Studio: international art (46.1909)

Reviews and Notices

at Knossos and Setsofa, and engraved Mycenaean
gems, etc., traces the evolution of Greek dress,
noting how thoroughly in accord it was from first
to last with the noble race to whom the human
form divine was the highest expression of ideal
beauty, and the cultivation of physical powers a
religious duty. Quoting largely from original
authorities, but giving excellent translations for
the benefit of those less learned than herself, and
pressing into service, as illustrations, statues, bas-
reliefs, painted vases, embroideries, etc., Miss
Abrahams gives the fullest details, not only as to
form and ornamentation but texture and colour of
material, devoting, as is but fitting, considerable
space to the golden age of Greek art to which
belonged the maidens who posed for the marvellous
sculptures of the Parthenon, and noting the gradual
introduction of excessive luxury resulting from con-
stant intercourse with the East, and the reaction
that set in after the Persian wars.

La Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Venezia. Text
by Vittorio Pica. (Bergamo : Istituto Italiano
d’Arti grafiche.) 50 lire.—Founded in 1897, the
Gallery of Modern Art at Venice, of which this
sumptuous volume forms a fitting memorial, was
the immediate outcome of the institution of those
international art exhibitions which have been held
in that city every second year since 1895. It will
always redound to the credit of Prince Alberto
Giovanelli and other generous benefactors whose
support, with that liberally given by the Munici-
pality and other authorities, enabled the gallery to
be established, that they had the wisdom to see
what was needed to infuse new life into Italian
art; for as Sgr. Pica observes in his opening
remarks, it is to the movement initiated in Venice
fourteen years ago that contemporary art in Italy
has been saved from utter decay. Sgr. Pica has
watched this movement from the beginning, and
from 1899 onwards has published a record of each
exhibition, so that he may be considered par
excellence the historian of the movement. And
that there can be few or none who are better
qualified than he to discharge this function, is
amply attested by the series of essays he has
written for this volume as an accompaniment to
the reproductions of works which have been
acquired by the Gallery. The volume contains eighty
of these reproductions, a large number of them
being in colour. The works reproduced have no
doubt in nearly all cases been purchased at one or
other of the biennial exhibitions, and their authors
are well-known artists belonging to many nationali-
ties, the Italians naturally predominating among the

fifty-two who are represented in the volume. Nearly
all the plates are neatly mounted on dark paper,
and the general excellence of printing and binding
entitles the publishers to warm congratulation.

The Architectural Association Sketch-book. Third
Series. Vol. XII. Edited by G. B. Lewis and
Theodore Fyfe. (Published by the Association at
18 Tufton Street, Westminster.) ij-. (to sub-

scribers). The 72 plates contained in this latest
volume of the “ Sketch-book ” cover a wide range
of subjects of much interest and value to the
student of architecture. Of the 37 plates devoted
to English subjects, the principal concern Castle
Hedingham in Essex, the Priory Church at Christ-
church, Hants, the Royal Naval Hospital, Green-
wich, the contributors of these being Messrs. C. C.
Brewer, G. J. Coombs, C. J. Macdonald and
C. H. B. Quennell. Italian architecture occupies
18 plates, the Massini Palace with the columns in
Rome and the church of S. Maria Maggiore at
Toscanella being the chief subjects. In France
the church of Notre Dame, Caudebec, is the
subject of five plates contributed by Messrs. C.
Wontner-Smith and A. E. Martin. Belgium,
Holland, Greece, Spain and Turkey are also
represented, the last by an interior view of St.
Sophia and two views of the mosque of Sultan
Sulieman, Constantinople, by Mr. A. E. Henderson.

Designers to whom lettering has an attraction
will be glad to learn that a new and much cheaper
edition of Turbayne’s well-known book of Mono-
grams and Cyphers has been issued by Messrs. T.
C. & E. C. Jack, of London and Edinburgh. The
re-issue forms a single volume, and the price is
only 5$. net in paper wrappers, and 7s. 6d. net,
bound in cloth, as against 37s. previously charged
for the complete work.

The Annual Plate of the Art Union of London
consists this year of a large and fine etching by Mr.
M. Osborne, A.R.E., after the painting by Fred
Morgan entitled The Gleaners. The plate is one of
considerable merit, and cannot fail to be appreciated
by the ubscribers to this excellent institution.

Mr. Edmund H. New, who is making a special
study of the architecture of Oxford, has executed
a pen-and-ink drawing of The Towers of Oxford,, as
seen from the Bell Tower of Magdalen College;
and the drawing has been reproduced and printed
in lithography by Mr. T. R. Way. From the
point selected by the artist, all the towers for which
Oxford is so famous come into view, except, of
course, Magdalen Tower itself, and the result is a
panoramic representation of much interest.

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