DOI issue:
Nr. 116 (November 1902)
DOI article:Vallance, Aymer: Designs for book-plates: some remarks upon the result of competition B XX.
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19877#0140
Designs for Book-plates
there be not two planes of vision; especially in
" Isca's" drawing, where the hand grasping the
torch thrusts itself forward with most aggressive
prominence.
But, after all, any one who is so minded can be
a fault-finder, a role which, indeed, I did not set
out to fill. Rather let me close, as I began, with
the expression of my sincerest praise for the excep-
tionally interesting collection of designs elicited by
the Book-plate Competition.
Aymer Vallance.
book-plate
between solid fact and romantic fiction is clever
as regards the two figures ; but the artist's method
of rendering background or shadow by a pile of
coins, or peas, or whatever else they are sup-
posed to be, is not a happy one. It appears rather
a convention totally devoid of meaning, and such
that " Malvolio " should be persuaded to abandon
henceforward.
Four more drawings—viz., those by "Alex,"
"Brush," "Serlio," and "Flying Fish " respectively book-plate
—introduce female figures in the act of reading;
but none demand any special comment, except that
in "Alex's" design the circular outline of the
medallion meets with an accordant response in
the attitude of the figure which it encloses. How
far it is legitimate to convey the contrary impression,
as is done in " Rep's" and in one of " Isca's "
designs, may be a moot point. In the one instance
a draped forearm, in the other a torch, protrudes,
beyond the confines of the frame. In either case
surely there is an aberration difficult to justify.
Nobody prescribed the shape and dimensions of
the space enclosed ; it is entirely the artist's own
choosing, being in the one case circular and in the
other rectangular. But having once adopted these
limits, why do they not observe them ? If the
surface first planned for the figure-work subse-
quently proved to be inadequate, surely its borders
could and should have been extended until they
were wide enough to include all that the artist pro-
posed to depict in it. As it is, there is produced
an uneasiness and uncertainty as to whether that
part which appears flat is really so, or whether book-plate
128
♦*?WlLUAM-E-TYLEr\- fS?
there be not two planes of vision; especially in
" Isca's" drawing, where the hand grasping the
torch thrusts itself forward with most aggressive
prominence.
But, after all, any one who is so minded can be
a fault-finder, a role which, indeed, I did not set
out to fill. Rather let me close, as I began, with
the expression of my sincerest praise for the excep-
tionally interesting collection of designs elicited by
the Book-plate Competition.
Aymer Vallance.
book-plate
between solid fact and romantic fiction is clever
as regards the two figures ; but the artist's method
of rendering background or shadow by a pile of
coins, or peas, or whatever else they are sup-
posed to be, is not a happy one. It appears rather
a convention totally devoid of meaning, and such
that " Malvolio " should be persuaded to abandon
henceforward.
Four more drawings—viz., those by "Alex,"
"Brush," "Serlio," and "Flying Fish " respectively book-plate
—introduce female figures in the act of reading;
but none demand any special comment, except that
in "Alex's" design the circular outline of the
medallion meets with an accordant response in
the attitude of the figure which it encloses. How
far it is legitimate to convey the contrary impression,
as is done in " Rep's" and in one of " Isca's "
designs, may be a moot point. In the one instance
a draped forearm, in the other a torch, protrudes,
beyond the confines of the frame. In either case
surely there is an aberration difficult to justify.
Nobody prescribed the shape and dimensions of
the space enclosed ; it is entirely the artist's own
choosing, being in the one case circular and in the
other rectangular. But having once adopted these
limits, why do they not observe them ? If the
surface first planned for the figure-work subse-
quently proved to be inadequate, surely its borders
could and should have been extended until they
were wide enough to include all that the artist pro-
posed to depict in it. As it is, there is produced
an uneasiness and uncertainty as to whether that
part which appears flat is really so, or whether book-plate
128
♦*?WlLUAM-E-TYLEr\- fS?