Studio: international art (45.1909)

Reviews and Notices

dates, another a comprehensive bibliography, and
the third a list of some 2,500 engravers and
etchers from the earliest times to the present day.
Over a hundred illustrations interspersed through-
out the text aid the reader in following the progress
of the art from century to century. That the
author has expended a prodigious amount of
trouble and care in the writing of this short history
is evident, and the extensive knowledge he has
brought to bear on the subject, coupled with the
judicious way in which he has dealt with the work
of individual artists, especially those now living,
should ensure for the work a leading place in the
literature of this branch of art.

Jewellery. By H. Clifford Smith, M.A. (Lon-
don : Methuen.) 25s. net.—To trace the evolution
of personal ornament from the earliest times to
the present day, noting the reflection in it of the
distinctive peculiarities of the various peoples for
whom it was designed, is a task that might well
have appalled the most enthusiastic student, yet it
has, on the whole, been successfully achieved by
Mr. Clifford Smith, in his scholarly volume—one
of the useful Connoisseur’s Library—that is illus-
trated with a large number of excellent collotype
reproductions of typical examples of jewellery,
ranging in date from early Phoenician to nineteenth-
century work. The account of Egyptian jewellery
is an excellent illustration of Mr. Smith’s thorough-
ness in tracing effects to causes, for he points out
that most of the later forms of ornament are repre-
sented in the relics found in the valley of the Nile.
He notes the inferiority of the jewels discovered in
tombs to those worn by the deceased during their
lives, and dwells on the fact that the personal
ornaments of the Egyptians have, in addition to
their actual purpose, an emblematic signification,
the interpretation of which throws no little light on
religious and historical problems. Fascinating as
are the chapters on antique work, however, those
on mediaeval jewellery, in which that of England,
especially in the 16th century, is considered at
great length, will probably appeal most forcibly to
the general reader, so exquisitely beautiful in
design and execution are some of the examples
described, and so romantic the associations con-
nected with Tudor and Stuart relics. A Catalogue
Raisonné of the illustrations, an exhaustive
Bibliography, and a good Index give additional
value to the work, the most complete general
survey that has hitherto appeared in England of a
branch of applied art that is now undergoing a
new Renaissance under the auspices of a band of
talented craftsmen, both in this country and on

the Continent, who, while keeping in touch with
the best traditions of the past, are far from being
mere imitators of the craftsmen of old.

Sir Christopher Wren. By Lena Milman.
(London : Duckworth & Co.) 7s. 6d. net.—At a time
when there have been some alarming rumours con-
cerning the safety of St. Paul’s, it is interesting to
find a new life of the Cathedral’s famous architect.
In these days of detailed specialisation it is almost
impossible to imagine that a man already a brilliant
mathematician, a well-known astronomer—he was
Gresham Professor of Astronomy at the age of
twenty-five !—should be able to take up also
architects’ work and to accomplish the tasks that
lay before him in such a masterly manner. In
private and public life alike of a charming and unas-
suming character, as is testified by the number of
his friends, among whom he counted many who
were also his rivals, Sir Christopher Wren was
hampered by an over-modesty, and, as Addison
writes of him in the “ Tatler,” “this Bashful
quality still put a damp upon his great knowledge
... so that here we find ‘ the modest man built the
city, and the modest man’s skill was unknown.’ ”
John Evelyn, himself one of those friends who were
also rivals, in his diary calls him “that incom-
parable genius, my worthy friend Dr. Christopher
Wren,” but though not strictly speaking “ un-
known,” his genius went certainly unrewarded, and
when Royal favour was withdrawn he was com-
pelled to retire to his residence on Hampton
Court Green, where “ in Solitude, and as well
pleased to die in the Shade as in the Light,” Sir
Christopher passed the last five years of his life.
Even then his philosophic temperament enabled
him to take delight in scientific pursuits, and to
live oblivious of the malicious attacks upon his
reputation and the unworthy aspersions cast upon
his integrity as Surveyor General by those to whom
his fall meant promotion, till, at the age of ninety-
one, he passed peacefully away. Miss Milman has
written a most interesting life of a fascinating
personality, and has, moreover, added to the value
of her work by including upwards of sixty illus-
trations, from photographs, of Wren’s work in both
ecclesiastical and domestic architecture.

Gli Impressionisti Francesi. By Vittorio
Pica. (Bergamo : Istituto Italiano d’Arti Grafiche.)
8 lire 50.—Since the publication, four years ago, of
Wynford Dewhurst’s able study of Impressionist
painting, no authoritative work on that branch of
art, which has not even yet reached its final de-
velopment, has appeared in England, for which
reason it is much to be desired that some competent

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