
abound, even after an interval of nearly four cen-
turies, are still of the highest value to craftsmen,
and especially to those who aim at the mastership
of their art. Mr. Ashbee, to our thinking, wisely
warns his readers not to take too exalted an
opinion of the artistic merits of Cellini's designs.
He sums up his opinion by saying " he was a very
first-rate craftsman, but a very second-rate artist."
It is perhaps less necessary in these days than it
might have been a few years ago to advise the
young craftsman that, however indispensable it
may be for him to take every advantage possible
of the experience of others in the matter of tech-
nique, in the details of design he must work out
his own salvation. By all means let the jeweller
and worker in gold learn all that may be possible
from the experience of the famous Florentine, but
let them avoid the imitation of his, ofttimes, over-
charged and chaotic ornament as they would the
pest.
The Master Painters of Britain. Edited by
Gleeson White. Four volumes. (Edinburgh:
T. C. and E. C. Jack.)—This work consists of a
well-selected and admirably reproduced series of
British paintings, commencing with examples by
Hogarth, and terminating with Mr. Byam Shaw's
Love's Baubles. Pictures by nearly one hundred
and fifty representative painters are figured in its
pages, and these include many excellent ones by
Millais, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and other of the
Pre-Raphaelites, besides numerous plates after the
work of more popular favourites. The many
readers of the late Mr. Gleeson White's contribu-
tions to the literature of art will recognise how he
has followed the bent of his marked inclinations in
his selection of the illustrations, and will not perhaps
be inclined to feel aggrieved with him on that
account. The historical and descriptive notes
which accompany each illustration add much to
the interest of the volumes, to turn over the leaves
of which is a pleasant task, enabling one to revive
the memory of many admired pictures, and to
compare at one's ease the varied characteristics and
individualities exhibited in the works of our
greatest painters.
Jules II. By Julian Klaczko. (Plon, Nour-
rit & Co., Publishers.)—M. Julian Klaczko, who
was formerly an Austrian diplomatist, revives for us
in this volume the spirit of Rome in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. His work is that of a
learned historian and a genuine artist at the same
time. He reveals to us step by step, through the
strong personality of Julius the Second, the expan-
sion of the Italian Renaissance, as seen in the works
of Raphael, Bramante, and Michael Angelo, to
whose honour—far more than to that of the great
Pope in question—the book is dedicated. Unlike
many another historian, rendered dull and prosaic
by his subject-matter, M. Klaczko appears before
us as a vivid evocator of the Past, inspired by the
grandiose nature of his work, and revealing at every
moment the most original aspects of the art and
life of the sixteenth century. The ten illustrations
adorning this volume, well chosen as they are, seem
nevertheless inadequate, when one thinks of the
infinite immensity of the art treasures produced
during this sublime epoch.
Art Note-Book for Northern Italy. By D. R. M.
(London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Rent and
Co.) Price 3.j.—We wish we could speak well of
this little book, which is arranged in convenient
style, but it is so amateurish and fragmentary that
it will be of little use to serious students. The
style of the writer is either jerky or amazingly
involved. Compression has been aimed at, with
the result that the account of Michael Angelo is
limited to less than eighteen lines. On the other
hand, space is found for twenty hackneyed lines of
Longfellow, which are most unnecessarily and inap-
propriately quoted. The idea of the Note-Book is
not bad, but it is carried out in an unsatisfactory
manner.
A Popular Handbook to tlie Tate Gallery. By
Edward T. Cook. (London : Macmillan & Co.
Limited.) Price $s.—This is a companion volume
to Mr. Cook's Popular Handbook of the National
Gallery. In the introductory chapter an account
is given of the origin and history of the Tate
67
times the cost of the number. Excellent as the
design of the original binding undoubtedly is, we
should much prefer to see a new design specially
adapted to the process employed in its production.
Imitation hand-tooled bindings are as bad as imita-
tion jewellery, and the cause of art cannot be
furthered thereby. With this exception, we have
nothing but praise to accord; and there are no
qualifications to our wishes that it may have a long
and prosperous career.
The Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on Goldsmith-
ing and Sculpture. With an introduction by C. R.
Ashbee. (London : Edward Arnold.) Price 355.
net.—As the revival of art-craftsmanship extends,
the demand among artists for works dealing with
the technique of the crafts will increase. Mr.
Ashbee has done good service in translating and
printing Cellini's admirable treatise on precious
metal work and sculpture. The numerous recipes
and valuable technical hints with which they
abound, even after an interval of nearly four cen-
turies, are still of the highest value to craftsmen,
and especially to those who aim at the mastership
of their art. Mr. Ashbee, to our thinking, wisely
warns his readers not to take too exalted an
opinion of the artistic merits of Cellini's designs.
He sums up his opinion by saying " he was a very
first-rate craftsman, but a very second-rate artist."
It is perhaps less necessary in these days than it
might have been a few years ago to advise the
young craftsman that, however indispensable it
may be for him to take every advantage possible
of the experience of others in the matter of tech-
nique, in the details of design he must work out
his own salvation. By all means let the jeweller
and worker in gold learn all that may be possible
from the experience of the famous Florentine, but
let them avoid the imitation of his, ofttimes, over-
charged and chaotic ornament as they would the
pest.
The Master Painters of Britain. Edited by
Gleeson White. Four volumes. (Edinburgh:
T. C. and E. C. Jack.)—This work consists of a
well-selected and admirably reproduced series of
British paintings, commencing with examples by
Hogarth, and terminating with Mr. Byam Shaw's
Love's Baubles. Pictures by nearly one hundred
and fifty representative painters are figured in its
pages, and these include many excellent ones by
Millais, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and other of the
Pre-Raphaelites, besides numerous plates after the
work of more popular favourites. The many
readers of the late Mr. Gleeson White's contribu-
tions to the literature of art will recognise how he
has followed the bent of his marked inclinations in
his selection of the illustrations, and will not perhaps
be inclined to feel aggrieved with him on that
account. The historical and descriptive notes
which accompany each illustration add much to
the interest of the volumes, to turn over the leaves
of which is a pleasant task, enabling one to revive
the memory of many admired pictures, and to
compare at one's ease the varied characteristics and
individualities exhibited in the works of our
greatest painters.
Jules II. By Julian Klaczko. (Plon, Nour-
rit & Co., Publishers.)—M. Julian Klaczko, who
was formerly an Austrian diplomatist, revives for us
in this volume the spirit of Rome in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. His work is that of a
learned historian and a genuine artist at the same
time. He reveals to us step by step, through the
strong personality of Julius the Second, the expan-
sion of the Italian Renaissance, as seen in the works
of Raphael, Bramante, and Michael Angelo, to
whose honour—far more than to that of the great
Pope in question—the book is dedicated. Unlike
many another historian, rendered dull and prosaic
by his subject-matter, M. Klaczko appears before
us as a vivid evocator of the Past, inspired by the
grandiose nature of his work, and revealing at every
moment the most original aspects of the art and
life of the sixteenth century. The ten illustrations
adorning this volume, well chosen as they are, seem
nevertheless inadequate, when one thinks of the
infinite immensity of the art treasures produced
during this sublime epoch.
Art Note-Book for Northern Italy. By D. R. M.
(London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Rent and
Co.) Price 3.j.—We wish we could speak well of
this little book, which is arranged in convenient
style, but it is so amateurish and fragmentary that
it will be of little use to serious students. The
style of the writer is either jerky or amazingly
involved. Compression has been aimed at, with
the result that the account of Michael Angelo is
limited to less than eighteen lines. On the other
hand, space is found for twenty hackneyed lines of
Longfellow, which are most unnecessarily and inap-
propriately quoted. The idea of the Note-Book is
not bad, but it is carried out in an unsatisfactory
manner.
A Popular Handbook to tlie Tate Gallery. By
Edward T. Cook. (London : Macmillan & Co.
Limited.) Price $s.—This is a companion volume
to Mr. Cook's Popular Handbook of the National
Gallery. In the introductory chapter an account
is given of the origin and history of the Tate
67