Studio: international art (41.1907)

Reviews and Notices

and they found it inexhaustible in the old-world farms
and villages in which the simple people live, con-
tentedly pursuing their archaic agricultural methods
and lovingly tending the cattle on which the pros-
perity of their native land mainly depends. Even
without the admirable photographic plates, of which
there are nearly a hundred of typical indoor and
outdoor scenes, portrait groups, etc., the book would
be a valuable one, but with them it will take rank
amongst the best illustrated volumes of travel that
have recently appeared. The chapters on Volen-
dam and Marken are especially fascinating, so
clearly are the characteristics of the people, who
differ greatly from the rest of their fellow country-
men, brought out, and some of the illustrations,
notably The Student, Tired Brothers and Sisters,
The Watched Pot and the Zuyder Zee Fishermen are
true works of art, whilst the appendices on archi-
tecture, nature notes, etc., from the pen of Arthur
Marshall give a kind of scientific background to
the light and charming text.

Studies in Pictures. By John C. Van Dyke.
(London: T. Werner Laurie. New York : Scrib-
ner.) 6s. net.—Written primarily for the guidance
of his fellow-countrymen in their travels in Europe,
these studies from the pen of the eloquent American
writer will be found extremely useful to all students
who would gladly distinguish between the true and
the false, the inferior and superior, in art, yet dis-
trust their own judgment, and are puzzled by the
diversity of opinion met with on every side. Mr.
Van Dyke is a most trustworthy guide, who knows
what he is talking about, with a knowledge rare
indeed even amongst those who enjoy a great repu-
tation as critics. He has the intuitive sense that
can never be acquired by those in whom it is
wanting, enabling him to recognise at a glance the
work of a master, and he imparts his information
in clear incisive language, that can be as readily
understood by the neophyte as by the accomplished
scholar.

The Discoveries in Crete, and their Bearing on
the History of Ancient Civilisation. By Ronald
M. Burrows. (London : John Murray.) $s. net.
—The literature of Cretan Archaeology has been
accumulating so much since Mr. Evans's pioneer
discoveries initiated this profoundly interesting field
of research a few years ago, that only the expert is
able to keep pace with it. Entirely opportune,
therefore, is this volume, in which Prof. Burrows
reviews the chief results so far accomplished. His
aim has been to make it a general introduction to
the subject, suitable for the reader who has little, if
any, knowledge of it, and to that end he has
252

avoided technical terms wherever possible. At the
same time the needs of the student who intends
pursuing the subject seriously have been provided
for in the ample bibliography and detailed plan of
the Palace of Knossos appended to the volume.

Das Bildnis im Achtzehnten und Neunzehnten
Jahrhundert. Von Dr. Julius Leisching. (Vienna:
Anton Schroll & Co.). Price 7 kr.—The portrait
exhibition held last year at the Austrian Museum
in Vienna, simultaneously with the German centen-
nial exhibition in Berlin, gave ample opportunity
for the study of portraits of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, though unfortunately neither
England nor France was even fairly represented. Dr.
Leisching, who is Director of the Moravian Indus-
trial Museum at Briinn, was invited to lecture on
this subject at the Austrian Museum, Vienna, and
the work under consideration is an expansion of
these lectures. The author writes in an interesting
way, and treats at length of the great masters of the
period in Germany, England, France, paying par-
ticular attention to the influence of Van Dyck,
which, he says, shows itself strongest on the
English masters, who were not only great artists of
the brush, but who also well understood how to
please. He shows, too, how great was Lawrence's
influence on the Viennese artists of his day—on
Daffinger, Danhauser, Amerling,. Eybl and others,
above all, Amerling, who went to England for the
purpose of studying under the English master. The
author gives full credit to Waldmiiller, who, with
Pettenkofen, ranks among Austria's greatest painters,
and it can but be a question of time before he is
recognised outside German-speaking countries. The
work contains a number of interesting reproductions.

French Furniture. By Andre Saglio. (London :
George Newnes.) 75. 6d. net.—Copiously illus-
trated, well translated into English, and, with an
exhaustive subject index, this new volume forms a
useful addition to the Applied Aits Series. From
the pen of a true expert on the subject of furniture,
it deals exhaustively with the evolution of that of
France, beginning with the results of the Roman
invasion of Gaul, bringing the story down to the
fall of the first Napoleon, and concluding with an
eloquent prophecy of a new revival of decorative
art, which the writer argues must be imminent
because such a renaissance invariably follows a
decadence.

The Petit Trianon, Versailles, is the title of a
work which Mr. Batsford is publishing in three
parts at one guinea net each. It consists of an
extensive series of measured drawings, photographs,
etc., of the palace of the Petit Trianon, which is