This is a most useful manual for the collector of old china and articles of vertu, a guide based on long and large practical experience. The book is partly historic, and the chapters on “Ancient Pottery” and “The Mediæval and Renaissance Periods” will be perhaps the most interesting to our readers. But those whose tastes are more modern than antiquarian will derive more pleasure from the chapters relating the story of the introduction of porcelain into Europe; while nobody, however large his or her own experience may be, can afford to despise or to dispense with the lists of the marks and monograms adopted by the Wedgwoods, the Spodes, the Copelands, and other manufacturers of pottery, or with the “hints and cautions to collectors” to be found on pp. 191-199. The illustrations are numerous and excellent; and the little work can boast the merit of a very careful index.
Phallicism. By Hargrave Jennings. G. Redway. 1884.
This book is written ad clerum, and appeals to the scholar only, and not to the multitude. It is a masterly and exhaustive account of that worship of the creative powers of nature which, under various names, has prevailed among all the nations of antiquity and of mediæval times, alike in Egypt and India, in Italy and Gaul, among the Israelites of old, and among the primitive inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland. Mr. Jennings treats of his subject in its celestial and terrestrial, its heathen and Christian aspects; and he traces its connection with the Gnostics, the Buddhists, and the Rosicrucians. He sees Phallicism in the obelisks and pyramids of the Nile, in the monolithic circles of Stonehenge and of Avebury, and in the Round Towers of Ireland. A worship or cult so ancient and so widely spread, it is clear, must have a history, and a curious one; and this Mr. Jennings has traced in a way so scholarly as to leave little or nothing to be said by others. He has carried his inquiry much further back, and also in many more countries, than all previous writers, including Mr. R. P. Knight, who drew his pictures of Phallic worship chiefly from what he had himself witnessed in Italy and the South of France. It will surprise very many of our readers to learn that the erection of the Tower of Babel was probably an early outburst of this worship, and that its hidden and mystic meaning was the same as that of the Round Towers in “the sister island,” which were nothing more or less than fire towers, expressive of the ancient faith of the Parsees. How far these speculations are true in fact, must be left to the learned to decide. But certainly the work before us will be found a most valuable auxiliary to all who care to pursue such a subject of inquiry, a subject for which Mr. Jennings is the better fitted on account of his long and intimate acquaintance with the Rosicrucians, their tenets, and their practices. The issue of the work is limited to 400 copies for English subscribers.
Benvenuto Cellini. Nouvel Appendice, aux recherches sur son Œuvre et sur les Pièces qui lui sont attribuées. Par E. Plon. 4to. Paris: Plon, Nourrit et Cie.
Our readers may perhaps remember that some time ago we reviewed M. Eugène Plon’s magnificent volume on Benvenuto Cellini.[83] From the extreme care with which the work was done, it was quite evident that we had before us the result of enthusiastic sympathy with the artist whose biography we were invited to study, and whose genius was so thoroughly appreciated. M. Plon would not take a final leave of his hero, and every fresh discovery referring to him would be duly recorded and given to the public. Nor have we been disappointed of our expectation, for the quarto brochure of which we have just transcribed the title-page, is an interesting contribution to the history of art in general, and of Benvenuto Cellini in particular. It consists of two parts, which we shall briefly notice in succession.
“Following the example of Orsino, surnamed Il Cervaicolo, and of so many masters belonging to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it might be supposed that Benvenuto Cellini, also, had left behind him portraits in coloured wax, such as we often meet now in public museums and private collections. Comparing an entry forming part of the inventory drawn up after the artist’s death (‘due scatolini di ritratti del Serenissimo Principe Abbozzati,’) with a memorandum of works executed for the Cardinal di Ravenna (‘e per uno suo ritratto grande di cera’), we had conjectured this to be the case, and our hypothesis derived a certain kind of countenance from the fact that Lastri notices (Osservatore Fiorentino, Firenza, 1758) a portrait in wax of Alessandro di Medici, hung up as a votive offering in the Church della Nunziata, and which was ascribed to Benvenuto. Our presumption has now become a reality, thanks to the discovery of a portrait of Francesco di Medici, which we reproduce. It is in coloured wax, and rather high relief on a dark back-ground.”
This description is M. Eugène Plon’s. He further informs us in a footnote that the portrait in question, originally preserved at Prato, is now at Florence, and belongs to the collection of the Commendatore Luigi Vai; its existence was pointed out to our author by the Director of the State Paper Office of Tuscany, Commendatore Cesare Guasti; it was intended for the celebrated Bianca Capello, to whom Francesco di Medici forwarded it, together with this short note:—
“Amata Bianca,—
“Fino da Pisa il mio ritratto u’ invio che ’l nostro maestro Cellini m’a fatto in cera. Il mio chore prendete.
D. Francisco.”
There is no doubt whatever, therefore, on the authenticity of this portrait. M. Plon has had it photographed in the original size, and it is impossible to imagine anything more exquisite as a work of art. With reference to the date, it must be assigned between 1568 and 1570, for we know that Benvenuto Cellini died in the beginning of 1571, and about the close of the preceding year he complained of suffering from a severe bronchial attack, which had obliged him to discontinue work for the space of several weeks.