Italian Sculpture of the Renaissance. By L. J. Freeman. (Macmillan
and Co. 12s. 6d.)—This is a helpful book, because the author does not set out merely to expound some particular theory or praise some one tendency. What we find in the book is a calm study of the monuments, with a desire first of all to under- stand them and realise why they produce the effect upon us they do. The analysis of the Medici tombs is an interesting piece of work. The author points out the relation between the abnormal and superhuman proportions and characteristics of the four greet figures, and their strange and complex attitudes. Had the figures been realistic in their modelling and proportions, the poses would have seemed contorted and violent. On the other band, had the sculptor put these figures into positions naturally taken by the human body, their Titanic proportions would have been unim- pressive owing to their strangeness. With the compulsion of genius, Michelangelo created forms and attitudes in harmony with each other, and capable of expressing the majesty and terri- bait& of his inspiration.
There seems to be no end to the Lives of painters now being published. Messrs. Duckworth and Co. are issuing in their "Popular Library of Art" (2s. each) a series of little books which are excellent of their kind. We sometimes wonder at the curiosity to read about pictures now shown by the numbers of books published about art. Do the people who read the books look at the pictures any more than formerly? If they do, the National Gallery ought to be crowded. M. Briers Rembrandt is a model of what a small book of this kind should be. He tells us that he has no wish to formulate new critical theories or unearth new facts; he wishes to make us love the work of the master as he loves it himself. M. Breal cites a German work on Rembrandt ; we quote his description of it because it is typical—in an exaggerated sense—of so much mistaken writing about art. "There exists a German book, at present in its forty-fifth edition, which one may read without discovering precisely whether Rem- brandt was a general, a statesman, a sailor, or an artist. The one definite piece of information imparted by this work is that Rembrandt was a German, who in many ways conspicuously resembled Bismarck. Incidentally the reader also learns that Rembrandt's favourite colours were black, red, and gold, the colours of the German standard." It is not thus that M. Br6a1 writes, and his study of the master is a work in which is to be found what De Quincey called the "sympathy of comprehension," which is the foundation of all critical writing. The illustrations in this little book are excellent; they are all taken from drawings or etchings, and therefore are suited to small reproduction.— Another of this series is Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer's Rossetti, which strikes us as a singularly fair and reasonable appreciation and criticism. We are shown the poet-painter as essentially It'alian and pagan,—lavisb in pouring out his ideas, and prodigal of his enthusiasms and of his life. The writer, while fully appreciating the great and strange qualities of the genius of Rossetti, is also alive to his limitations, technical and artistic. On the whole, we are inclined to think that this book contains the true estimate of Eossefti.—Two more of the series under notice, Diirer, by Lina Eckenstein, and F. Walker, by Clementina Black, are less interest- ing from the critical point of view, and more given over to biographical details. The two last-mentioned books have neither index, table of contents, nor headings to the pages, so that the information contained in the volumes is made as inaccessible as it can be.
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