The Renaissance of Art in. Italy. By Leader Scott. (Sampson
Low and Co )—Mr. Leader Scott modestly calls this handsome volume, a quarto of between three and four hundred pages, an " illustrated sketch," and attributes any merit that it may possess to the illustrations rather than to the letterpress. The illustrations are certainly both good and abundant, but the description and the criticism are also deserving of much praise. If there is a fault, it is that the pages are too much crowded with names. We know how d fficnit it is for an author, in the fellness of his knowledge of the subject about which he writes, deliberately to omit ; but omission ie better than confusion, and confusion is not unlikely to overtake the reader, at least the reader who happens to be a novice in these matters. After an introductory chapter, in which early Italian and Byzantian art, especially architecture (the root of the arts, Mr. Scott thinks) is discussed, we proceed to the main subject. This is treated of in four books, dealing respectively with the rise, the develop- ment, the culmination, and the decline of Italian Art. In each of the first three, literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative arts are successively discussed.
Previous page
