DOI Heft:
No. 248 (November 1913)
DOI Artikel:Reviews and notices
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21208#0190
Reviews and Notices
work they have done are given in one of the
appendices to this volume. Their researches are
now constantly supplemented by the society known
as the Raccolta Vinciani of Milan, founded in 1904
for the purpose of collecting everything in any way
connected with Leonardo, his writings and his con-
temporaries, so that the difficulty at the present
day is that of selection rather than of paucity of
material. Dr. Thiis has not only made an ex-
haustive study of the original writings of the great
master and the literature founded on them, but
he has personally examined all the paintings and
drawings he criticises, bringing to bear on them an
insight into characteristics of style as valuable as it
is rare. As the result of his searching analysis
of the works long attributed to Leonardo he finds
himself compelled to reject more than half of
those accepted a generation ago as authentic. Of
the forty-two drawings in the Uffizi, for instance, he
says he is able to acknowledge only seven as
genuine, but in these seven he finds “ the balance,
the force, and the grace in the construction of the
figures, and feels the electric current from the
creative genius that vibrates in the spring and
nervous sinuosities of the lines,” which are to him
“a revelation of the young Leonardo’s genius, his
temperament, manner of handling, method of
working, technique and delineating media.” In his
present volume, the German critic considers only
the Florentine period of da Vinci’s career, when
he was under the influence of Verrocchio, before
the journey to Milan and the production of The
Last Supper. In his concluding chapter, however,
he dwells on the genesis of that consummate
creation, noting its strange connection with the
earlier Adoration oj the Magi, and declaring that
the artistic idea of the former is to be found among
the preliminary studies for the group of warriors in
the latter. The volume is abundantly illustrated,
168
and the reproductions,
especially of the numerous
drawings, are irreproach-
able.
The Meaning oj Art.
By Paul Gaultier. (Lon-
don : G. Allen and Co.,
Ltd.) 5_y.net.—As a serious
study of a very wide sub-
ject this book can be com-
mended to the attention of
all students of art. It is
treated thoughtfully and
judiciously, without
fanatical enthusiasms; and
it is free from those affectations of abstruse sugges-
tion which spoil much that has been already written
on the subject. The author has evidently clear
convictions which he has not hesitated to state
frankly and intelligibly : and the straightforward-
ness of his style helps to make convincing his
statement of his case. The sections into which the
book is divided—“What is Art,” “What a Work
of Art Teaches,” “The Morality of Art,” “The
PLASTER DESIGN FOR A DOOR-KNOCKER
BY A. F. A. WING
(L. C. C. Central School of Arts and Crafts)
work they have done are given in one of the
appendices to this volume. Their researches are
now constantly supplemented by the society known
as the Raccolta Vinciani of Milan, founded in 1904
for the purpose of collecting everything in any way
connected with Leonardo, his writings and his con-
temporaries, so that the difficulty at the present
day is that of selection rather than of paucity of
material. Dr. Thiis has not only made an ex-
haustive study of the original writings of the great
master and the literature founded on them, but
he has personally examined all the paintings and
drawings he criticises, bringing to bear on them an
insight into characteristics of style as valuable as it
is rare. As the result of his searching analysis
of the works long attributed to Leonardo he finds
himself compelled to reject more than half of
those accepted a generation ago as authentic. Of
the forty-two drawings in the Uffizi, for instance, he
says he is able to acknowledge only seven as
genuine, but in these seven he finds “ the balance,
the force, and the grace in the construction of the
figures, and feels the electric current from the
creative genius that vibrates in the spring and
nervous sinuosities of the lines,” which are to him
“a revelation of the young Leonardo’s genius, his
temperament, manner of handling, method of
working, technique and delineating media.” In his
present volume, the German critic considers only
the Florentine period of da Vinci’s career, when
he was under the influence of Verrocchio, before
the journey to Milan and the production of The
Last Supper. In his concluding chapter, however,
he dwells on the genesis of that consummate
creation, noting its strange connection with the
earlier Adoration oj the Magi, and declaring that
the artistic idea of the former is to be found among
the preliminary studies for the group of warriors in
the latter. The volume is abundantly illustrated,
168
and the reproductions,
especially of the numerous
drawings, are irreproach-
able.
The Meaning oj Art.
By Paul Gaultier. (Lon-
don : G. Allen and Co.,
Ltd.) 5_y.net.—As a serious
study of a very wide sub-
ject this book can be com-
mended to the attention of
all students of art. It is
treated thoughtfully and
judiciously, without
fanatical enthusiasms; and
it is free from those affectations of abstruse sugges-
tion which spoil much that has been already written
on the subject. The author has evidently clear
convictions which he has not hesitated to state
frankly and intelligibly : and the straightforward-
ness of his style helps to make convincing his
statement of his case. The sections into which the
book is divided—“What is Art,” “What a Work
of Art Teaches,” “The Morality of Art,” “The
PLASTER DESIGN FOR A DOOR-KNOCKER
BY A. F. A. WING
(L. C. C. Central School of Arts and Crafts)