# The Arts/Volume 1/Issue 2/Book Reviews

Layout 2
FROM "THE SEVEN PARSONS AND THE SMALL IGUANODON"
BOOK REVIEWS
THE SEVEN PARSONS AND THE SMALL IGUANODON, An Inverted Legend, by Gerald H. Thayer. Illustrations by Norman Jacobsen. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920.
That Abbott H. Thayer is one of America's greatest painters every art-lover but a few ultra-modernists believes. That Gerald H. Thayer is following with reverence in his father's footsteps most art-lovers know. It has but just become known that Gerald is also a talented writer of light, humorous verse. The plot of the "Seven Parsons" and the "Small Iguanodon" is simple. The "Seven Parsons" catch a small urchin fishing on the Sabbath day. It would have gone badly with the youngster if—
had not befriended him and put to rout the "Seven Parsons" whom Mr. Thayer describes as—
THE STORY OF JESUS Pictures from Paintings by the Old Masters, Text from the New Testament. Selected and arranged by Ethel Nathalie Dana, Boston: Marshall Jones Company.
In selecting paintings to illustrate the Story of Jesus, the text taken from the New Testament, Ethel Nathalie Dana has felt how closely the Italian masters before the time of Raphael followed the spirit of the account of Christ's life. Most of the beautiful color reproductions with which this volume is adorned are taken from Giotto's work and that of his immediate successors. As Ruskin has pointed out, the formal classicism of Raphael is pagan rather than Christian. Raphael uses an incident of Christ's life as the theme of a classical composition. There is with him no desire to drive home to the people the inner spiritual meaning of the story of Jesus. With Giotto the desire to expound the beauty of holiness of Christ's life and example was the motive of his art. That he was one of the greatest decorators that ever lived, that the interior of the Arena Chapel at Padua remains one of the most beautiful in the world is the result of Giotto's marvellous decorative instinct. Good as are the reproductions they do not do justice to the blue of Giotto's backgrounds.
Lovers of art and those who earnestly strive to follow Christ's example will find in "The Story of Jesus" inspiration.
FROM "OLD NEW ENGLAND HOUSES"
OLD NEW ENGLAND HOUSES, by Albert G. Robinson, with many Illustrations from the Author's unique Collection of Photographs. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920.
To those who feel that the most important contribution to American art is the colonial architecture of our great grandparents the new book by Mr. Robinson will be most welcome. In it those who believe in the ability of the designers of those old homes to make the buildings fit into the landscape. and look as if it had actually grown out of the soil will find much to strengthen their belief. In all countries architectural forms have been discovered by the inhabitants of each locality which fit in admirably with the formation of the land. Take the campaniles of Venetia. They are of the utmost beauty as we see them dominating the plain of the Po or as we look toward Venice from the Lido. In an Alpine landscape they would be absurdities. One cannot always trust to Mr. Robinson's taste, He has reproduced many old houses with little beauty. He has left out many houses which should have been included in the volume. That is of relatively little moment. What is important is that he has saved for us and for posterity the look of many an old New England home which will either be torn down to make way for "progress" or altered into a dwelling with modern improvements.