DOI Heft:
No. 347 (February 1922)
DOI Artikel:Reviews
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21395#0133
REVIEWS
The Van Eycks and their Followers. By
Sir Martin Conway, M.P. (London ;
John Murray.)—Though covering the same
held as the lectures delivered upwards of
thirty years ago by Sir Martin Conway, as
Roscoe Professor of Art at Liverpool, and
shortly afterwards published as a book
entitled Early Flemish Artists, the volume
which now appears under the above title is
substantially a new work, embodying as it
does the chief results of the manifold re-
searches which in the meantime have
thrown light upon the history of this school
—researches so comprehensive that, as the
author remarks, “ it is not likely that much
of first-rate importance remains to be dis-
covered/' One of the questions which
critics still quarrel over—and, except in the
unlikely event of conclusive documentary
evidence being discovered, will continue to
give rise to contention among them—is that
which concerns the respective shares of
Hubert van Eyck and his younger brother
John in the production of the famous
polyptych, The Adoration of the Lamb,
which is now, as one of the few happy
results of the war, to be seen in its
integrity in the City of Ghent. Sir Martin
Conway asserts confidently that the design
of the whole was Hubert's, and that u John
may have helped with this or the other
panel, finished this or the other figure, but
... in entire subordination to " Hubert.
Apart from this much discussed altar-piece
the most interesting work assigned to
Hubert is a wonderful little landscape at
the foot of one of the pages in the “ Tres
Belles Heures de Notre Dame," preserved
in Prince Trivulzio's library in Milan. This
page the author reproduces as the frontis-
piece to the volume, and, gmall as the land-
scape is, the illustration enables one to see
and feel that “ the man who painted this
wonderful river scene, the like of which
had never been imagined before . . .
painted this from the forceful impulse of a
new ideal rising within him, and that new
ideal was a part of the great power that was
destined in a few generations to turn the
whole world upside down, and not merely
to revolutionize art." And after scanning
the achievements of the greater and lesser
masters of Flanders who followed Hubert
116
van Eyck and with him are discussed in
this volume—van der Weyden, van der
Goes, Memling, Massys, Mabuse, Lucas
van Leyden, and Peter Bruegel among
them—who will say that any of them pro-
duced a greater masterpiece than this little
adjunct to an illuminated manuscript so
deservedly given the place of honour
among the illustrations in Sir Martin
Conway's comprehensive study of the
early Flemish School i The economic con-
ditions occasioned by the war have, as most
of us know, reacted very injuriously on the
production of literature, and especially
literature of permanent value, and as a
consequence the author has not been able
to include so many illustrations as he had
intended ; besides the frontispiece there
are 96, grouped four on a page, but in spite
of their small size they are admirably clear,
and in selecting them he has given prefer-
ence to works difficult of access, 0 0
Drawing for Art Students and Illustrators.
By Allen W. Seaby. (London : B. T.
Batsford, Ltd.)—The guidance which Mr.
Seaby here offers his readers from his own
experience as an artist and as teacher at
University College, Reading, is so sound
and practical and shows such a clear appre-
ciation of the difficulties which beset the
student, more particularly in the early
stages of his training, that his book can be
heartily commended as a valuable aid fo the
study and practice of drawing. Proclaiming
himself on the side of those in authority
who advocate sustained effort as against
“ slick " sketching, he insists on the im-
portance of developing the sense of propor-
tion, while recognising that some of the
methods usually pursued in art schools are
detrimental to advance—for example, the
learning by heart of the rules of perspec-
tive, which tends to atrophy the power of
observation, and the exclusive study of the
antique before attempting to draw from the
life. Much of the book is devoted to figure
drawing, but animals, landscape and plant
form are also dealt with, and there are
chapters on drawing from memory and as
a preparation for painting, drawing for
illustrators, and the drawings of the
masters, which furnish profitable reading.
Throughout the text is accompanied by
illustrations en rapport with it. 0 0
The Van Eycks and their Followers. By
Sir Martin Conway, M.P. (London ;
John Murray.)—Though covering the same
held as the lectures delivered upwards of
thirty years ago by Sir Martin Conway, as
Roscoe Professor of Art at Liverpool, and
shortly afterwards published as a book
entitled Early Flemish Artists, the volume
which now appears under the above title is
substantially a new work, embodying as it
does the chief results of the manifold re-
searches which in the meantime have
thrown light upon the history of this school
—researches so comprehensive that, as the
author remarks, “ it is not likely that much
of first-rate importance remains to be dis-
covered/' One of the questions which
critics still quarrel over—and, except in the
unlikely event of conclusive documentary
evidence being discovered, will continue to
give rise to contention among them—is that
which concerns the respective shares of
Hubert van Eyck and his younger brother
John in the production of the famous
polyptych, The Adoration of the Lamb,
which is now, as one of the few happy
results of the war, to be seen in its
integrity in the City of Ghent. Sir Martin
Conway asserts confidently that the design
of the whole was Hubert's, and that u John
may have helped with this or the other
panel, finished this or the other figure, but
... in entire subordination to " Hubert.
Apart from this much discussed altar-piece
the most interesting work assigned to
Hubert is a wonderful little landscape at
the foot of one of the pages in the “ Tres
Belles Heures de Notre Dame," preserved
in Prince Trivulzio's library in Milan. This
page the author reproduces as the frontis-
piece to the volume, and, gmall as the land-
scape is, the illustration enables one to see
and feel that “ the man who painted this
wonderful river scene, the like of which
had never been imagined before . . .
painted this from the forceful impulse of a
new ideal rising within him, and that new
ideal was a part of the great power that was
destined in a few generations to turn the
whole world upside down, and not merely
to revolutionize art." And after scanning
the achievements of the greater and lesser
masters of Flanders who followed Hubert
116
van Eyck and with him are discussed in
this volume—van der Weyden, van der
Goes, Memling, Massys, Mabuse, Lucas
van Leyden, and Peter Bruegel among
them—who will say that any of them pro-
duced a greater masterpiece than this little
adjunct to an illuminated manuscript so
deservedly given the place of honour
among the illustrations in Sir Martin
Conway's comprehensive study of the
early Flemish School i The economic con-
ditions occasioned by the war have, as most
of us know, reacted very injuriously on the
production of literature, and especially
literature of permanent value, and as a
consequence the author has not been able
to include so many illustrations as he had
intended ; besides the frontispiece there
are 96, grouped four on a page, but in spite
of their small size they are admirably clear,
and in selecting them he has given prefer-
ence to works difficult of access, 0 0
Drawing for Art Students and Illustrators.
By Allen W. Seaby. (London : B. T.
Batsford, Ltd.)—The guidance which Mr.
Seaby here offers his readers from his own
experience as an artist and as teacher at
University College, Reading, is so sound
and practical and shows such a clear appre-
ciation of the difficulties which beset the
student, more particularly in the early
stages of his training, that his book can be
heartily commended as a valuable aid fo the
study and practice of drawing. Proclaiming
himself on the side of those in authority
who advocate sustained effort as against
“ slick " sketching, he insists on the im-
portance of developing the sense of propor-
tion, while recognising that some of the
methods usually pursued in art schools are
detrimental to advance—for example, the
learning by heart of the rules of perspec-
tive, which tends to atrophy the power of
observation, and the exclusive study of the
antique before attempting to draw from the
life. Much of the book is devoted to figure
drawing, but animals, landscape and plant
form are also dealt with, and there are
chapters on drawing from memory and as
a preparation for painting, drawing for
illustrators, and the drawings of the
masters, which furnish profitable reading.
Throughout the text is accompanied by
illustrations en rapport with it. 0 0