Studio: international art (76.1919)

Studio- Talk

domination of the invaders, been inaugurated
and pursued with energetic determination—an
undertaking having for its object the extension
of the industry and the bringing of it to the
highest perfection both from an aesthetic and
from a technical point of view. This under-
taking was begun at Zele, a small town in East
Flanders, where the lace-makers formed them-
selves into a professional association for the
production of artistic lace. The institution
trains young girls, who are carefully selected
for the work, and the results so far have been
very successful, surpassing all that has hitherto
been achieved. Some of the lace produced
by the deft fingers of these girls is shown in
the accompanying illustrations, and besides
motives such as these, they produce many
designs of a modern character, in all of which
they display remarkable skill.

The institution just mentioned has been in
existence for three years. It is continually
extending its work and has a gre?t future in
prospect. It is not, however, a money-making
institution ; its aim is simply to assure to the
lace-makers, over and above their technical
education, a salary in proportion to the work
which they produce, and thus to improve the
pre-war conditions of their work and to aid
them in raising themselves morally. It is
thus a work of national reconstruction. Flan-
ders, devastated and ruined by these long and

fjj'ARMORIAL DESIGN WORKED IN LACE BY GIRLS
AT THE LACE TRADE INSTITUTION, ZELE, EAST
FLANDERS

"THE BELFRY AT BRUGES." WORKED IN LACE
BY GIRLS TRAINED AT THE LACE TRADE INSTITU-
TION AT ZELE, EAST FLANDERS

terrible years of war, must rise again from the
ruins in all her former splendour. M. V.

MILAN —At the Pesaro Gallery in
Milan the recent exhibition of
paintings by Emma Ciardi awak-
ened considerable interest. There
were some two hundred paintings by this bril-
liant Venetian artist. Of course her delightful
evocations of the eighteenth century, of Italian
gardens with murmuring fountains and statues
outlined against the green of yew or cypress,
which proved such an attraction in her exhibi-
tion at the Leicester Galleries in London some
five years ago, still claim a leading place in her
art ; but there were also here scenes from
London, France, Belgium, Rome, and Northern
Italy handled with equal success.

In the same gallery an excellent collection of
a hundred paintings contributed by another
Venetian artist, Vincenzo de Stefani, made an
effective contrast with the work of Emma
Ciardi. Signor de Stefani had an individual show
in Venice in 1912, and since then has developed

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