Studio: international art (47.1909)

Reviews and Notices

secular blood, as he expresses it, that were due
the enormous strides made in architectural con-
struction and design in France between i r5o and
1220. Though the churches dealt with by Prof.
Simpson have been described many times before,
there is so much freshness and originality in the
author’s treatment of the subject, the result of
personal acquaintance with most of the structures
he deals with, that the work has every right to
rank among the standard literature of the subject.
The illustrations to this volume number more than
250, and are with a few trifling exceptions quite new.

Florentine Sculptors of the Renaissance. By
Wilhelm Bode. (London : Methuen.) 12s. 6d.
net.'—A very marked difference is noticeable
between the history of painting and sculpture in
the great aesthetic revival that took place in Italy
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, for whereas
the former is an unbroken record of progress in-
fluenced, but not caused, by the new light thrown
on classic art resulting from the discoveries of
antique statues and bas-reliefs, the course of the
latter would probably but for those discoveries
have taken quite another direction. This signi-
ficant fact is very clearly recognized by Dr.
Bode in his well-known monograph on Floren-
tine sculptors of the Renaissance, of which a
new and excellent translation has been made.
Illustrated with a large number of good reproduc-
tions of official masterpieces, the book is the most
authoritative work on its subject that has hitherto
appeared, and combines with much keen technical
criticism a realization of the personal idiosyncrasies
of the artists under review such as has been rarely
achieved by the author’s fellow-countrymen who,
as a general rule, lose sight of the craftsman in
their vivisection of his productions.

In Japan. By Gaston Migeon. (London :
Heinemann.) 6s.—Among the large number of
tourists who now annually visit Japan, there are
probably extremely few who are so well versed in
the history and characteristics of its art as the
talented author of this little work. As Conservator
of the Louvre Museum, he has had every oppor-
tunity of studying many phases of that art before
making his pilgrimage to the Far East. Intensely
sympathetic with the work of Japan’s great painters
and craftsmen, his impressions of her cities, temples,
shrines, theatres, gardens, and museums, received
during a few months’ stay in that land of delight,
are worthy the perusal and consideration of all who
are interested in Japanese art.

A Popular Handbook to the Natio?ial Gallery.
Vol. I. Foreign Schools. Compiled by Edward
73

T. Cook. 7th edition. (London : Macmillan &
Co.) 1 os. net. — Since the early editions of

Mr. Cook’s Handbook appeared a somewhat
extensive re-arrangement of the rooms at the
National Gallery has taken place, and this has
necessitated considerable revision on the part of
the compiler. There have also been changes in
attribution calling for further revision. Besides
bringing the book up-to-date in these particulars
Mr. Cook has introduced much additional matter
in his notes on the pictures, and the opinions and
criticisms of Ruskin, which have from the first given
distinction to this Handbook, have been supple-
mented by quotations from other writers of
authority. Neatly bound in limp leather the
book, with its 800 pages of letterpress, is not
inconveniently large for the pocket.

Porcelain—Oriental, Continental and British.
By R. L. Hobson, B.A. (London: Archibald
Constable & Co., Ltd.) 6s. net. In the preface
to his book Mr. Hobson says his object has been
to give in compact and inexpensive form all the
facts which the collector really needs, and in this he
has been successful. But besides the collector the
volume should prove useful and interesting to the
student and the amateur. Not the least helpful
feature in the book are the lists of marks which are
given in the various sections, while the illustrations
form a worthy adjunct to the text.

Assisi of St. Francis. By Mrs. Robert Goff.
Illustrated by Colonel R. Goff. With an essay on
the Influence of the Franciscan Legend on Italian
Art by J. Kerr - Lawson. (London : Chatto &
Windus.) 20s. net. — Occupying as it does a
unique position in the history of the Church and of
the evolution of Christian ait, Assisi has, as a
matter of course, been again and again pictured
and described, whilst its chequered fortunes have
been related from many different points of view.
For all that the collaborators in the new volume on
the much-discussed subject have produced a book
that will forcibly appeal alike to Protestants and
Roman Catholics—so true is the insight displayed
by Mrs. Goff into the personality and aims of the
man who for so long concentrated the attention of
Christendom on the little hill city, and so well has
Colonel Goff in his beautiful drawings, amongst
which perhaps the finest are Assisi: the Rocca
Maggiore, Assisi from Perugia, and the Duomo of
Perugia, caught the very atmosphere of the scenes
depicted. The story of the Saint’s remarkable
career is told with an eloquence and an enthusiasm
that, though the episodes related are all well known,,
enchain the attention of the reader from first to