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PERIODICALS.
GAZETTE DES BEAUX ARTS, July.—La Sculpture beige et les influences françaises. By M. Raymond Kœchlin.—The author endeavours to show that the realistic tendencies hitherto supposed to be indigenous in Flemish art from its commencement did not in reality declare themselves till the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries. In the twelfth century German influence predominated at all events in Mosan art, but was succeeded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the decisive influence of French figure sculpture. Belgian art was at this period informed by the same idealistic and generalizing tendencies as the French school from which it derived. M. Kœchlin makes his point good by a number of interesting examples, but in his anxiety to proclaim French influence he minimizes the distinctions between the two schools, the shorter proportions, the blunter and more angular modelling of the Belgian sculptors. If the effigy of Blanche of Castile which came from Tournai to St. Denys is really—as M. Pit supposes—a work of the thirteenth century, it shows that already the Flemings were beginning that angular and cutting treatment of the folds of drapery which is associated with the realistic art of the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and which the French did not accept till a much later date. Quelques réflexions sur les Salons. (Second, concluding article.) By M. Henry Cochin.—This is as brilliantly and fascinatingly written as the first article, and is, like it, pleasantly discursive. M. Cochin discusses with stimulating suggestiveness the theory that every work of art is a symbol, a sign in a universal language, a token corresponding with spiritual and mental values. He proceeds to elaborate the very tenable thesis that all portraiture is caricature, and justly praises in this connection M. Weber’s satiric comedies. His remarks on the ‘modern style,’ as the French call it, or ‘l’art nouveau’ as we, with a laudable desire to assign to the disease a foreign origin, term it, deserve to be quoted: ‘Le temps est venu, je pense, de prononcer le De profundis et les dernières prières sur le soi-disant modern style, être abortif et adultérin, qui porte un nom Anglais, mail est né vraiment en Allemagne, qui n’est pas moderne puisqu’il paraît déjà suranné et court la province—qui de plus n’est pas un style, comme it serait aisée de le démontrer.’ Un Manuscrit de Philippe le Bon. (Second Article.) By M. S. Reinach.—The author continues his description of these remarkable miniatures and gives still further proof, drawn from the types and gestures of the horses, for supposing that its author is none other than Simon Marmion, of whose picture at Wied he gives three illustrations. It is certain that the likenesses to the early Dutch school, particularly to Dirk Bouts, are common both to Simon Marmion and the miniaturist. While he is discussing Simon Marmion, we hope M. Reinach will take account of the picture of St. Michael attributed to the Flemish school at Hertford House (No. 528), which bears, we think, the impress of his style. The idea had already occurred independently to Mr. Claude Phillips. We hope that M. Reinach will be able to secure rather better reproductions of the succeeding miniatures in his forthcoming article. Le Salon de 1761. (Second article.) By M. Casimir Stryienski.—By the aid of the minute and brilliant sketches with which Gabriel de Saint-Aubin annotated his catalogues, the author continues to trace the history of the pictures which figured in this salon. The most interesting of those here discussed is Chardin’s Benedicite, a second replica of one of those in the Louvre. In this version the artist extended his canvas laterally to take in another figure which he succeeded in relating admirably with the original group. The purpose of this change was to make his picture a companion piece to a Teniers. The central composition was frequently repeated by contemporary copyists and imitators. Tradition française et musées d’art antique. By M. Georges Toudouze. —An eloquent appeal for the vulgarization of art, in the proper sense of the word, by making the arrangement of specimens more intelligible and interesting to the unlearned and by adding to fragmentary figures explanatory models of the whole figure or composition.
