Studio: international art (51.1911)

Japanese Art and Artists of To-day.—IV. JVood and Ivory Carving

(p. 94), with the Adoration of the Magi occupy-
ing two lights, between Isaiah and St. John the
Evangelist on the left and St. Peter and Jeremiah
on the right, was executed in 1894. It will be
noted that the St. John is the same, reversed, as
that which occurs in the Vyner Memorial at
Oxford. Of the large five-light window (below)
at St. Saviour’s, Oxton, the lower part depicts five
allegorical figures of Virtues, the upper part Christ
in Glory between four standing angels. The
angels hovering over the Head of the principal
figure, and those in the upper traceries, were
designed, like all the pattern-work, by Mr. Dearie.
This window is the latest in point of
date of those here reproduced, having
been executed in 1903. A. V.

(Of the illustrations to the foregoing
article, all save those of the windows at
Oxford, Cambridge, and St. Peter’s, Vere
Street, are from photographs by Mr. W.

M. Dodson, of Bettws-y-Coed, N. Wales.

The two windows illustrated in colour
are from autochrome photographs taken
expressly for this article by permission
of Dr. Morgan, Master of Jesus College,
Cambridge, and the Rev. R. W.

Burnaby, Incumbent of St. Petei’s, Vere
Street, respectively.)

While it is far from our present intention to
answer these questions, it is, nevertheless, desirable
to pause and note a few facts concerning the
artistic ability and aesthetic temperament of the
Japanese. Although there are not so many now
as there used to be, one still finds quite a number
who believe, or profess to believe, that the artistic
taste and ability of the Japanese are of modern
acquisition, as her civilisation is new and merely
superficial. The writer had personal observation
of this at the St. Louis Exposition. Pointing to a
pair of Japanese ornaments, elaborately carved in
ivory, an American clergyman remarked to his

JAPANESE ART AND
ARTISTS OF TO-DAY.—
IV. WOOD AND IVORY
CARVING. BY PROF.
JIRO HARADA.

The Japanese have won a world-wide
reputation in the art of carving. No one
can examine thoroughly much of their
ivory and wood carving without marvel-
ling at the high artistic merit and the
remarkable facility with which the work
appears to have been executed. “ Even
the carved decoration on a penny paper-
knife,” declares an eminent art critic of
the West, “ although, perhaps, of the
slightest, almost invariably bears evi-
dence of having been executed by an
adept in his craft—one who could do
better work if called upon.” The same
critic asks: “Whence comes this facility ?
Is it due to some intuitive power denied
to us in the West, which enables the
Japanese to draw and to carve with the
same ease that we learn to walk ? ”

WINDOW IN ST. SAVIOUR’S, OXTON

DESIGNED BY SIR E. BURNE-JONES

IO3