DOI issue:
No. 227 (February 1912)
DOI article:Reviews and notices
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21156#0103
Reviews and Notices
at the convent of Caserta, she tricked the Queen of
Naples into persuading Sir William Hamilton to
marry her. The Euphrosyne suggests how she
may have looked and laughed when she and her
mother told the story afterwards, as the Marchesa
Solari vouches. But this Romney Folio is indeed
a book of beauty; for the plates, as we turn them
over, even though some may be, perhaps, a little
heavy in tone, give us record after record of beautiful
faces and figures, posed and painted with all that
large simplicity of treatment, convincing vitality,
and gracious sensitiveness of vision which invest
the pictures of Romney with their individuality and
charm, and give them their high place among the
achievements of British art. Mr. Chamberlain,
who is already known as the author of a “ Life of
Romney,” has contributed the necessary letterpress,
recounting the main features of the painter’s career,
and making some general comments upon his art.
It reads pleasantly, if it says nothing new or very
illuminating. But then, does anybody read folios
nowadays ?
English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century.
By Herbert Cescinsky. (London : G. Routledge
and Sons, Ltd.) 2 vols. 3s■ net.—With so
much literature already in existence dealing with
English furniture of the period covered by this
work, those who are responsible for any addition
to it run the risk of having their efforts discounted
in advance, on the score of being superfluous. It
is to be hoped that this fate will not befall Mr.
Cescinsky’s work on the subject, for it is a contri-
bution of really permanent value, the outcome of
painstaking research and careful discrimination.
As a book of reference alone it deserves com-
mendation on account of the very numerous
examples of various kinds of furniture and fitments
which are figured, there being close on eight hundred
remarkably good illustrations in the two volumes,
representing chairs of multifarious forms, settees,
inlaid cabinets, lacquer cabinets and other kinds,
tables of diverse shapes, mirrors, clocks, clock-hands
and clock-cases, bureau-cabinets, bedsteads, brass
fittings, wainscot panelling, and many other things.
But it is something more than a book of reference ;
it is an illuminating history in which the diverse
influences affecting the evolution of furniture
designs in the eighteenth century are made clear.
It is a significant fact that a political event in
another country should have had a far-reaching
effect on the furniture in this country, for, as
pointed out by the author, the Revocation of the
Edi-t of Nantes in 1685 and the consequent
flight of thousands of craftsmen to this country had
marked and permanent influence on the design
of English furniture. The two volumes, we may
add, are bound in a very substantial and tasteful
manner.
Anthony Van Dyck. By Lionel Cust. Sand?-o
Botticelli. By Adolf Paul Oppe. (London and
New York: Hodder and Stoughton.) 155. net
each.—On account of the beauty of their illustra-
tions, for which the Medici Society is responsible,
the two new volumes of the Arundel Library will
no doubt find many appreciators, but there is little
that is new in the letterpress of either. The
accomplished Surveyor of the King’s Pictures
frankly admits that modern research has added
little to the main facts of Van Dyck’s life as
already presented to the world, and what he has to
say on the subject of this great master’s art is
really no more than a condensed rlsume of the
criticism in his earlier work on the same subject.
The paintings selected for reproduction are fairly
representative, but it is a pity that the Elena
Catterina, recently purchased by the American
collector, Mr. P. A. Widener, and the Man and his
Wife, once part of the Peel collection and now in
the Berlin Gallery, were not included, so eminently
typical are they of Van Dyck’s style before it lost
some of its distinction through the acceptance of
more commissions than could be executed unaided.
In the Botticelli of Mr. Oppe there is a certain
freshness that is wanting to the companion volume,
and having been less hampered by the difficulty of
selection, the publishers have been able to .include
reproductions of pretty well all the authenticated
masterpieces of the famous Florentine. The author
acknowledges his indebtedness so far as biographical
data are concerned to Mr. Horne’s monograph on
Botticelli, published in 1908, but he differs some-
what from his predecessor in the view he takes of
what the distinctive peculiarities of the master are
and attributes to him several works hitherto
given to his followers.
