Studio: international art (84.1922)

REVIEWS

" THE BRIDE." BY
AD OLF AMBERG

(Berlin Porcelain Mfy.)

modelling produced of late in Germany.
This artist is also author of an excellent
Ermine and a fine Peacock Group, and H.
Behrens of a couple of Panthers, one of
them lowering over the other, who is
rolling on the ground. * a a
Among the Berlin exhibits A. Amberg's
Bride and Bridegroom (slightly reminiscent
of Tuaillon's monumental sculpture) and
his graceful Japanese Girl with a Parrot,
Puchegger's majestic Tiger, with its fine
simplification of the forms of nature, and
E. Otto's Heron, stand out prominently.
The most interesting work done at present
in Berlin is Schmuz-Baudiss's decorative
plaques. The technique is of his own
invention, and bears some relation to his
majolica work noticed in The Studio for
March, 1898. The colours are not
manipulated with the brush but with
scraper and needle, thus approaching
black-and-white process. While only a
limited gamut of colours is available,
the artistic imagination is absolutely un-
fettered, and the effects are constantly at
the needle's end, the artist creating all
along mentally as he is producing mechani-
cally. Figure subjects, landscape and still-
life are feasible, and under certain con-
ditions these beautiful plaques can take
the place of paintings upon the walls. 0

The Grandducal Majolica Manufactory
at Karlsruhe is easily first among the
German firms which produce this kind
of ware. Hans Thoma, Margold,
Brunhaus, W. Becker, and especially
Lauger are some of their principal artists.
The medium is much more robust than
porcelain, of course, and thus powerful
contrasts of colour and excentricities of
form are attempted with good success.
Whereas porcelain has fought shy of
" expressionism," there are traces of this
plainly visible in the Karlsruhe produce,
and generally speaking the results are more
pleasing than thosewhich " expressionism "
has achieved upon the fields of oil painting
and black-and-white. H. W. S.

REVIEWS

English Church Monuments of the Gothic
Period, A.D. 1150-1550. By Fred. H.
Crossley. (London : B. T. Batsford, Ltd.)
40s.net. In the first volume of the" English
Church Crafts Series," of which this is the
second, the subject dealt with was the craft
of the woodworker as it flourished during
the three centuries 1250 to 1550. In the
present volume, uniform with the first in
size and style, we are made familiar with
craftsmanship of many varieties as it was
exercised in perpetuating the memory of
the dead during a still longer period. Some-
times singly and sometimes in conjunction
with one another, the sculptor and carver,
the modeller, the painter (chiefly of heraldic
blazonry), the worker in metal and wood
were employed in creating these monu-
ments which, inspired by reverence for the
dead, owe their preservation throughout
intervening centuries in large measure to
the same deep-seated sentiment. The ma-
terial utilised by the author in illustrating
the volume has been gathered together by
him from all parts of England ; in all some
350 examples are shown, ranging from
single figures to elaborate canopied tombs
and chantries, and the reproductions, many
of which are from photographs taken
by the author, are admirably clear in
detail, a a a a a a

Josiah Wedgwood and his Pottery. By
William Burton, M.A., F.C.S., etc.
(London : Cassell & Co.) £4 4s. net.

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