DOI Heft:
No. 249 (January 1914)
DOI Artikel:Reviews and notices
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21208#0354
Reviews and Notices
and his thorough analysis of Holbein’s masterpieces
Mr. Chamberlain does not overlook the history of
the painter’s period. He reminds us of the long
time that Holbein was at work in England before
he received royal recognition, a fact contrary to
the popular notion of the discriminating patron
which Henry VIII has been supposed to be. The
author asserts that among the numerous portraits
of Henry VIII to be met with in so many of the
great houses of this country as well as in several
European museums, and in almost all cases attri-
buted to Holbein, only three can be ascribed to
him with certainty. The two volumes are very
profusely illustrated.
Chantilly in History and. Art. By Louise M.
Richter. (London : John Murray.) 21s. net.—
In this well arranged and excellently written book
Mrs. Richter has divided the subject into two parts.
In the first ten chapters she relates the interesting
and most eventful history of the Chateau from its
earliest days, through its occupancy by the famous
Montmorencys, and later its long association with
the great house of Conde. When at the outbreak
of the Revolution the Condes left France, Chantilly
was devastated and used as a prison, and finally
the Grand Chateau was razed to the ground.
Under Napoleon Chantilly became State property,
but at the collapse of the Empire the family again
took possession and the mansion was restored.
When, on the abdication of Louis Philippe in 1848,
the Due d’Aumale, who then owned Chantilly, left
France and settled at Twickenham, most of the art
treasures of Chantilly were transported thither, but
when the sentence of banishment was pronounced
upon all claimants to the throne of France, the
Duke replied by announcing his intention, long
premeditated, of leaving Chantilly with its forest,
parks and lakes and all its art treasures to France.
Now as the Musee Conde it contains the great
store of rare and beautiful works of art collected by
its former owners and by that distinguished
collector the Due d’Aumale in particular, and it is
to a description of these treasures that Mrs. Richter
devotes the second half of her book. Space does
not allow of mention in detail of the priceless and
unique objects which this magnificent museum
contains. That masterpiece of Pol de Limbourg
and his brothers, the “ Tres Riches Heures du Due
de Berry,” the fine collection of forty miniatures
by Fouquet, and the superb portraits by Jean and
Franqois Clouet and his followers may, however,
be just mentioned as some of the gems of the
museum. We should not refer to a slip on page
152, where a work by Detaille is referred to as
332
by Detailleur were it not that in the index this
mistake is persisted in and aggravated by a
reference to the Destailleur album at Chantilly
under the same misnomer. With its many ad-
mirable illustrations in collotype and half-tone, its
bibliography and the copious and useful index, the
volume is of great value and absorbing interest.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Fitzgerald’s
version, with drawings by Edmund J. Sullivan.
(London: Methuen.) 155'. net.—After the now
customary orgy of colour books, good, bad, and
indifferent, which the festive season calls forth, it is
not an unwelcome change to find before us a
volume in which, with a single exception, only black
and white drawings appear, and especially where
the artist is one whose draughtsmanship is so
masterly as Mr. Sullivan’s. During the past few
years many editions of Omar have appeared with
illustrations in colour by various European illus-
trators, and some have certainly proved very
attractive, but for the most part these drawings
have lacked any deeper significance. Mr. Sullivan’s
drawings, on the other hand, are the fruit of a
serious and long-continued study of the Persian
poet’s philosophy of life as interpreted by Fitzgerald,
and they impress one as the work of a thinker as
well as an artist. Apart from the frontispiece,
there are seventy-five in all—one to each quatrain,
and all, as we gather, were executed several years
ago, but save some half-dozen or so they now
appear for the first time. “To endeavour, how-
ever slightly, to sum up, or to ‘ throw light upon ’
seventy-five verses of no matter what import, in
terms of drawing, is,” as the artist remarks in his
“ Epilogia pro opere suo,” “obviously somewhat of
a task,” and he frankly admits tnat he has allowed
himself great licence in the fulfilment of it. He
has, in fact, made but little attempt to introduce
any definitely Oriental “ colour ” into his drawings,
and some of them are quite incongruous with
Eastern life, notably those accompanying quatrains
xvi and lxxi, where what might be the exterior
and interior of a London tavern are figured. But
it is just this licence which combined with superb
draughtsmanship gives such unique interest to the
drawings and constitutes them as a wdiole a veri-
table chef d’oeuvre.
