Brussels picture, which we think M. Dimier unduly depreciates, while the Glasgow picture can with great probability be ascribed to the same hand. Van der Goes is surely excluded by the method of painting, the fused and fluid handling, which belongs to a later manner than is to be found in that master's work. However, so far as we can see, this remarkable painter, Perréal perhaps, appears as a singular exception. Had he belonged to a great national school we could not but regret the intrusion of already decadent Italian models into a country whose artists were capable of such sincere and noble creations. However, this is only a preliminary question, though one of the greatest interest, and there can be no doubt of the overwhelming preponderance of Italian and Flemish masters throughout the sixteenth century. And not only were the great directors of Royal schemes of decoration like Rosso and Primaticcio foreigners, but they seem to have been scarcely able to find among French artists the minor talents necessary for assisting them in the actual execution, and the names of their aids nearly always indicate a foreign. origin.

M. Dimier's account of the formation of the first Fontainebleau school under Rosso and Primaticcio is admirable, and he is able for the first time clearly to isolate the work of the two, and to give to Rosso his importance in the discovery, with the possible assistance of the king himself, of a new style of decoration. He gives a more reasonable if less dramatic version of their mutual relations and of the death of Rosso than is usually accepted, while the quarrel of Primaticcio with Cellini is explained in a new sense not so favourable to that heroic ruffian, by a close examination of the admissions which he allows to slip out in his highly coloured version of the affair.

To Primaticcio's work he adds on stylistic grounds the decorations at Ancy le Franc, which, since they are not ruined by repainting like his works at Fontainebleau, afford the best criterion of his powers, if we except the admirable painting at Castle Howard, to which also M. Dimier was the first to give its due importance. The author then takes us through the obscurer names of the imitators of this first Fontainebleau schoolG. Dumoutier, Caron, Quesnel, and Delaune. More interesting still is his treatment of the second school of Fontainebleau, that revival of historical painting under the patronage of Henry IV, the importance of which has hitherto been scarcely appreciated. Here Dubreuil and Dubois stand out as the leaders, the former unfortunately only to be judged by his drawings. The author shows that at this period France, which had hitherto received all its artistic ideas from abroad, became a centre to which Flemish artists made pilgrimage.

So far we have followed the author in his treatment of historical painting based almost entirely on Italian models, but parallel to this the art of

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portraiture runs a distinct and separate course throughout the whole period, and in this branch the royal patrons had the good sense to foster the Flemish tradition which starts with the elder Clouet called Janet. The grounds for attributing to this Flemish artist a group of portraits, though only presumptive, are very strong. In the next generation, besides François Clouet and another Fleming, Corneille de Lyons, there is the master of the Lécurieux Album, whom our author refuses, we think rightly, to identify with François Clouet. After 1572 the fashion for chalk drawings increased; they are no longer merely preparatory sketches, as in the work of Holbein and Janet, but are treated as final, and elaborately finished. The author classifies these works with learning and discrimination. One artist alone, the anonymous author of a portrait of Elizabeth, daughter of Charles IX, emerges from the mass of capable but mediocre workmanship. Finally, under Henry IV, we come to the younger Quesnel and the fascinating master of the monogram I.D.C., whose drawing of Gabrielle d'Estrées seems almost to anticipate Rubens. In his appreciation of the

various artists whose work satisfied the immense craving of the French aristocracy for collections of portraits, M. Dimier appears to us scarcely to appreciate the overwhelming superiority of the elder Janet. The drawing, reproduced here, of an unknown lady from Chantilly, comes as near as possible to Holbein, and in the certainty and directness of its structural indications displays an artist of an altogether different rank from his successors. We would even go further and say that Janet's works are the only ones among the many which illustrate this book which indicate a complete and self-subsistent artistic personality.

We have been able only to give the barest outline of a work which deserves the highest commendation. The results of long and patient research have been compressed into a few sentences; it is learned without being heavy or pedantic; and, in spite of the necessity of treating certain obscure and disputable points in detail, the author has succeeded in keeping a due sense of proportion and giving an intelligible survey of the whole period. He deserves our grateful congratulations. The translation, it may be added, is exceedingly good. R. E. F.

THE YEAR'S ART, 1904. Hutchinson & Co. 3s. 6d. net.

THE twenty-fifth issue of this admirable annual can be recommended without reserve. So far as we have tested it, we have found it both complete and accurate. The editorial introduction, though we do not wholly agree with its views, displays a moderation of tone which is quite unusual in those who write upon contemporary art questions. Mr. Carter must be congratulated on the way in which he has done his work.

originally published in 1840, are far from being among Cruikshank's best work; the less said about most of them the better for his reputation; but this convenient little edition of Ainsworth's novel is welcome, and would be cheap enough if it were not illustrated at all.

