DOI Heft:
Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20710#0103
Reviews
trated little volume disclaims any wish to deal
with more than the grammar of its subject, he
has not, fortunately for his readers, been able to
eliminate the element of enthusiasm that is the
saving leaven of every treatise, however limited its
scope. From the useful map of England forming
the frontispiece, showing some of the natural
products and characteristics of architecture
peculiar to different localities, to the glossary
of technical terms at the end, every page bears
the impress of expert knowledge, and the little
volume should find a place in every home and
school library.
Attraverso gli Albi e le Cartelle, Fasctcolo III.
By Vittorio Pica. (Bergamo : Institute Italiano
d'Arti Grafiche.) 2 livres 50.—This, the third
part of a series of interesting reproductions of
modern black-and-white work, will no doubt be
as cordially welcomed as its predecessors have
been. It deals chiefly with posters, and the
selection of typical examples of pretty well
every nationality reflects great credit on the
editor. Signor Pica has done well to revive the
beautiful advertisement of the "Woman in White,"
by Fred Walker, which was, perhaps, the first
artistic poster produced in England, and for a
long time remained a prophecy only. Published
some fifty years ago, it was not until many years
later that it was succeeded by anything at all
worthy to be compared with it.
Amongst the many effective designs by men
of the present day or the immediate past may
be especially noticed the thoroughly representative
series by Cheret; the dignified and pathetic
Aurore, by Eugene Carriere; the Petite Poncett
and Pate Dentrifice, by Boutet de Monvel, ad-
mirably adapted to their subjects : the dramatic
affiches Charles Verneau and Mother et Doria,
by Steinlen; the Sarah Bernhardt en Jeanne
d'Arc, by Grasset, in which the mediaeval and the
modern are felicitously combined; the tasteful
Hermitage of Paul Berthon : and the Estampes et
Affiches illustres of Paul Helleu, full of the re-
finement and grace characteristic of that clever
etcher's work. The numerous Italian posters
mark a great advance, and are remarkable for
their distinction, with a total absence of anything
approaching to vulgarity.
Benozzo Gozzoli. By Hugh Stokes. (London :
George Newnes.) 3^. 6d. net.—Those who are
familiar with the beautiful frescoes of Benozzo
Gozzoli at Pisa, Montefalco, San Gimignano, and
elsewhere, will welcome gladly the appearance of
this excellent monograph, with its scholarly review
86
of the master's life-work, and its admirable series
of reproductions of typical examples of it. Strange
to say, in spite of Gozzoli's prolific versatility and
the undoubted merit of his composition, draughts-
manship, and colouring, he has hitherto been
neglected, and has not until now been included in
any of the series of art monographs in course of
publication. Yet during his life-time he was one
of the most popular of the Florentine masters, and,
but for one slight check at the beginning of his
career, when he failed to satisfy the council at
Orvieto, assembled to choose a successor to Fra
Angelico, he was, from first to last, brilliantly suc-
cessful. The favourite pupil of the saintly monk,
Benozzo began his art education at S. Marco, and
was employed by Fra Angelico to assist him in
his work at Orvieto. Mr. Stokes forms a very just
estimate of Gozzoli's personality and powers ; the
painter had, he says, too tender a soul to depict
scenes of martyrdom ; he was untroubled by the
miraculous powers of saints, and his compositions
were painted in a purely secular spirit. His work
is, however, " glowing with humanity," and though
his claim to rank with the great artists of Italy may
be disputed, he must stand as one of the most
talented and certainly the most fascinating of the
Early Renaissance painters.
La Peinlure. By Jules Breton. (Paris:
Libraire de l'Art Ancien et Moderne.) 3 frs. 50.—
As in his painting so also in his literary work, the
veteran French master combines the characteristics
of the Naturalists and the Romanticists. He goes
straight to the heart of his subject with the direct-
ness of the painter whose chief inspiration is
Nature herself, yet he touches it with the glamour
of romance through which the poet looks at every-
thing that comes under his notice. M. Breton
explains that in his JVos Peintres du Sikle, he
endeavoured to realise the personalities of the
artists themselves ; but that in La Peinture his
aim is to describe their principles, the secret
springs of their actions, and the guides they follow,
for, he observes, " Everything can be painted—the
immaterial being as fully visible to eyes of the
spirit as is the material to those of the body."
