Studio: international art (27.1903)

Reviews

for which she is noted, Miss Cruttwell has given
to the great Luca his true place, sorting his sculp-
tures from those of Andrea and Giovanni, and,
by her lucid definitions of the characteristics of
each of the three Delia _ Robbia, she has made
identification easy for all future students. Passing
lightly over the causes which led to the great
Renaissance in art of the fifteenth century, which
have already been thoroughly sifted by many
writers, Miss Cruttwell reviews in detail the work,
first of Luca, then of Andrea, and lastly of Gio-
vanni, giving to Andrea more than one piece of
sculpture hitherto attributed to Luca, and illus-
trating her theories by many fine reproductions of
well-known works, such as the exquisite Visitation,
by Luca, in S. Giovanni Fuorcivitas, Pistoja, as
well as of others lately discovered, including the
beautiful Head of the Madonna, bv Andrea, found
by Miss F. Gilbert in an antiquarian's shop in
Florence.

Sir Joshua Reynolds. By Lord Ronald
Sutherland Gower, F.S.A. (London: Bell &
Sons.) 7^. 6d. net. Sir Joshua Reynolds. By
Elsa D'Esterre- Keeling. (London : Walter
Scott.) $s. 6d. net.—That two new biographies of
Reynolds should have been recently published is a
convincing proof of the ever-widening interest in
art characteristic of the present day. Both these
attempts to give fresh interest to a somewhat out-
worn theme are good in themselves, and will appeal
to different classes of readers. Lord Ronald's
scholarly and richly illustrated volume will be
welcomed by connoisseurs already well acquainted
with its subject, for although it contains little that
is new so far as the letterpress is concerned, it
includes many pictures by the great portrait-painter
which have never before been reproduced in a
biography, as well as facsimiles of drawings, letters,
and relics, the property of Lady Colomb and Sir
R. Edgcumbe. The treatise by Miss Keeling, on
the other hand, is but a rechauffe of old material
thrown into a somewhat novel form; it contains
no new illustrations, and, although the various
appendices will be found useful to the student and
art historian, there is but little in the criticism
worthy of commendation.

Old English Masters. Engraved by Timothy
Cole. With Historical Notes by John C. Van
Dyke. (London : Macmillan & Co. Ltd.) Price
£2 2s. net.—That Mr. Cole has raised wood-
engraving to the level of a fine art, to a greater
degree than any of his contemporaries, is apparent
to all who have given the subject close attention.
There is a beauty and a refinement in his work, added
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to an individuality of treatment, that at no time in
the history of the craft have been surpassed, nor do
we think, even equalled. The collection of his
engravings from the Old English Masters brought
together in this volume is one of abiding interest.
The notes upon the pictures illustrated, which the
artist has added to Mr. Van Dyke's informing
text, are of great technical value and will be
studied with much profit by the reader.

The Holy Land. Painted by John Fulley-
love, R.I. Described by John Kelman, M.A.
(London : A. & C. Black.) Price 20s. net.—The
large number of illustrations reproduced in colour
from the drawings by Mr. Fulleylove form the chief
feature of this volume. As transcripts of the original
watercolours, they fail to catch all the subtlety of
tint and colour-values characteristic of the painter's
work ; but they are, nevertheless, of surprising
illustrative value. Both to travellers in the Holy
Land who wish to renew their impressions, and
to those who desire to obtain some idea of its
old-world cities with their picturesque inhabitants
and of its poetic landscape, the volume cannot fail
to be welcome.

Frans Hals. By Gerald S. Davies, M.A.
(London: Bell & Sons.) £2 2s. net. This masterly
examination of the work of a man who stood
alone in his life-time as an interpreter of passing
phases of feeling, especially of mirth, and has
remained without a rival in his own peculiar
line ever since, will be gladly welcomed, not only
by those who have already recognised his genius,
but also by the many to whom his paintings are
comparatively unknown. In dealing with Frans
Hals the critic is met with a problem still practically
unsolved. How was it possible for a man of his
known habits, whose life, sajs Mr. Davies, was
"entirely Bohemian, the absolute reverse of simple
living and high thinking," to produce masterpieces
which challenge the admiration of the most hyper-
critical, who stand amazed before their marvellous
technique, their combined freedom and force of
handling, their unfaltering strength of expression ?
" Was the man altogether distinct from the artist, or
has injustice been done to the former by his
biographers ? To both these questions the author
of the new volume replies in the affirmative ; the
artist must be judged apart from his work, but at
the same time injustice has been done to the man,
for even when certain painful facts are admitted to
be true, it still remains impossible that paintings
bearing witness to "swift, decided, unerring cer-
tainty of eye and hand could have been produced by
one whose nerve had been wrecked by dissipation."