DOI Heft:
No. 126 (September, 1903)
DOI Artikel:Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19879#0322
Reviews
from the scientific as well as the aesthetic point of
view. That the authoress has, in the present case,
made good her claim to combine the two no one
can deny, and her work will probably be found
useful by those who practise such minor arts as the
arrangement of flowers, millinery, etc., although it
will scarcely appeal to professional painters, who, if
they merit the name of artists at all, solve the
problems she deals with unconsciously.
The Art of Winifred Matthews. By Edward
Garnett. (London : Duckworth & Co.) 5s. net.
—So melancholy an interest attaches to this little
memorial of a life cut short at the age of twenty,
that it is difficult to estimate it truly. It is a
sympathetic—too sympathetic, perhaps—analysis
of a half-developed bud which might, or might
not, have opened into a beautiful flower. That
Winifred Matthews had talent no one who has seen
the drawings here reproduced can deny ; but that
there is in them any hint of genius it is impossible
to admit, nor can anyone in the least acquainted
with the work being done by many living artists
concede Mr. Garnett's claim that the subject of
his monograph owned any secret lost to the world
by her death.
A Book of Studies in F/ant Form. By W.
Widgley and A. E. V. Lilley. (London: Chap-
man & Hall.) 6^. net. Sixth Edition.—In nothing
is the new sesthetic movement more clearly reflected
than in the great progress made of late years in the
minor arts of decoration. In this advance, a very
important factor has been the conventionalisation
of natural form, especially of plant form, and the
joint authors of this book may claim to have done
much to promote the cause in which they take so
great an interest, by their clear definitions of the
principles which should guide the practical designer,
and the great number of drawings they have given
of historical and ornamental renderings of plants,
side by side with actual copies from Nature,
enabling the student to realise exactly what is
required for the satisfactory treatment of ornament.
The success of the book is already fully assured,
and to this, the sixth, edition have been added many
fresh drawings and photographs of floral forms, as
well as two chapters on "Leather Embossing" and
" Ornament in Relief."
Falian Sculpture of the Renaissance. By L. Y.
Freeman, M.A. (London : Macmillan & Co.)
\zs. 6d. net.—In the opinion of Mr. Freeman it was
'in sculpture that the Greeks expressed their deepest
views about life," and their architecture was to
some extent subordinate to plastic art; but as time
went on the position of the two was to some extent
306
reversed, architecture, especially religious architec-
ture, becoming all important, and sculpture taking
a comparatively subordinate rank, nor did it fully
emerge from this secondary position until the
Renaissance was already far advanced. In his
interesting examination of the development of
sculpture in Italy Mr. Freeman keeps this theory—
which may or may not be accepted by others—
constantly before him, explaining with its aid much
that it is difficult to understand in the work of the
Pisani and their successors, and tracing the gradual
development of sculpture as an independent art till
it attained its full beauty and strength in the
masterpieces of Donatello, Verrocchio and Michael
Angelo. With its fine reproductions of such
typical works as The Equestrian Statue of Barto-
lommeo Colleoni, by Verrocchio and Leopardi, the
Fulpit of Giovanni Fisano, in which sculpture and
architecture are both weakened by their too close
■association, and that by Benedetto da Majano
in S. Croce, Florence, a good illustration of their
well-balanced combination, this charming volume
will appeal alike to the professional artist and to
the layman ; but its value to both would have been
enhanced by the addition of an index.
Artistic Foses. By Robert J. Colenso, M.A.,
M.D., Oxon. (London: Bailliere, Tindall, and
Cox, 8, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.)—This
series of diagrams representing various attitudes
and actions of the human body, is excellently
adapted for educational purposes. It includes
several studies of the nude figure which are clearly
defined upon a dark background, and several ana-
tomical drawings which show well the positions 01
the muscles in certain familiar movements of the
body. The scale of these drawings is large enough
to allow all the necessary details to be intelligibly
stated, and no complications are introduced which
would be likely to puzzle the student. As the work
of a practical man, whose experience as a lecturer
in art schools and technical institutes has given
him an excellent opportunity of judging what will
be most useful in the class-room, the series can be
heartily commended. It will be of the greatest
assistance to teachers who require suitable illustra-
tions to emphasise points in their lectures, and it
will always be valuable for reference.
Die Korperformen im Kunst und Leben der
Japaner. Von Dr. C. H. Stratz. (Stuttgart:
Verlag von Ferdinand Enke.)—In a previous book,
"Die Schonheit des Weiblichen Korpers," Dr.