Stitches from Eastern Embroideries. By Louisa
F. Pesel. (Bradford : Percy Lund, Humphries N
Co.) ioj-. 6d. net.—In a portfolio published a few
months ago by the same firm, Miss Pesel gave a
series of diagrams exhibiting numerous varieties of
stitchery found in English embroideries of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries belonging to
and his thorough analysis of Holbein’s masterpieces
Mr. Chamberlain does not overlook the history of
the painter’s period. He reminds us of the long
time that Holbein was at work in England before
he received royal recognition, a fact contrary to
the popular notion of the discriminating patron
which Henry VIII has been supposed to be. The
author asserts that among the numerous portraits
of Henry VIII to be met with in so many of the
great houses of this country as well as in several
European museums, and in almost all cases attri-
buted to Holbein, only three can be ascribed to
him with certainty. The two volumes are very
profusely illustrated.
Chantilly in History and. Art. By Louise M.
Richter. (London : John Murray.) 21s. net.—
In this well arranged and excellently written book
Mrs. Richter has divided the subject into two parts.
In the first ten chapters she relates the interesting
and most eventful history of the Chateau from its
earliest days, through its occupancy by the famous
Montmorencys, and later its long association with
the great house of Conde. When at the outbreak
of the Revolution the Condes left France, Chantilly
was devastated and used as a prison, and finally
the Grand Chateau was razed to the ground.
Under Napoleon Chantilly became State property,
but at the collapse of the Empire the family again
took possession and the mansion was restored.
When, on the abdication of Louis Philippe in 1848,
the Due d’Aumale, who then owned Chantilly, left
France and settled at Twickenham, most of the art
treasures of Chantilly were transported thither, but
when the sentence of banishment was pronounced
upon all claimants to the throne of France, the
Duke replied by announcing his intention, long
premeditated, of leaving Chantilly with its forest,
parks and lakes and all its art treasures to France.
Now as the Musee Conde it contains the great
store of rare and beautiful works of art collected by
its former owners and by that distinguished
collector the Due d’Aumale in particular, and it is
to a description of these treasures that Mrs. Richter
devotes the second half of her book. Space does
not allow of mention in detail of the priceless and
unique objects which this magnificent museum
contains. That masterpiece of Pol de Limbourg
and his brothers, the “ Tres Riches Heures du Due
de Berry,” the fine collection of forty miniatures
by Fouquet, and the superb portraits by Jean and
Franqois Clouet and his followers may, however,
be just mentioned as some of the gems of the
museum. We should not refer to a slip on page
152, where a work by Detaille is referred to as
332
by Detailleur were it not that in the index this
mistake is persisted in and aggravated by a
reference to the Destailleur album at Chantilly
under the same misnomer. With its many ad-
mirable illustrations in collotype and half-tone, its
bibliography and the copious and useful index, the
volume is of great value and absorbing interest.
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Fitzgerald’s
version, with drawings by Edmund J. Sullivan.
(London: Methuen.) 155'. net.—After the now
customary orgy of colour books, good, bad, and
indifferent, which the festive season calls forth, it is
not an unwelcome change to find before us a
volume in which, with a single exception, only black
and white drawings appear, and especially where
the artist is one whose draughtsmanship is so
masterly as Mr. Sullivan’s. During the past few
years many editions of Omar have appeared with
illustrations in colour by various European illus-
trators, and some have certainly proved very
attractive, but for the most part these drawings
have lacked any deeper significance. Mr. Sullivan’s
drawings, on the other hand, are the fruit of a
serious and long-continued study of the Persian
poet’s philosophy of life as interpreted by Fitzgerald,
and they impress one as the work of a thinker as
well as an artist. Apart from the frontispiece,
there are seventy-five in all—one to each quatrain,
and all, as we gather, were executed several years
ago, but save some half-dozen or so they now
appear for the first time. “To endeavour, how-
ever slightly, to sum up, or to ‘ throw light upon ’
seventy-five verses of no matter what import, in
terms of drawing, is,” as the artist remarks in his
“ Epilogia pro opere suo,” “obviously somewhat of
a task,” and he frankly admits tnat he has allowed
himself great licence in the fulfilment of it. He
has, in fact, made but little attempt to introduce
any definitely Oriental “ colour ” into his drawings,
and some of them are quite incongruous with
Eastern life, notably those accompanying quatrains
xvi and lxxi, where what might be the exterior
and interior of a London tavern are figured. But
it is just this licence which combined with superb
draughtsmanship gives such unique interest to the
drawings and constitutes them as a wdiole a veri-
table chef d’oeuvre.
Stitches from Eastern Embroideries. By Louisa
F. Pesel. (Bradford : Percy Lund, Humphries N
Co.) ioj-. 6d. net.—In a portfolio published a few
months ago by the same firm, Miss Pesel gave a
series of diagrams exhibiting numerous varieties of
stitchery found in English embroideries of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries belonging to