Studio: international art (25.1902)

Reviews

does not apply to the sarcophagi, medals, gems, &c.,
in museums, which lend themselves with exceptional
readiness to reproduction.

Five Great Painters of the Victorian Era. By Sir
Wyke Bayliss, F.S.A. (London : Sampson Low.)
8s. 6d. net.—The writing of the President of the
Royal Society of British Artists is always interest-
ing, the more so, perhaps, because his point of
view is not, as a rule, exactly that of the general
public. In the present instance he considers
Leighton, Millais, Burne-Jones, G. F. Watts
and Holman Hunt rather as honorary mem-
bers of his society than as artists of all time,
whose temporary connection with any associa-
tion cannot really in the slightest degree
affect their position. Sir Wyke Bayliss begins by
claiming that the Royal Society is representative
of British artists, but whatever amount of truth
there may have been in this assumption fifty years
ago, it would certainly not be accepted by any but
a few at the present day. The fanciful names
given to the representative masters here considered
are not ill chosen, though the attempt to define
anything so undefinable and illimitable as true
genius can never be altogether satisfactory. To
this enthusiastic critic Lord Leighton is the
" Painter of the Gods," Sir John Millais of " Men
and Women," Sir Edward Burne-Jones of the
" Golden Age," G. F. Watts of " Love and
Life," Holman Hunt of "The Christ." Yet
nothing more intensely human was ever painted
than Leighton's Hercules ivrestling with Death,
and many masters of the past have been far more
successful in their interpretations of the com-
plex character of the divine Man than Holman
Hunt.

Passing over the experiences of the Royal Society
of British Artists under the presidentship of Mr.
James McNeill Whistler, his successor gives a very
interesting account of the vicissitudes of the associa-
tion to which he is so devotedly attached. He then
passes in critical review the five masters he has
chosen, giving reproductions of typical examples of
the work of each. Although his style is perhaps a
little too florid for modern taste, his judgments
are well balanced, the anecdotes he relates are
interesting, and many of them new to the reader.
The imaginary conversations between various
celebrities of the past on the subject of Portraits
of our Lord, beginning with a solemn discussion in
the Catacombs and ending with a chat between
Rossetti, Millais and Holman Hunt, are, however,
somewhat strained, leaving on the imagination no
impress of their approximate truth.
306

The Ivory- Workers of the Middle Ages. By A. M.
Cust. (London: Bell & Sons.) 3j-.net.—Mr. Cust
writes with enthusiasm on a subject that might at
first sight appear less fascinating than the con-
sideration of work which can be directly associated
with its producer. Thanks to his lucidity of state-
ment and skill in marshalling his arguments, how-
ever, he is able to imbue his reader with his own
interest, so that even those who have never hitherto
given the ivory-workers any serious thought can
follow him with ease. They find with surprise and
delight that they too can trace and realise the
importance of the thin line of continuity which
connects the first crude effort at design upon a bit
of horn or ivory of the pre-historic cave man, with
the triumphs of technical skill in carving of the
fourteenth century, at which date the record
closes.

The author of this charming little monograph
points out what many are in danger of forgetting,
that Early Christian was the last phase of Roman
art, and that even in Constantinople " there
lingered a fading shadow of the old Greek spirit
which at least inspired the craftsmen to finished
workmanship and a love of elegant form." He
begins his actual review of work in ivory with the
fourth century, and gives a most interesting series
of admirably reproduced examples of the great
series of Consular diptychs which, he says, " form
the backbone of the early history of the craft and
created a type which lasted through the whole
mediaeval era." The book is thus not merely a
record of mediaeval work, as its title would imply,
but also of antique, and had it included a chapter
on modern carving in ivory it might claim to be a
complete handbook on the subject. The con-
sideration of the Consular diptychs is succeeded
by a review of Latin and Byzantine ivories, with
many most interesting illustrations, including two
very fine sixth-century covers of the Gospels,
several later Christian diptychs and the remarkable
Plaque of liomanus IV. and Eudoxia crowned by
Christ, now in the national collection of Paris.
Even Anglo-Saxon carving, which has been much
overlooked, is fairly criticised by this most pains-
taking author, and the latter part of the book on
Romanesque and Gothic work contains much new
information, with wonderfully faithful renderings of
many gems of art scattered about in the collections
of Europe.

The Art 0/ Folly. By Sheridan Ford.
(Boston, U.S.A. : Small, Maynard & Co.)—The
dedication of this volume of verse is addressed to
" Those Who Understand." In an " Advertise-