Studio: international art (50.1910)

Reviews and Notices

interest, and some of great beauty. .Since the
appearance of his first collection, entitled From the
Eastern Sea, in itself a revelation of luxuriant
imagery, the author has strengthened his com-
mand of our language without losing the spirit of
his own nationality.

Pompeii. Painted by Alberto Pisa, described
by W. M. Mackenzie. (London : A. & C.Black.),
7s. 6d. net.—Mr. Mackenzie’s aim has been to write
neither a guide-book nor an archaeological treatise, but
to reconstruct, as far as possible, the life of Pompeii.
The subject is so often treated from the purely
archaeological standpoint, that it is refreshing to read
of it as a place full of life and bustle, and indeed in
many ways not so very unlike modern ideas of town
life. While he by no means slurs over the historical
and antiquarian interest of the place, the author
writes in such a way as to give a picture of Pom-
peiian life as vivid as that given by Bulwer Lytton
in his famous novel, but naturally with more detail
and exactitude. The book is excellently illustrated,
Mr. Pisa’s drawings forming a charming accompani-
ment to the letterpress.

The Story of Dutch Painting. By Charles
H. Caffin. (London : Fisher Unwin.) 45. 6d.
net.—Perhaps the announcement on the cover of
this book that it is an illuminating study should
have been left for the reviewer to make, if it has to
be made. In this case the illustrations cannot
be included in the definition, falling far short, as
they do, of what they should be as reproductions.
We are quite tired of insisting that good repro-
duction is an absolutely essential feature of any
work on art. However, the text in regard to each
picture is written in a spirit of careful analysis, an
analysis sympathetically extended further than to the
technical result. There is a thoroughly well worked
out endeavour to arrive at the nature of the
influences upon which Dutch art framed for itself
a character at once so materialistic and so inspired.

Nature and Ornament. II. Ornament the
Finished Product of Design. By Lewis F. Day.
(London : B. T. Batsford.) 7s. 6d. net.—This
work, of which the first volume, having for
its sub-title “ Nature the Raw Material of
Ornament,” has already been noticed in these
columns, is in reality an expansion of an earlier
treatise published under the same title some
twenty years ago. The aim of the work as a
whole is, to quote the author's own words, “ to
show the development of ornament from natural
form, to insist upon the constant relation of its
design to nature, and, so far as it is possible, to
deduce from the practice of past masters in

ornamental design something like guiding princi-
ples to help the designer in making his own best
use of nature.” The special purpose of the second
volume, which made its appearance only a short
time before his death, is to examine and consider
the “ treatment ” which natural form has under-
gone at the hands of the artist, and, consequently,
though the discussion naturally grows out of that
to which the antecedent volume was devoted, it is
sufficiently marked off from it to give the volume
the character of an independent treatise. The
entire work, however, is one which ought to be
in the hands of every student of design. Both
volumes are very rich in illustration gathered from
a variety of sources, ancient and modern, Euro-
pean and Oriental, and the printing of both letter-
press and illustrations is excellent.

The Parish Registers of England. By. J. Charles
Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. (London: Methuen.) js. 6d.
net.—This is another volume in that valuable
series known as the Antiquary’s Books. The Rev.
J. Charles Cox has collected a vast store of miscel-
laneous information from all the existing Registers,
and his book contains multitudinous extracts from
them. The task of selecting these can have been
no light one, and the author must be congratu-
lated on compiling an interesting risum'e of some
of the quaint customs and of the relations between
the clergy and people from the 16th century,
when Thomas Cromwell instituted the keeping of
Parish Registers, up to quite recent times.

The Japanese Dance. By Marcelle A. Hincks.
(London : W. Heinemann.) 2s. net.—In this little
brochure the author has gathered together some
informing and interesting facts concerning the
religious, the classical, and the popular dances of
Japan, and he has illustrated them with reproduc-
tions of Japanese drawings showing the charac-
teristic costumes worn by the performers.

The original editions of the publications in
which Chippendale and Hepplewhite put before
their patrons a collection of designs for furniture
of miscellaneous kinds are now very scarce, and
even the reprints hitherto issued cost a matter of
pounds. Cheaper reprints of the two works
(Chippendale’s Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's
Director, from the 1st edition of 1754, and Hepple-
white’s Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer''s Guide,
from the 3rd edition of 1794) have recently been
issued by Messrs. Gibbings & Co. at 15s. net per
volume. Mr. Arthur Hayden furnishes an intro-
duction and critical estimate in each case, and the
two volumes (which are to be followed by one on
Sheraton) are both well printed and neatly bound.

335