JEUX À L'EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE INTERNATIONALE DE 1900 À PARIS. Rapport présenté par M. Henry d'Allemagne. Vol. I. 1×8 in. pp. 379. Illustrated. Paris: Hachette & Cie. 1903. 35 fr.

THIS Sumptuous and learned book is a monumental piece of work, and will surely keep its place as the standard authority on the history of games. Its illustrations alone will make it attractive to the general public, though the letterpress is far from appealing only to the student. The illustrations, which are some four hundred in number and include several coloured plates, are profoundly interesting. Drawn as they are from pictures and prints of every country and period, they give by themselves the history of the games described, many of them long since obsolete, others still played in almost the same form as centuries ago. PANTAGRUEL. Facsimile de l'édition de Lyon, François Juste, 1533, d'après l'exemplaire unique de la bibliothèque royale de Dresde, avec introduction de Léon Dorez et PierrePaul Plan. Paris: Société du Mercure de France. 1904.

THANKS to the care of Messrs. Léon Dorez and Pierre-Paul Plan, a very curious edition of Rabelais's famous novel has just been published. This is a complete photographic reproduction of the original second edition issued by Rabelais himself, which is now represented by only a single copy, preserved in the Royal Library at Dresden since 1768. I feel it a duty to draw the attention of book-lovers to this most interesting publication, which gives us the Pantagruel of 1533 in its original form, with its original text and its original gothic type. Messrs. Dorez and Plan have prefaced their edition with a learned bibliographical study. The book is printed on Arches wove paper, and the edition consists of 250 copies, of which only 200 are for sale. G. DE R.

Two CENTURIES OF COSTUME IN AMERICAMDCXX-MDCCCXX. By Alice Morse Earle. Two volumes. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1903. 21S. net.

THE value of a book upon costume may be estimated in some degree by the number of its illustrations, seeing that a virago sleeve, a whisk, or a capuchin are things which pictures will explain better than words can do. Therefore Mrs. Earle's book is a good book, for it has many hundreds of illustrations.

These pictures are singularly well chosen. When we have put aside the unhistorical fancies which

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would people North America of the past with moccassined pathfinders and crop-eared fanatics in equal number, we shall reasonably consider American costume of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the most part as English costume. The English fashions were eagerly followed in New England, which lagged little behind Exeter or Durham in knowledge of the last modishness. So Mrs. Earle's pictures will fill many a gap in the English reader's appreciation of dead and gone fashions. No costume book can well be made up without such stock ingredients as Wenzel Hollar's beautiful plates of women's dress and the English Antick,' but to such well-known matter Mrs. Earle has added an amazing number of portraits of old Bowdoins, Izards, Saltonstalls, and their kinsfolk from the days of ruffs and buff coats to the days of the Belle Assemblée. With these are many excellent photographs from carefully preserved garments of the past, some of which, such as the scarlethooded cloak of Judge Curwen, who tried the witches in Salem, are of remarkable interest. though we find none of those scaled patterns to which such popular works as those of Racinet and Hottenroth have accustomed us, we have old gowns photographed in some cases upon living models.

Al

Mrs. Earle's narrative, although her colloquial style sometimes persuades her to prattling, is on the whole the well-informed work of the student rather than of the bookmaker. There is a notable absence of sham archaeology. She is rarely out of her depth, save, perhaps in her short chapter on what the Macmillan Company's New England compositors print for us as 'armor.' The armour worn by FitzJohn Winthrop in his portrait by Kneller is not apparently mediaeval,' but the usual painter's corselet and pauldrons of the period; and the silk armour' described by Roger North was the ridiculous refuge of scared citizens and not the habitual wear of the English soldier. Some additional care given to the correction of proofs would have spared us such vexatious trifles as the dates in Jonathan Corwin's tailor's bill, in which the year 1680 is printed four times as 1680, 1630, 1868, and 1860 respectively. That the dates of one or two portraits suggest wrong ascriptions is a small thing; our English private galleries, in which every other portrait for the period after Holbein and before Vandyke is ticketed as by Zuccaro, are greater offenders, and only one portrait suggests that a painted ancestor may sometimes be brought forth by the demand for such in a democratic state. The portrait of Cornelius Vandun, a yeoman of the guard, from an old and untrustworthy engraving of a much-battered monument, is hardly good evidence for a very singularly cut beard, and as Cornelius was not a herald there is no reason for styling him 'Herald Cornelius Vandun.'

It will be imagined that the puritan element in America makes much valuable material for Mrs.

