DOI issue:
No. 159 (June, 1906)
DOI article:Reviews and notices
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20715#0109
Reviews and Notices
omitting nothing that could bear any relation to
the task before him. During the past few years
numerous discoveries of ancient examples have
been made, and these the author has patiently and
carefully investigated, the result being a work of
the greatest value for the student and of real
interest to those who are acquainted with the art of
the period with which it deals. The ancient rules
and regulations concerning the potter’s industry,
dating from the time of Kaiser Friedrich III., make
curious reading, bearing as they do upon the
relations between master, man and apprentice,
even going into such details as to say when the
master and the older journeymen should raise
their hats to one another. Not the least impor-
tant part of the work is the list giving the
names of all the old masters, whose shields are
reproduced so that their work, armed with this
authority, may easily be recognised. The de-
scriptions are clear and concise, the work of a
scholar who, himself conscious of the difficulty of
the labour which he has undertaken, strives to
convey the results of those labours in such a
manner as to make the work both instructive and
interesting. The illustrations are numerous and
excellent, and include many coloured reproductions.
They have an additional worth insomuch as nearly
all are published for the first time, and most of them
are rare examples of the art which they represent.
Illustrated Catalogue of the Etched Work of
William Strang. With essay by Laurence
Binyon. (Glasgow: James Maclehose.) R2 2s.
net.—The series of reproductions of typical etchings
collected in this attractive volume will serve to
give some idea of the remarkable versatility and
adaptability of William Strang, for as the pages are
turned over, the memory first of one and then of
another great master is involuntarily evoked. Now
it is Holbein, now Velasquez, now the modern
Jean Frangois Millet or Albert Retch, whose
very manner seems to have been caught; yet for
all that there is no real plagiarism, for everything
bears the unmistakable impress of individuality,
the individuality of a man gifted with a most fertile
imagination, who has achieved a great mastery of
technique, and has, moreover, his own particular
message to give to the world. The pupil of
Alphonse Legros, Strang has worked in many
directions, but it is in etching that he has
achieved his greatest triumphs, for he has
obtained a complete command over that medium
of expression. His draughtsmanship is both
delicate and forceful, he knows how to give
character and dignity to the slightest sketch, and
88
even when the subjects chosen are painful or
revolting, there is never anything coarse or vulgar
in his treatment of them. It is perhaps in his
portraits that he has touched his highest point of
excellence, for those of Rudyard Kipling, Thomas
Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Cosmo Monk-
house, Lord Lindley, and the various likenesses
of himself, are real psychological revelations of
men of essentially different types, showing a true
insight into human nature. Many of his com-
positions are, however, also masterpieces: the
Millet-like After Work and Hedger show a genuine
sympathy with peasant life; the illustrations for
the “ Pilgrim’s Progress ” treat a hackneyed theme
with great freshness, and those for the artist’s own
quaint and touching ballads of “ Death and the
Ploughman’s Wife ” and the “ Earth Fiend ” dis-
play an exuberance of fancy and an appreciation of
the grim pathos underlying the lot of the dwellers
upon earth, worthy of Holbein or of Diirer.
Moorish Remains in Spain. By Albert F.
Calvert. (London and New York : John Lane.)
42s. net.—Already in his “Alhambra” Mr. Calvert
has shown his keen appreciation of the beauties
of Spanish Moresco architecture, combined with
an insight into its special characteristics and
a recognition of the manner in which those
characteristics reflect the idiosyncrasies of its
builders. The present volume deals chiefly with
the Cathedral Mosque of Cordova, the Alcazar
of Seville, and the less important relics of
Moorish art at Toledo, bringing vividly before the
imagination the almost bewildering richness of
design, with the infinite variety, yet intrinsic
simplicity, of decorative motives, that set the art
of the Moors apart from that of any other people,
the creators of the marvellous palaces and tombs
of India not excepted. Moreover, the strange
fact is forcibly brought out that there was no
gradual decadence of Arab art in the Peninsula,
but an abrupt and final cessation of aesthetic
production, such as occurred nowhere else in
Europe, so that what has been preserved re-
presents that art at its best. “ In Cordova,” says
Mr. Calvert, “ the spirit of the Moors still lives ; in
Seville the cathedral bells now hang over the
Arabian tower of the mosque, and the spire of the
Temple of the Faithful has become the world-
famous Giralda,” for when the Moorish building
was- converted into a Roman Catholic church
scrupulous care was taken to preserve its original
character. Even in Toledo, where so much has
been destroyed, a few priceless relics remain,
including the magnificent Puerta del Sol, the
omitting nothing that could bear any relation to
the task before him. During the past few years
numerous discoveries of ancient examples have
been made, and these the author has patiently and
carefully investigated, the result being a work of
the greatest value for the student and of real
interest to those who are acquainted with the art of
the period with which it deals. The ancient rules
and regulations concerning the potter’s industry,
dating from the time of Kaiser Friedrich III., make
curious reading, bearing as they do upon the
relations between master, man and apprentice,
even going into such details as to say when the
master and the older journeymen should raise
their hats to one another. Not the least impor-
tant part of the work is the list giving the
names of all the old masters, whose shields are
reproduced so that their work, armed with this
authority, may easily be recognised. The de-
scriptions are clear and concise, the work of a
scholar who, himself conscious of the difficulty of
the labour which he has undertaken, strives to
convey the results of those labours in such a
manner as to make the work both instructive and
interesting. The illustrations are numerous and
excellent, and include many coloured reproductions.
