Studio: international art (29.1903)

Reviews

reconstruction of them as they appeared before they
were mutilated. Much fresh information, or, to
be strictly accurate, much information conveyed in
a fresh and forcible manner, is here brought together
in an easily accessible form, which will be a mine
of wealth to the future gleaner in the same field.
In their preface the able collaborateurs remark
that the first thing to strike the observer who
examines the nine paintings from the Scuola of
St. Ursula is that no two of them are of the same
height, and they add, that in the state archives they
found a statement" to the effect that all but one of
them had six Venetian inches cut off the top in
1647. Moreover, these careful critics discovered
that several centimetres had also been taken off
the sides, possibly, however, not until 1S10, when
they were removed to the Academy. Having
made quite sure of these important facts, Messrs.
Molmenti and Ludwig proceeded to build up a
careful reconstruction of the Great Hall as it was
when, in 1490, Carpaccio, his task completed, laid
down his brush. For the Exterior the ancient plan
of Venice, attributed to Jocopo dei Barbari, was
pressed into service; for the Interior the paint-
ings themselves were drawn upon, whilst to give
back to them their original appearance, the recently
taken photographs were supplemented by the
clever draughtsman, Silvio Minato, with drawings
of the pieces which had been cut off, with the aid
of constant comparison with the well-known en-
gravings of De Pina after the untampered-with
pictures. From these materials an excellent black-
and-white reproduction of the Scuola as a whole
was obtained, which has been further supple-
mented by drawings and plans of the alterations
that preceded the final disappearance of the
previous building, the site of which is now
occupied by the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo.
The skeleton of the Scuola having been thus
deftly put together out of the scattered dry bones
of the past, it was next clothed with what
may well be called the still undecayed flesh and
blood of the immortal paintings of Carpaccio, in
which the master caught with such rare felicity the
very spirit of the quaint legend of the martyred
maidens, introducing into the extraordinary drama
actual portraits of the most noted of his Venetian
contemporaries, so that his work illustrates also
the widely different aspect of society as it was in
his own day. The life of Carpaccio, the whole
legend of St. Ursula, the history of the Scuola, the
mode of life of its inmates at different times—in a
word, the very environment of the various characters
who pass across their canvas is given by the
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authors of this most fascinating record, so that
when they come at last to deal in detail with the
actual paintings, the way has been thoroughly pre-
pared for their full and complete comprehension.
Indeed, from the literary and historical point of
view the book leaves nothing to be desired ; but
unfortunately the plates, with some few exceptions,
scarcely do full justice to the originals; many
of them, especially that of the Apotheosis of St.
Ursula, are dry and flat-looking, far inferior to
work of a similar kind recently issued in England.
Moreover, the lettering is somewhat awkwardly
printed, and the names of several of the pictures
are wrongly given, St. Ursula being made the
daughter of the King of England and her lover the
son of the King of Brittany, although the relation-
ships are correctly described in the text. Perhaps
the finest of the plates are Nos. 1., m. and iv., in
which the colour values are fairly well rendered.
The numerous process blocks are also good, and
include reproductions of certain little-known works
by Carpaccio, which it is interesting to compare
with those of the St. Ursula series, and also of inter-
pretations of the same legend by other masters.
Probably through a mere printer's error the paint-
ings on the Great Shrine at Bruges are, however,
attributed to Jean instead of Hans Memling.

Hampshire Days. By W. H. Hudson. (London:
Longmans & Co.) \os. 6d. net.—A worthy com-
panion of the " Wild Life in Hampshire High-
lands," published a few years ago, this delightful
volume will be welcomed by all true lovers
of Nature, full as it is of carefully observed
facts and thoroughly embued with the subtle
aroma of the scenes it depicts. Mr. Hudson
has a genuine sympathy with the wild creatures of
the fields and forest, which enables him to enter
into the mysteries of their inner life, combined with
something of the spiritual insight of the poet, but
it cannot be denied that he has the defects of his
own best qualities. Having once started a theory
he closes his eyes to everything which can tend to
shake it, and is occasionally guilty of exaggeration,
as when he endows insects with feelings that
certainly never existed, claims that glow-worms
exercise a supernatural influence over those who
watch them, and asserts that such a thing as a
pretty girl is unknown in North Hampshire. Mr.
Hudson prophesies, and it is to be hoped that in
this he will be found to have made no mistake,
that ere long legislation will interfere to stop
the ruthless destruction of the charms of the
New Forest by those who claim to have rights
in it.