DOI Heft:
No. 109 (April, 1902)
DOI Artikel:Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19875#0232
Reviews
staircase, which takes up a great deal of unneces-
sary room, and by its obtrusiveness has an irritating
effect upon the visitor who is eager to examine the
portraits. It is only in the top room that the
pictures can be seen with any comfort, and even in
that the light is not really good, for it falls too
directly upon the walls. Chronologically arranged,
with the reproductions carefully grouped on the
right-hand page and the brief notices of each on
the left, the present volume is an ideal one for
reference, no time being lost in finding any par-
ticular likeness if only the date at which the
original lived is known. It seems, indeed, a pity
that a similar plan has not been followed in the
official catalogue, which requires a considerable
amount of study before its intricacies can be
mastered. A careful examination of the many
hundreds of illustrations in The National Portrait
Gallery produces a sense of surprise that amongst
them, although there are undoubtedly many
inferior pictures, there is not one bad reproduction,
the uniform high quality of the work reflecting
great credit on all concerned. The photographs
of Messrs. Walker & Cockerell are well known for
their excellence, and they have been interpreted
with much skill. Where all is good it is
difficult to single out any special examples for
notice, but the series of portraits of Queen
Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Oliver Cromwell, and
Edward VI., are especially noticeable. Amongst
the last may be named the curious study in per-
spective by an unknown artist, alluded to in
Walpole's " Anecdotes of Painting," which can only
be satisfactorily seen when looked at sideways
through an aperture in a screen fixed on to the
frame, when a beautiful miniature of the young
monarch appears.
The Madonna. By Adolfo Venturi. Trans-
lated by Alice Meynell. (Burns & Oates.)
31J. 6d. net.—It is now many years since the
fascinating subject of the representation of the
Virgin Mother in art has been dealt with in
a satisfactory manner. True, the well-known
"Legends of the Madonna," by Mrs. Jameson,
still ranks as a standard work so far as the
literary portion is concerned, but the etchings
and woodcuts, which are its only illustrations,
cannot compare with the beautiful photogravures
and half-tone reproductions which are now intro-
duced as a matter of course in the most unpretend-
ing handbook in any branch of art.
The present volume will to a very great extent
supply what is needed, but its sub-title is somewhat
misleading, for it claims that the book is "a
pictorial representation of the life and death of the
Mother of Jesus Christ by the painters of Christen-
dom," whereas of the five hundred illustrations
only two or three are by Italian Masters. This is,
however, probably a mere slip on the part of the
author, and his work will take high rank as an
exhaustive record of what his fellow-countrymen
have done in mosaic, in carved ivory, in illuminated
MSS., in painting, and in sculpture to glorify the
memory of the Maiden Mother, and to express in
pictorial form the veneration felt for her throughout
the length and breadth of Italy. The very
numerous illustrations, chosen with great care,
would tell the story without the aid of the letter-
press, in which, however, the old legends are
related with appreciative feeling, and some few
obscure details in them explained. Signor
Venturi's examples cover a vast field, from the
first crude Catacomb frescoes to the great master-
pieces of Correggio and Raphael; but some few
celebrated pictures, with the fullest claim to admis-
sion, are not amongst them, notably the Adoration
of the Magi, by Filippo Lippi, in the National
Gallery, and the Sposalizio of the Caen Museum,
so long attributed, it would appear erroneously, to
Perugino. Mrs. Meynell, whose translation is good
on the whole, though she often retains the Italian
idiom, calls attention, in her interesting preface, to
the significance of the constant representation of
the Virgin and Child, pointing out how refining an
influence this glorification of the weak and helpless
has had upon mankind. She seems, however, to
miss, or at least to ignore, all that was involved in
the idealisation of Motherhood, and the recognition
of its divine power for good which was at the very
root of the veneration of the Virgin. She draws a
somewhat forced parallel between the expression
of the chivalric feeling for the Madonna in litera-
ture, and in quoting long passages in support of an
opinion few are likely to endorse that the word
painting of Francis Thompson and Coventry
Patmore is as good if not better in its way than are
the masterpieces in colour of Titian and Correggio.
The fact that there is neither index, table of con-
tents, nor list of illustrations to this most attractive
volume detracts very greatly from its value to the
student, but it is to be hoped that an opportunity may
occur for remedying the omission in another edition.
A History of American Art. By Sadakichi
Hartmann. 2 vols. (Boston, U.S.A. : L. C.
