Studio: international art (24.1902)

Reviews

of the Third Century, Martyred Priests and Deacons
of the Third Century, Martyred Soldiers and Lay-
men of the Third Century, Saintly Matrons and
Maidens of the Third Century, and other martyred
women of the same period. The book, then, is
rich in excellent subjects, and Mrs. Bell is to be
congratulated on the critical judgment and the
good taste that give modesty and dignity to her
informing pages. We shall await with interest
the publication of the second volume, treating of
the Fathers of the Church, and the great Hermits,
and other Early Saints.

Lorenzo Lotto. By Bernhard Berenson.
(London : George Bell & Sons.) 15^. net.—This
volume, an edition of which has already appeared
in America, is a remarkable tour de force; a good
example of the constructive ability of its author,
who is as skilful in building up the personality of
an artist from his work—or rather from a few frag-
ments of his work—as any anatomist at constructing
a complete skeleton from a single bone. A pecu-
liarity of Bernhard Berenson is that he generally
preludes his dissertations by taking the reader into
his confidence, leading him, as it were, behind the
scenes, and showing him all the strings by which
his puppets are to be moved. He says, for instance,
in his preface to "Lorenzo Lotto"—"The point
of view taken by the writer eight or nine years
ago, when he first composed this work, was deter-
mined by interests that then seemed much more
important than they do now. Yet," he adds
with a naivete scarcely to be expected from so
experienced a writer, " as he has no means of
arriving at the certainty that his present interests
are essentially more real than the earlier ones, as these
earlier interests also are, at all events, permanent
ones ; and as, moreover, if the author's present
point of view, and this point of view only, were
regarded, the new edition would have perhaps no
greater likeness to the old one than if the subject
were handled by a different writer, the author has
thought it best to stick to his old position." This
rather remarkable admission is succeeded by a
somewhat chilling warning to the reader against the
" assumption that in art there is such a thing as
progress. Technical advance," owns this strangely
frank writer, " there has been and may be, but it
is by no means coincident with advance in art; and
a counsel of perfection would be to avoid con-
founding an interest in the history of technique
with love of art, and, most of all, to beware of
finding beauty where there is only curiosity."
Those who are able, in spite of this somewhat
repellent caution, still to take an interest in the

technique or Lorenzo Lotto will marvel at the con-
structive skill of the critic who has been able out
of next to nothing to evolve a complete theory
respecting it, and to trace not only the growth of
the style peculiarly characteristic of his subject,
but every single stage by which that style was
built up. The first glance at the contents of the
book is not cheering, for it resembles too closely a
catalogue, with its succinct statements as to topo-
graphical details and its elaborate dissertations oh
pictures. Again, however, the reader will be re-
warded ir he has the courage to grasp the nettles
and with his guide trace the fortunes of the hero of
the volume from his early life, as "Lotto archaic,"
through all his vicissitudes, when acted upon by
the Vivarini, Cima da Conegliano, Montagna, and
others, till he emerges at last as Lotto himself, the
mature Lotto, the real author of the few works
Berenson allows him to keep. Guarding carefully
" against confounding an interest in the history of
technique with love of art," the cautious reader
may yet allow himself to enjoy the beautiful repro-
ductions in this remarkable biography, which every
one who ventures to write on art should read,
mark, learn, and inwardly digest; and shutting his
mind against any hasty critical judgment, he will
no doubt delight in the Glory of St. Nicolas of
the Church of the Carmine, the Visitation and
Annu?iciation of the Jesi Library, the Presentation
of the Santa Casa at Loreto, with others of the gems
chosen to illustrate either the style of Lotto himself
or that of one or another of his contemporaries.

Conversations of James Northcote, R.A., with
James Ward on Art and Artists. Edited and
arranged from the manuscripts and note-books
of James Ward by Ernest Fletcher. (London :
Methuen & Co.)—James Northcote, the second
son of humble parents, was born at Plymouth in
1746. At an early age he was apprenticed to his
father's trade of watchmaking, but the love of art
was so strong within him that he spent all his spare
time in teaching himself to draw and paint, till at
last he was able to earn more money with his pencil
than he did at his trade. In 1771, when nearly
five-and-twenty years old, he journeyed to London
and, thanks partly to his own talents and partly to
a letter of introduction, he managed to enrol him-
self among the pupils of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with
whom he lived and boarded for five years. From
this fortunate time to the last year of his long life
(1831) James Northcote worked laboriously, show-
ing a warm independence of spirit that made him
more feared than liked in many quarters; and if
his art to-day commonly seems ineffectual, like a

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