Studio: international art (24.1902)

Reviews

numbering altogether nearly 200, including 26
heliogravures, afford the student an unique oppor-
tunity of studying the work of Mantegna side by
side with that of several men who are supposed
to have influenced him ; for amongst them will be
found examples of the work of Squarcione,
Giovanni Bellini and others. The fact that as a
colourist Mantegna never excelled, is not of course
app irent in the black-and-white reproductions of
his work. So far as his management of form is
concerned, however, they are eminently instructive,
proving as they do that Mantegna relied for effect
rather on the individual expression of his figures
than on their grouping. He was indeed never
dramatic, and through all the variations of his
style restraint and reserve remained his most note-
worthy characteristic.

Andrea Mantegna. By Maud Cruttwell.
(London : G. Bell & Sons.) $s. net.—It is unfor-
tunate for the author of this bright little volume
that it should appear simultaneously with the
more ambitious monograph of Herr Kristeller, and
the coincidence may give a false impression of
plagiarism. As a matter of fact, however, Miss
Cruttwell's book was. we understand, completed
several months ago, and she had no opportunity of
consulting the other. Although from the point of
view of erudition and critical acumen no comparison
between the two books is possible, the smaller one
is full of interesting information, and the illustra-
tions, so far as they go, are quite equal to those in
the larger volume ; indeed, in some of them the
tone values are better rendered.

The Study and Criticism of Italian Art. By
Bernhard Berenson. (London : G. Bell &
Sons.) Price io^.6rf.net.—This collection of essays,
illustrated with fine process blocks of many of the
pictures referred to in them, is a very striking
example of the progress of modern criticism.
The various articles have already been published
elsewhere in the course of the last ten years, and
there is, perhaps, a certain want of homogeneity
about them, for they do not lead up to each other
in any way. The chief impression left upon the
mind of the conscientious reader is that there is no
such thing as finality in the judgment even of the
most accomplished connoisseur on the subject of
the authorship of paintings. No sooner has the
patient student got over the shock of realising
that his most cherished beliefs are illusions, than
he has to face the fact that the trusted guide who
has dispelled those illusions has himself seen cause
to change his opinion.

Mr. Bernhard Berenson, who justly ranks as one

of the best critics of Italian art of the present day,
says, in his preface to this volume : " I see now
how fruitless an interest is the history of art, and
how worthless an undertaking is that of deter-
mining who painted or carved or built, whatsoever
it be. I see how valueless ail such matters are in
the life of the spirit; " but he adds, "At the same
time I see more clearly than ever that without
connoisseurship a history of art is impossible;"
and again, " I for one have been for many years
cherishing the conviction that the world's art can
be, nay, should be, studied as independently of
all documents as is the world's fauna or the world's
flora,"—a somewhat misleading comparison, for the
students of both undoubtedly owe much to the
written results of their predecessors' work.

Perhaps the best of the seven essays is that on
Giorgione, for whom the author has evidently a
very deep and reverent admiration. He sifts
with rare critical acumen the originals from the
copies after them, and, to quote his own words
once more, he claims to be " in a position to
translate copies after Giorgione back into almost
the pristine beauty of originals." It is, however,
in the essay headed " Amico di Sandro " that the
idiosyncrasies of the celebrated critic are most
clearly brought out. In it he begins by selecting
a group of Florentine pictures dating from the
second half of the fifteenth century, ascribed to
Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, and Filip-
pino Lippi, and proceeds in a calmly judicial
manner to prove that every one of the attributions
is false. Thus far it is possible to follow him
without very much hesitation, but when he pro-
ceeds to construct out of the ashes of destroyed
belief an entirely new personality, a phcenix-
painter whom he endows, in his one person, with
all the diverse genius of the men whose places he
is to fill, it becomes difficult for the reader not
to feel that the realm of history has been deserted
for that of romance. Berenson calls this imaginary
painter Amico di Sandro, that is to say, the friend
of Botticelli,, and explains his choice of a title
thus : "Considering our Anonimo's close following
upon Sandro, in default of a well-established
historical name for him we shall do well to call
him Amico di Sandro, for whatever were his
relations in real life to Botticelli—an imitator is
not always a friend '—in art he was Sandra's
companion;" and he adds in a footnote—"He was
probably somewhat younger, and may first have
met him when they were both apprentices of Fra
Filippo Lippi." The critic having thus, to his own
satisfaction, proved the existence of his Anonimo,

213