RASSEGNA D’ARTE.—Le feste artistiche da Milano.—An account of the inauguration of the gallery of art in the castle at Milan, and of the new rooms at the Brera. The history of what the public spirit and intelligence of the Milanese has accomplished, both in the castle and the Brera, may well make us envy the energy of the decadent Latin races. To take the Brera: in the last four years, under the able direction of Signor Ricci, the Brera has been entirely remodelled; the sixteen galleries have been increased to thirty-five, in which the pictures are displayed according to their affinities of time and place; the frescoes by Luini from the chapel of S. Giuseppe in the della Pace have been placed on a vault expressly adapted to them; while among the new acquisitions, mentioning only the more important ones, we find eight frescoes by Bramante, four panels by Gentile du Fabriano, one by Benozzo Gozzoli, several pieces by Lazzaro Bastiani, Butinone, Beltraffio, Solario, Cosimo Tura, and a magnificent Cima. In addition to this, that most desirable adjunct to all places intended for the study of art, a large and representative collection of photographs, has been installed. We fear that in spite of our greater wealth the last four years’ acquisitions by the National gallery would show poorly compared with the work accomplished in this provincial town in Italy. Butinone and Zenale: a reply by Malaguzzi Valeri to the criticisms of Herr Seidlitz, of which we gave an abstract last month. In this he maintains the validity of the date 145— for the altarpiece in the Brera, and brings in as evidence for its possibility Foppa’s Crucifixion at Bergamo of 1456, which he describes as showing a similar squarcionesque influence. We should have said that the influence was rather that of Jacopo Bellini, and that the squarcionesque element found its way later into Lombard art and lingered on even when Leonardo was in the city. Della Robbia at Marseilles: two school pieces, one of which is catalogued by Miss Cruttwell, are figured and described by Signor Rossi. La Rocella di Squillace: Dr. Groeschel replies to the article by Signor Caviglia in the April number, in which this was referred to the sixth century. The author says that the naves were covered with ogival vaults, and that the church cannot antedate the end of the eleventh century. Miscellaneous Articles: Don Guido Cagnola, who is well known for his efforts in the preservation of works of art, writes to protest against the disfigurement and obliteration of pictures and frescoes by ecclesiastical authorities. An article signed Piceller describes vividly the battle of San Egidio and the capture of Malatesta; the description is fitted to the picture by Ucello in the National gallery. This is evidence of how little attention is paid abroad to the work of English historians of art, for Mr. Horne, in the Monthly Review for October 1901, once and for all disposed of the theory that Ucello’s picture represents this battle. With admirable patience and minute research, he proved point by point that it represents the rout of San Romano in which Niccolo da Tolentino defeated the Sienese under Bernardino della Carda in 1432. His article leaves the matter no longer open to such vague guesses. Among various items of news we learn that a school piece of the Della Robbia which stood in the oratory of the Annunziata at Legri has been stolen, or rather broken to pieces and the greater part taken away.
LA REVUE DE L’ART ANCIEN ET MODERNE.—The July number is devoted almost exclusively to modern art. An article on the discoveries at Antinoe by Mons. Gayet describes some very remarkable Byzantine textiles, on which are symbols of a mixed Greco-Roman and Egyptian character, such as the Venus-Isis. The form, however, appears to be decadent Alexandrine Greek.
ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW.—Contains an article by Mr. A. C. Champneys on Iona, with many excellent reproductions. The author’s careful analysis of the building and the historical evidence seems only to show the hopeless uncertainty of any theories which would connect the existing buildings with the sites of St. Columba’s original monastic foundations. Nor is the architectural history of the cathedral itself much clearer. The curious habit of the later builders of imitating older forms makes the determination of dates exceedingly difficult. The appeal made by The Burlington Magazine for the preservation of Clifford’s Inn is taken up in an editorial article, and Mr. Lethaby protests, we fear in vain, against the proposed destruction of the beautiful eighteenth-century bridge over the Exe, at Exeter.
REPERTORIUM FÜR KUNSTWISSENSCHAFT.—Die Gotteshäuser von Meran, der Alten Hauptstadt des Landes Tirol. By Franz Jacop Schmitt. An analysis of the architectural features of the churches of Meran and the neighbourhood, with the result, which the author describes as hocherfreulich, of finding that German gothic forms crossed the border line between the ecclesiastical provinces of Mayence and Aquileja, and arc found in parts of Tyrol where Italian was the spoken language. The result is interesting; the patriotic fervour with which the author hails it is to be deprecated in writing the history of art. ¶ Due Strambotti inediti per Antonio Vinciguerra e un ignoto ritratto di Vettor Carpaccio. By Arduino Colasanti. The author publishes two octaves by an unknown poetaster of the end of the quattrocento. In one written about 1502 he describes a portrait of Antonio Vinciguerra, called il Cronico, by Carpaccio. The portrait, like others by the same hand of which we have records, has disappeared. ¶ Ueber die Proportionsgesetze, etc. By Constantin Winterburg. A third instalment of this minute analysis of the types of proportion established by Dürer, and of the changes in his point of view between the first and second book. ¶ Die Allegorie des Leben und Todes in der Gemäldegalerie des Germanischen Museums. By Ludwig Lorenz. An account of the picture in two parts of the above subject, No. 135 in the Nuremberg museum. The author finds in this remarkable work, which was originally ascribed to the mysterious Gerard van der Meire, the characteristics of the Meister des Hausbuches, an artist of the middle Rhenish school, known hitherto only by his engravings. ¶ Zur Geschichte der Plastik Schlesiens von 1550–1720. By Berthold Haendcke. The author praises highly the renaissance sculpture of Silesia, and finds in the best work the influence of Italian, and, to some extent, Flemish models, but rejects with some fervour the idea of foreign workmanship.
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