Stratz gave an admirable disquisition on varieties
of types of the female figure, and showed, in a very
instructive manner, how proportions and details of
from the scientific as well as the aesthetic point of
view. That the authoress has, in the present case,
made good her claim to combine the two no one
can deny, and her work will probably be found
useful by those who practise such minor arts as the
arrangement of flowers, millinery, etc., although it
will scarcely appeal to professional painters, who, if
they merit the name of artists at all, solve the
problems she deals with unconsciously.
The Art of Winifred Matthews. By Edward
Garnett. (London : Duckworth & Co.) 5s. net.
—So melancholy an interest attaches to this little
memorial of a life cut short at the age of twenty,
that it is difficult to estimate it truly. It is a
sympathetic—too sympathetic, perhaps—analysis
of a half-developed bud which might, or might
not, have opened into a beautiful flower. That
Winifred Matthews had talent no one who has seen
the drawings here reproduced can deny ; but that
there is in them any hint of genius it is impossible
to admit, nor can anyone in the least acquainted
with the work being done by many living artists
concede Mr. Garnett's claim that the subject of
his monograph owned any secret lost to the world
by her death.
A Book of Studies in F/ant Form. By W.
Widgley and A. E. V. Lilley. (London: Chap-
man & Hall.) 6^. net. Sixth Edition.—In nothing
is the new sesthetic movement more clearly reflected
than in the great progress made of late years in the
minor arts of decoration. In this advance, a very
important factor has been the conventionalisation
of natural form, especially of plant form, and the
joint authors of this book may claim to have done
much to promote the cause in which they take so
great an interest, by their clear definitions of the
principles which should guide the practical designer,
and the great number of drawings they have given
of historical and ornamental renderings of plants,
side by side with actual copies from Nature,
enabling the student to realise exactly what is
required for the satisfactory treatment of ornament.
The success of the book is already fully assured,
and to this, the sixth, edition have been added many
fresh drawings and photographs of floral forms, as
well as two chapters on "Leather Embossing" and
" Ornament in Relief."
Falian Sculpture of the Renaissance. By L. Y.
Freeman, M.A. (London : Macmillan & Co.)
\zs. 6d. net.—In the opinion of Mr. Freeman it was
'in sculpture that the Greeks expressed their deepest
views about life," and their architecture was to
some extent subordinate to plastic art; but as time
went on the position of the two was to some extent
306
reversed, architecture, especially religious architec-
ture, becoming all important, and sculpture taking
a comparatively subordinate rank, nor did it fully
emerge from this secondary position until the
Renaissance was already far advanced. In his
interesting examination of the development of
sculpture in Italy Mr. Freeman keeps this theory—
which may or may not be accepted by others—
constantly before him, explaining with its aid much
that it is difficult to understand in the work of the
Pisani and their successors, and tracing the gradual
development of sculpture as an independent art till
it attained its full beauty and strength in the
masterpieces of Donatello, Verrocchio and Michael
Angelo. With its fine reproductions of such
typical works as The Equestrian Statue of Barto-
lommeo Colleoni, by Verrocchio and Leopardi, the
Fulpit of Giovanni Fisano, in which sculpture and
architecture are both weakened by their too close
■association, and that by Benedetto da Majano
in S. Croce, Florence, a good illustration of their
well-balanced combination, this charming volume
will appeal alike to the professional artist and to
the layman ; but its value to both would have been
enhanced by the addition of an index.
Artistic Foses. By Robert J. Colenso, M.A.,
M.D., Oxon. (London: Bailliere, Tindall, and
Cox, 8, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.)—This
series of diagrams representing various attitudes
and actions of the human body, is excellently
adapted for educational purposes. It includes
several studies of the nude figure which are clearly
defined upon a dark background, and several ana-
tomical drawings which show well the positions 01
the muscles in certain familiar movements of the
body. The scale of these drawings is large enough
to allow all the necessary details to be intelligibly
stated, and no complications are introduced which
would be likely to puzzle the student. As the work
of a practical man, whose experience as a lecturer
in art schools and technical institutes has given
him an excellent opportunity of judging what will
be most useful in the class-room, the series can be
heartily commended. It will be of the greatest
assistance to teachers who require suitable illustra-
tions to emphasise points in their lectures, and it
will always be valuable for reference.
Die Korperformen im Kunst und Leben der
Japaner. Von Dr. C. H. Stratz. (Stuttgart:
Verlag von Ferdinand Enke.)—In a previous book,
"Die Schonheit des Weiblichen Korpers," Dr.
Stratz gave an admirable disquisition on varieties
of types of the female figure, and showed, in a very
instructive manner, how proportions and details of