Studio: international art (35.1905)

Reviews

This portion of their work is well done as far as it
goes ; but the examples figured in each style might
have been advantageously more numerous, and
additional interest would have been given to the
drawings had references been made to the collec-
tions in which the originals might be found. But
the authors have not been content to limit their
work to what they call the thirty-five styles, but
they have introduced a number of designs of
their own. For example, under the heading of
“Egyptian: New Designs,” we find a modern
dining-room sideboard and a set of modem bed-
room furniture, upon which a certain amount of
ornament copied from the Egyptian work is boldly
applied to the forms of furniture in use in England
at the present day ! The same thing is attempted
with the Greek and Roman, the Moorish and the
Japanese. The authors conclude their work by a
sheet of “British New Art” designed by them-
selves, and one also of “ L’Art Nouveau,” also
designed by themselves—both of which are, pre-
sumably, based upon the designs of others, but
upon whose they do not specify. All this addi-
tional matter is very trivial and foolish, and can
serve no good purpose. Imitation has been the
bane, the curse, of architecture and decoration
for the last hundred years, and the very worst form
of imitation is the one which the authors of this
work have committed in their “ new ” designs after
ancient styles.

Die Altgermanische Thierornamentik. By
Bernhard Salin. (Stockholm : Beckman. Ber-
lin : Asher.)—The title of this deeply interesting,
richly illustrated and truly exhaustive monograph,
that has been ably translated from the Swedish by
Herr J. Mestorf, does not do it full justice, for it
includes not only descriptions of the use of animal
forms in Germanic ornament, but also of many
other varieties of decoration employed by various
branches of the great Teutonic stock in pre-historic
and early historic times. The author explains
that the first inception of his arduous task was due
to the encouragement of his master, the well-known
archseological professor, Montelius, who revealed
to him the vast field open to the student of human
culture in the relics of pre-historic German art that
have been preserved to the present day. With
unwearying patience and unerring judgment Herr
Salin has laid pretty well every country in Europe
under contribution, for he deals with the time
when Belgium, France and Italy were occupied by
offshoots of the same great family, and he has
culled his examples from widely separated sources.
He divides his work into two parts, the first
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devoted to the consideration of the development,
diffusion, and relative chronology of pre-historic
Germanic relics left behind them by the nomadic
tribes, and his researches will be found to throw
much incidental light on several difficult historical
problems. The second section of the book, that
is less technical than the first and will probably
appeal to a wider circle of readers, considers in
great detail Germanic, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic
ornamentation of metal and of thus giving a very
great many beautiful and ornate examples of
wrought iron, gold and silver work, with moulded,
incised and enamel decoration as well as several
typical designs from the famous Book of Kells
and Book of Lindisfarn. It is greatly to be hoped
that some student of Archaeology may be found
enterprising enough to translate Herr Salin’s delight-
ful work into English, there being nothing in that
language which can be compared to it.

Auguste Rodin. By Judith Cladei,. (Paris :
Editions de la Plume.)—Much has been written
about the great French sculptor, whose dominating
personality makes itself felt wherever he happens
to be, but these essays from the pen of the gifted
Judith Cladei have a very exceptional value of
their own. Full of reverent enthusiasm for the
master, she tells how she longed to bring under his
influence a young authoress whom she calls Claire.
She invited Claire to visit her in Paris, and won
for her the privilege of entree to the famous studio
in the rue de l’Universite, with a share in the
delightful causeries with Rodin after the day’s
work was done, such as she had herself so long
enjoyed. With the skill of a true raconteur she
describes these priceless interviews, giving verbatim
many characteristic conversations that incidentally
show Rodin in quite a new light, bringing out his
deep sympathy with the ambitions of the young.
With a few graphic touches the writer sketches in
the environment of the itudio, with its veiled
masterpieces in every stage of their development,
bringing its atmosphere vividly before her readersf
whom she also takes with her in her walks and
steamboat trips in the gloaming with Rodin and
Claire, when the most commonplace incidents
gather force and meaning at the touch of genius.
She describes, for instance, just such a scene as is
so forcibly realised in the Porte de VEnfer, and
tells how Rodin, looking at it, remarked, “ J’ai
fait cela aussi parceque je l’ai lu dans la nature”;
or she relates how the sculptor met her and her
friend in the Louvre and swept them away with
him to look at the antique sculpture, on which he
gave them a most informing lecture. Again she