They have an additional worth insomuch as nearly
all are published for the first time, and most of them
are rare examples of the art which they represent.
Illustrated Catalogue of the Etched Work of
William Strang. With essay by Laurence
Binyon. (Glasgow: James Maclehose.) R2 2s.
net.—The series of reproductions of typical etchings
collected in this attractive volume will serve to
give some idea of the remarkable versatility and
adaptability of William Strang, for as the pages are
turned over, the memory first of one and then of
another great master is involuntarily evoked. Now
it is Holbein, now Velasquez, now the modern
Jean Frangois Millet or Albert Retch, whose
very manner seems to have been caught; yet for
all that there is no real plagiarism, for everything
bears the unmistakable impress of individuality,
the individuality of a man gifted with a most fertile
imagination, who has achieved a great mastery of
technique, and has, moreover, his own particular
message to give to the world. The pupil of
Alphonse Legros, Strang has worked in many
directions, but it is in etching that he has
achieved his greatest triumphs, for he has
obtained a complete command over that medium
of expression. His draughtsmanship is both
delicate and forceful, he knows how to give
character and dignity to the slightest sketch, and
88
even when the subjects chosen are painful or
revolting, there is never anything coarse or vulgar
in his treatment of them. It is perhaps in his
portraits that he has touched his highest point of
excellence, for those of Rudyard Kipling, Thomas
Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Cosmo Monk-
house, Lord Lindley, and the various likenesses
of himself, are real psychological revelations of
men of essentially different types, showing a true
insight into human nature. Many of his com-
positions are, however, also masterpieces: the
Millet-like After Work and Hedger show a genuine
sympathy with peasant life; the illustrations for
the “ Pilgrim’s Progress ” treat a hackneyed theme
with great freshness, and those for the artist’s own
quaint and touching ballads of “ Death and the
Ploughman’s Wife ” and the “ Earth Fiend ” dis-
play an exuberance of fancy and an appreciation of
the grim pathos underlying the lot of the dwellers
upon earth, worthy of Holbein or of Diirer.
Moorish Remains in Spain. By Albert F.
Calvert. (London and New York : John Lane.)
42s. net.—Already in his “Alhambra” Mr. Calvert
has shown his keen appreciation of the beauties
of Spanish Moresco architecture, combined with
an insight into its special characteristics and
a recognition of the manner in which those
characteristics reflect the idiosyncrasies of its
builders. The present volume deals chiefly with
the Cathedral Mosque of Cordova, the Alcazar
of Seville, and the less important relics of
Moorish art at Toledo, bringing vividly before the
imagination the almost bewildering richness of
design, with the infinite variety, yet intrinsic
simplicity, of decorative motives, that set the art
of the Moors apart from that of any other people,
the creators of the marvellous palaces and tombs
of India not excepted. Moreover, the strange
fact is forcibly brought out that there was no
gradual decadence of Arab art in the Peninsula,
but an abrupt and final cessation of aesthetic
production, such as occurred nowhere else in
Europe, so that what has been preserved re-
presents that art at its best. “ In Cordova,” says
Mr. Calvert, “ the spirit of the Moors still lives ; in
Seville the cathedral bells now hang over the
Arabian tower of the mosque, and the spire of the
Temple of the Faithful has become the world-
famous Giralda,” for when the Moorish building
was- converted into a Roman Catholic church
scrupulous care was taken to preserve its original
character. Even in Toledo, where so much has
been destroyed, a few priceless relics remain,
including the magnificent Puerta del Sol, the