NOTES FROM PARIS1

THE EXHIBITIONS

I MUST begin with bad news. The opening of the Exhibition of Engraving, which I mentioned in the March number of THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, has been postponed from April to a later date. In fact, it is adjourned sine die. This is very much to be regretted, for the programme of the organizers was extremely interesting.

Another among many announcements is the opening of a salon of French paintings of the eighteenth century, to be held in the gallery of the Champs-Élysées, from May 15 to June 15. We hear mention of the alluring names of Chardin, Fragonard, Watteau and others, but it remains to be seen whether the fortunate owners of their works will lend them.

Several exhibitions of modern works have been held recently, among them that of the Orientalists organized by M. Léonce Benedite, the keeper of the Luxembourg Museum. The contributions of MM. Dinet, Rochegrosse, and Dufrénoy deserve special mention. The Salon of Independent Artists continues to offer the rather disconcerting spectacle of a varied and sometimes picturesque but really stationary art, of promises not realized and wisdom that never advances. From the enormous number of 2,395 entries in the catalogue, I should single out M. Dezaunay's Breton scenes and the pictures of MM. Diriks and Francis Jourdain. Among a host of other exhibitions I must mention the French water-colour painters, the drawings, pastels, etc. of the Union Artistique, the New Society of Painters and Sculptors, and the works of MM. René Piot, Hermann Paul, Alphonse Legros, and Ch. Genty.

THE MUSEUMS

The Louvre has just made two heavy purchases that will take a large slice out of its funds, in a couple of pictures of the English school bought of Mr. Archibald Ramsden for 100,000 and 50,000 francs respectively. The first is a Young Woman and Boy with a dog in his arms, by Hoppner; the other a fine Raeburn, Portrait of Mrs. Mackonochie. Princess Mathilde's and Baron Arthur de Rothschild's bequests have been provisionally arranged in the Portrait Room, between the Seventeenth Century and the Eighteenth Century Rooms. I will return to these bequests later; the first has not proved all it promised to be. Carpeaux's bust of Princess Mathilde has been placed for good in the Louvre; it is an extremely remarkable work, and one of the best examples of the great artist. At the sale of the famous Gillot collection the museum bought for 7,000 francs a statue in gilt wood of Amida, a seventh-century work; and Mme. Veuve Gillot has presented a superb example of Japanese thirteenth-century 1 Translated by Harold Child.

painting, a portrait of the priest Jitchin. Two very fine Japanese masks and an excellent piece of fourteenth-century lacquer may also be mentioned.

The Egyptian Museum of the Louvre has just bought at the Amélineau sale the famous stele known as the 'stele of the Serpent-King,' which was discovered in the excavations at Abydos. The unexpectedly high price of 94,000 francs was due to the fact that the Berlin museum was bidding against the Louvre, and ran it up to 93,500 francs. At the same sale the Egyptian museum bought a marble cup with an inscription in the name of Hepethepen, a master of stone-carving works (2,405 francs), two ivory bed-feet (2,600 francs), and a fragment of ivory furniture (1,850 francs). The last is in a style called the Myrenian, and of recent origin compared with some of the other objects, which go back to the first two or three Egyptian dynasties.

Before leaving the Louvre I must mention the 'Illustrated Inventory of the Calcography in the Louvre,' lately published by M. Henry de Chennevières, assistant keeper of the National Museums. who is now giving a series of conférences every Saturday, in the school of the Louvre, on French painting in the eighteenth century.

It cannot be long before the Palace of Versailles opens some newly-arranged rooms devoted to seventeenth-century work. The papers have been circulating entirely false reports on this subject, which the art magazines have rashly retailed. According to them, the keepers of the Versailles Museum have made an important discovery of forgotten pictures by Mignard, Largillière, Rigaud, etc. Information derived from the most authoritative sources enables me to state that the pictures in question are the series of portraits of the time of Louis XIV by Rigaud, Largillière, and others which were exhibited till recently, but very badly hung, and that the keeper has lately had them reframed, and will shortly exhibit them in a new and appropriate setting. The pictures have been catalogued for years, and are familiar to all who really know Versailles, though to the general public they will come as a surprising revelation. Though the keepers of Versailles have not 'discovered' them, what they have done is no less a matter for congratulation.

On the other hand a genuine discovery has been made in the form of a bust of Nicolas Boileau by Caffieri, a replica of a bust that has now disappeared from the Library of Sainte-Geneviève, but is described by M. Jules Guiffrey in his work on the Caffieri. The replica, which is dated 1785, and appears in the Versailles catalogue of 1839, had undergone ill-treatment that fortunately was not irreparable. When discovered in the lumber-rooms it was covered with an unspeakable mass of paint. It has now regained its normal aspect. A writer in the Chronique des Arts gives an excellent account of the discovery.