Page & Co.)—John Singleton Copley (1737-1815)
was the first American artist of distinction, for,
although his contemporary, Benjamin West, was of
American birth, his paintings were entirely executed
219
staircase, which takes up a great deal of unneces-
sary room, and by its obtrusiveness has an irritating
effect upon the visitor who is eager to examine the
portraits. It is only in the top room that the
pictures can be seen with any comfort, and even in
that the light is not really good, for it falls too
directly upon the walls. Chronologically arranged,
with the reproductions carefully grouped on the
right-hand page and the brief notices of each on
the left, the present volume is an ideal one for
reference, no time being lost in finding any par-
ticular likeness if only the date at which the
original lived is known. It seems, indeed, a pity
that a similar plan has not been followed in the
official catalogue, which requires a considerable
amount of study before its intricacies can be
mastered. A careful examination of the many
hundreds of illustrations in The National Portrait
Gallery produces a sense of surprise that amongst
them, although there are undoubtedly many
inferior pictures, there is not one bad reproduction,
the uniform high quality of the work reflecting
great credit on all concerned. The photographs
of Messrs. Walker & Cockerell are well known for
their excellence, and they have been interpreted
with much skill. Where all is good it is
difficult to single out any special examples for
notice, but the series of portraits of Queen
Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Oliver Cromwell, and
Edward VI., are especially noticeable. Amongst
the last may be named the curious study in per-
spective by an unknown artist, alluded to in
Walpole's " Anecdotes of Painting," which can only
be satisfactorily seen when looked at sideways
through an aperture in a screen fixed on to the
frame, when a beautiful miniature of the young
monarch appears.
The Madonna. By Adolfo Venturi. Trans-
lated by Alice Meynell. (Burns & Oates.)
31J. 6d. net.—It is now many years since the
fascinating subject of the representation of the
Virgin Mother in art has been dealt with in
a satisfactory manner. True, the well-known
"Legends of the Madonna," by Mrs. Jameson,
still ranks as a standard work so far as the
literary portion is concerned, but the etchings
and woodcuts, which are its only illustrations,
cannot compare with the beautiful photogravures
and half-tone reproductions which are now intro-
duced as a matter of course in the most unpretend-
ing handbook in any branch of art.
The present volume will to a very great extent
supply what is needed, but its sub-title is somewhat
misleading, for it claims that the book is "a
pictorial representation of the life and death of the
Mother of Jesus Christ by the painters of Christen-
dom," whereas of the five hundred illustrations
only two or three are by Italian Masters. This is,
however, probably a mere slip on the part of the
author, and his work will take high rank as an
exhaustive record of what his fellow-countrymen
have done in mosaic, in carved ivory, in illuminated
MSS., in painting, and in sculpture to glorify the
memory of the Maiden Mother, and to express in
pictorial form the veneration felt for her throughout
the length and breadth of Italy. The very
numerous illustrations, chosen with great care,
would tell the story without the aid of the letter-
press, in which, however, the old legends are
related with appreciative feeling, and some few
obscure details in them explained. Signor
Venturi's examples cover a vast field, from the
first crude Catacomb frescoes to the great master-
pieces of Correggio and Raphael; but some few
celebrated pictures, with the fullest claim to admis-
sion, are not amongst them, notably the Adoration
of the Magi, by Filippo Lippi, in the National
Gallery, and the Sposalizio of the Caen Museum,
so long attributed, it would appear erroneously, to
Perugino. Mrs. Meynell, whose translation is good
on the whole, though she often retains the Italian
idiom, calls attention, in her interesting preface, to
the significance of the constant representation of
the Virgin and Child, pointing out how refining an
influence this glorification of the weak and helpless
has had upon mankind. She seems, however, to
miss, or at least to ignore, all that was involved in
the idealisation of Motherhood, and the recognition
of its divine power for good which was at the very
root of the veneration of the Virgin. She draws a
somewhat forced parallel between the expression
of the chivalric feeling for the Madonna in litera-
ture, and in quoting long passages in support of an
opinion few are likely to endorse that the word
painting of Francis Thompson and Coventry
Patmore is as good if not better in its way than are
the masterpieces in colour of Titian and Correggio.
The fact that there is neither index, table of con-
tents, nor list of illustrations to this most attractive
volume detracts very greatly from its value to the
student, but it is to be hoped that an opportunity may
occur for remedying the omission in another edition.
A History of American Art. By Sadakichi
Hartmann. 2 vols. (Boston, U.S.A. : L. C.
Page & Co.)—John Singleton Copley (1737-1815)
was the first American artist of distinction, for,
although his contemporary, Benjamin West, was of
American birth, his paintings were entirely executed
219