The sub-title of the new book of this keen thinker,
who to his other gifts adds that of a true sense of
humour, is " l'Odysee de la Muse." This prepares
the reader for what might otherwise come as a
surprise—the fact that M. Breton has invested the
Muse of Painting with a tangible form, that of a
beautiful woman endowed with perpetual youth,
whose wanderings have been more numerous than
were those of Ulysses himself. To this fair
trated little volume disclaims any wish to deal
with more than the grammar of its subject, he
has not, fortunately for his readers, been able to
eliminate the element of enthusiasm that is the
saving leaven of every treatise, however limited its
scope. From the useful map of England forming
the frontispiece, showing some of the natural
products and characteristics of architecture
peculiar to different localities, to the glossary
of technical terms at the end, every page bears
the impress of expert knowledge, and the little
volume should find a place in every home and
school library.
Attraverso gli Albi e le Cartelle, Fasctcolo III.
By Vittorio Pica. (Bergamo : Institute Italiano
d'Arti Grafiche.) 2 livres 50.—This, the third
part of a series of interesting reproductions of
modern black-and-white work, will no doubt be
as cordially welcomed as its predecessors have
been. It deals chiefly with posters, and the
selection of typical examples of pretty well
every nationality reflects great credit on the
editor. Signor Pica has done well to revive the
beautiful advertisement of the "Woman in White,"
by Fred Walker, which was, perhaps, the first
artistic poster produced in England, and for a
long time remained a prophecy only. Published
some fifty years ago, it was not until many years
later that it was succeeded by anything at all
worthy to be compared with it.
Amongst the many effective designs by men
of the present day or the immediate past may
be especially noticed the thoroughly representative
series by Cheret; the dignified and pathetic
Aurore, by Eugene Carriere; the Petite Poncett
and Pate Dentrifice, by Boutet de Monvel, ad-
mirably adapted to their subjects : the dramatic
affiches Charles Verneau and Mother et Doria,
by Steinlen; the Sarah Bernhardt en Jeanne
d'Arc, by Grasset, in which the mediaeval and the
modern are felicitously combined; the tasteful
Hermitage of Paul Berthon : and the Estampes et
Affiches illustres of Paul Helleu, full of the re-
finement and grace characteristic of that clever
etcher's work. The numerous Italian posters
mark a great advance, and are remarkable for
their distinction, with a total absence of anything
approaching to vulgarity.
Benozzo Gozzoli. By Hugh Stokes. (London :
George Newnes.) 3^. 6d. net.—Those who are
familiar with the beautiful frescoes of Benozzo
Gozzoli at Pisa, Montefalco, San Gimignano, and
elsewhere, will welcome gladly the appearance of
this excellent monograph, with its scholarly review
86
of the master's life-work, and its admirable series
of reproductions of typical examples of it. Strange
to say, in spite of Gozzoli's prolific versatility and
the undoubted merit of his composition, draughts-
manship, and colouring, he has hitherto been
neglected, and has not until now been included in
any of the series of art monographs in course of
publication. Yet during his life-time he was one
of the most popular of the Florentine masters, and,
but for one slight check at the beginning of his
career, when he failed to satisfy the council at
Orvieto, assembled to choose a successor to Fra
Angelico, he was, from first to last, brilliantly suc-
cessful. The favourite pupil of the saintly monk,
Benozzo began his art education at S. Marco, and
was employed by Fra Angelico to assist him in
his work at Orvieto. Mr. Stokes forms a very just
estimate of Gozzoli's personality and powers ; the
painter had, he says, too tender a soul to depict
scenes of martyrdom ; he was untroubled by the
miraculous powers of saints, and his compositions
were painted in a purely secular spirit. His work
is, however, " glowing with humanity," and though
his claim to rank with the great artists of Italy may
be disputed, he must stand as one of the most
talented and certainly the most fascinating of the
Early Renaissance painters.
La Peinlure. By Jules Breton. (Paris:
Libraire de l'Art Ancien et Moderne.) 3 frs. 50.—
As in his painting so also in his literary work, the
veteran French master combines the characteristics
of the Naturalists and the Romanticists. He goes
straight to the heart of his subject with the direct-
ness of the painter whose chief inspiration is
Nature herself, yet he touches it with the glamour
of romance through which the poet looks at every-
thing that comes under his notice. M. Breton
explains that in his JVos Peintres du Sikle, he
endeavoured to realise the personalities of the
artists themselves ; but that in La Peinture his
aim is to describe their principles, the secret
springs of their actions, and the guides they follow,
for, he observes, " Everything can be painted—the
immaterial being as fully visible to eyes of the
spirit as is the material to those of the body."
The sub-title of the new book of this keen thinker,
who to his other gifts adds that of a true sense of
humour, is " l'Odysee de la Muse." This prepares
the reader for what might otherwise come as a
surprise—the fact that M. Breton has invested the
Muse of Painting with a tangible form, that of a
beautiful woman endowed with perpetual youth,
whose wanderings have been more numerous than
were those of Ulysses himself. To this fair