Le Morte D'Arthur. By Sir Thomas Malory,
Kt. The Text of William Caxton in Modernised
Spelling. Illustrated by Russell Flint. (London:
P. Lee Warner for The Medici Society.) In 4
vols. iov. theset.—The earlier volumes having
already been noticed in these pages, it remains for
us, now that the fourth and concluding volume has
made its appearance, to offer our congratulations to
those concerned in the production of this splendid
edition of a “ noble and joyous ” book—to the
publishers, who may justly point to it as a triumph
of typographical art, and to the artist, who has
added immensely to his reputation by the singularly
83
at the convent of Caserta, she tricked the Queen of
Naples into persuading Sir William Hamilton to
marry her. The Euphrosyne suggests how she
may have looked and laughed when she and her
mother told the story afterwards, as the Marchesa
Solari vouches. But this Romney Folio is indeed
a book of beauty; for the plates, as we turn them
over, even though some may be, perhaps, a little
heavy in tone, give us record after record of beautiful
faces and figures, posed and painted with all that
large simplicity of treatment, convincing vitality,
and gracious sensitiveness of vision which invest
the pictures of Romney with their individuality and
charm, and give them their high place among the
achievements of British art. Mr. Chamberlain,
who is already known as the author of a “ Life of
Romney,” has contributed the necessary letterpress,
recounting the main features of the painter’s career,
and making some general comments upon his art.
It reads pleasantly, if it says nothing new or very
illuminating. But then, does anybody read folios
nowadays ?
English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century.
By Herbert Cescinsky. (London : G. Routledge
and Sons, Ltd.) 2 vols. 3s■ net.—With so
much literature already in existence dealing with
English furniture of the period covered by this
work, those who are responsible for any addition
to it run the risk of having their efforts discounted
in advance, on the score of being superfluous. It
is to be hoped that this fate will not befall Mr.
Cescinsky’s work on the subject, for it is a contri-
bution of really permanent value, the outcome of
painstaking research and careful discrimination.
As a book of reference alone it deserves com-
mendation on account of the very numerous
examples of various kinds of furniture and fitments
which are figured, there being close on eight hundred
remarkably good illustrations in the two volumes,
representing chairs of multifarious forms, settees,
inlaid cabinets, lacquer cabinets and other kinds,
tables of diverse shapes, mirrors, clocks, clock-hands
and clock-cases, bureau-cabinets, bedsteads, brass
fittings, wainscot panelling, and many other things.
But it is something more than a book of reference ;
it is an illuminating history in which the diverse
influences affecting the evolution of furniture
designs in the eighteenth century are made clear.
It is a significant fact that a political event in
another country should have had a far-reaching
effect on the furniture in this country, for, as
pointed out by the author, the Revocation of the
Edi-t of Nantes in 1685 and the consequent
flight of thousands of craftsmen to this country had
marked and permanent influence on the design
of English furniture. The two volumes, we may
add, are bound in a very substantial and tasteful
manner.
Anthony Van Dyck. By Lionel Cust. Sand?-o
Botticelli. By Adolf Paul Oppe. (London and
New York: Hodder and Stoughton.) 155. net
each.—On account of the beauty of their illustra-
tions, for which the Medici Society is responsible,
the two new volumes of the Arundel Library will
no doubt find many appreciators, but there is little
that is new in the letterpress of either. The
accomplished Surveyor of the King’s Pictures
frankly admits that modern research has added
little to the main facts of Van Dyck’s life as
already presented to the world, and what he has to
say on the subject of this great master’s art is
really no more than a condensed rlsume of the
criticism in his earlier work on the same subject.
The paintings selected for reproduction are fairly
representative, but it is a pity that the Elena
Catterina, recently purchased by the American
collector, Mr. P. A. Widener, and the Man and his
Wife, once part of the Peel collection and now in
the Berlin Gallery, were not included, so eminently
typical are they of Van Dyck’s style before it lost
some of its distinction through the acceptance of
more commissions than could be executed unaided.
In the Botticelli of Mr. Oppe there is a certain
freshness that is wanting to the companion volume,
and having been less hampered by the difficulty of
selection, the publishers have been able to .include
reproductions of pretty well all the authenticated
masterpieces of the famous Florentine. The author
acknowledges his indebtedness so far as biographical
data are concerned to Mr. Horne’s monograph on
Botticelli, published in 1908, but he differs some-
what from his predecessor in the view he takes of
what the distinctive peculiarities of the master are
and attributes to him several works hitherto
given to his followers.
Le Morte D'Arthur. By Sir Thomas Malory,
Kt. The Text of William Caxton in Modernised
Spelling. Illustrated by Russell Flint. (London:
P. Lee Warner for The Medici Society.) In 4
vols. iov. theset.—The earlier volumes having
already been noticed in these pages, it remains for
us, now that the fourth and concluding volume has
made its appearance, to offer our congratulations to
those concerned in the production of this splendid
edition of a “ noble and joyous ” book—to the
publishers, who may justly point to it as a triumph
of typographical art, and to the artist, who has
added immensely to his reputation by the singularly
83