BIBLIOGRAPHY A HISTORY OF PAINTING IN ITALY, UMBRIA, FLORENCE, and Siena, FROM THE SECOND TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. By J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle. Edited by Langton Douglas, assisted by S. Arthur Strong. Vols. I. and II. London: John Murray. 1903. 21s. net per volume. FORTY years have passed since Crowe and Cavalcaselle's New History of Painting in Italy' appeared. Since that time no one has attempted such a task again. That epoch-making work is the starting-point of modern criticism, which has found nothing better to do than to sift, amplify, and correct the results at which it arrived. Even after forty years, and with the aid of photography, which was not at the disposal of those patriarchs of Italian art-criticism, no very great amount of progress has been made. Again and again one is astonished to find many a result of close study and painstaking observation anticipated in their book. Crowe and Cavalcaselle did not rest contented with the first form into which they had thrown the results of their studies, but enriched their work continually while prosecuting their researches with constant zeal. Cavalcaselle was able to revise the Italian edition himself as far as the seventh volume; Crowe, on the other hand, was only permitted to re-write about a third of the English edition before death overtook him in 1896. Mr. Langton Douglas, to whom we are indebted for many additions to our knowledge, especially in the sphere of Sienese painting, was asked, with the consent of Mr. S. Arthur Strong and the legal representatives of the late Mr. Crowe, to co-operate in the completion of the torso as the latter left it. Fresh from extensive studies undertaken for the purpose of a critical edition of Vasari, Mr. Douglas had rare qualifications for this honourable and responsible task. By the recent death of Mr. Strong the burden has been laid upon his shoulders alone. We hope that the progress of the enterprise will not be hindered by this regrettable occurrence. The two volumes before us represent by no means a mere retouching of the old edition-which is now a rarity in the market-they amount to a new work. Their title and sub-title suffice to indicate a change of ground-plan. Mr. Langton Douglas, in assuming the part of commentator, displays great diligence and wide reading, and gives us the benefit of his extensive knowledge in notes which sometimes run to the length of a short excursus. We are grateful to him for leaving Crowe's newlycemented edifice alone, instead of plastering it with ornaments of learning, useful perhaps, but not organically fitted to the structure. In the form of footnotes, Mr. Douglas's additions and comments, distinguished as his own work by an asterisk, are like provisions wisely stored for future use in the cellars and basement of a house. A special merit of the edition lies in its good and plentiful illustrations, partly in half-tone, partly in photogravure. The poor outline drawings of the older English and German editions and the indistinct half-tone blocks of the Italian version were always the weak point of the book. Cavalcaselle thought he could compensate for the defects of the illustrative material by accuracy of description; not so Crowe, and the skilful selection of photographs, among which those of Pietro Cavallini's frescoes at Rome are especially welcome, will be received with true gratitude. The biographies of the two authors, who followed one another quickly to the grave, are documents both of scientific and of human interest. Some readers may be surprised at the aggressive and personal tone which prevails in these sections. It is merely the reply to voices no less loud in their challenge, which even now are sounding from the opposite camp in a feud of long standing. There, it seems, it has been forgotten in course of time that it is not its mere bulk, the mere amount of labour it stands for, that makes the work of these two travellers in a postchaise so imposing by the side of Morelli's three volumes; it is the variety of the learning here stored up that is so superior to Morelli's limited knowledge of certain schools. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's work has not always escaped literary piracy; the authors were too modest and minded their own business too much to raise any protest.1 HANS MACKOWSKIJ. DRAWINGS BY OLD MASTERS IN THE UNIVERSITY GALLERIES AND THE LIBRARY OF CHRIST IT is difficult to praise too highly this publication. Certainly in England and perhaps abroad no such scrupulously faithful reproductions of drawings have been seen. In the choice of paper in which the quality of the originals has been carefully considered, in the colour and depth of the impressions, and in the mounting, they come as nearly as possible to the perfection of mechanical reproduction. Mechanical it rightly is, because so only can perfect accuracy be obtained; but those who have had experience of such processes are aware that it is only when mechanical means are controlled by an eye and mind trained to appreciate the finest shades of quality of original drawings that such work as this can be produced. No less admirable than the reproductions themselves is the selection of drawings and their description by Mr. Colvin. Many of the drawings in this part are but little known, and have not been published before, and all are either of striking merit or for one reason or another interesting to students. The portfolio begins with one of Martin Schongauer's designs for The Wise and Foolish Virgins, then follows a beautiful page of studies by Hans 1 Translated by Campbell Dodgson. Holbein the elder, and a very impressive study of a woman by Grünewald. Among the Italians several are better known; they include three of Leonardo's most exquisite sketches; of these the Virgin and Unicorn is comparable to the Virgin and Child with a Cat of the British Museum, and, like that, belongs to the artist's Florentine period; the marvellous silverpoint of an Arimaspian and Griffin has all the fire and intensity of the Anghiari drawings. This is, we think, the finest reproduction of a silverpoint we have ever seen. Then follows a splendid sanguine by Michaelangelo, and a drawing for the Madonna of the Goldfinch by Raphael; with the latter Mr. Colvin has associated a contemporary atelier copy which forms a most instructive object lesson in those final qualities on which great draughtsmanship depends. A beautiful head by Montagna, two Carpacciosone rather commonplace, the other a crowded and animated composition in the style of Jacopo Bellini-a spacious design by Lorenzo Costa, and two superb Correggios, make up the set of Italian drawings. Coming to the art of the seventeenth century we have a prodigious snapshot by Rubens of the harnessing of two horses, and two Rembrandts, one a landscape study, the other an 'academy'a nude model leaning on a stick to help her keep the pose. This is in certain qualities of draughtsmanship unsurpassed by anything in the portfolio. Finally the selection closes with two very distinct and typical Claudes, one an almost impressionist study from nature, the other an elaborate landscape invention. R. E. F. FRENCH PAINTING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. By L. Dimier. Translated by Harold Child. London: Duckworth & Co. 1904. 7s. 6d. net. THERE is no great school of painting of which the casual amateur knows less or which he more rapidly bestows under one or two headings than that which flourished under the patronage of the French kings of the sixteenth century. The portraits he calls Clouet, the vast decorative designs representing mythological scenes attuned to the atmosphere of a French court he attributes safely and unhesitatingly to the school of Fontainebleau. Of late years French savants have turned with ardour to the work of elucidating and classifying the immense wealth of artistic production which their country has produced, and the earlier attempts of Laborde have been taken in hand and continued by M. Bouchot and M. Dimier, whose work on Primaticcio gave evidence of his capacity and learning. The present work by this author is therefore a very welcome addition to our It is written with knowledge of the subject. conspicuous ability, and, in spite of the complication of the subject, with admirable lucidity. Here for the first time we get a clear outline of the whole subject of the painting of the Renais- On one point his researches have led him into Two or three pictures alone, so far as is at pre- |