New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-10-16
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
BOOKS OF ARTISTIC CRITICISM AMI
BIOGRAPHY.

BlOJkAf nj
OF THE BEAUTY OF WOMEN pal fTcm Re
Italian by Clara Bell with an 17S NewYork:
Theodore Child oc sSHS I RP XVII Id NEW
, ,rE OF CHRISTIAN DANIEL RAUCH Drawn
from German authorities by Eunah a. cbnnard
octave PIP viii. 3d. Boston, Lee anu '"'p''
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF wAsHlNGTIUDsS s
ALLSTON. BY Jared b. Fiagg .o n YORK:
trated Royal octave. PIP. XVII f5f Ne" i0
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1885
THE COLUMBUS GALLERY: BY n I Ponce pe
Leon. Illustrated Quarto, pp' 100 NC" ~
n Ponce de Leon. 1888 w.t..
OLD SWORD PLAY. BY Alfred Sdr Hutton est eT-
trated Quarto. PIP g. New-Aorh D.
mann and Company, 1888
Apnolo Firenzuoa one Of those accom-
,sbed diIettanti Of the sixteenth century in whom
tho racv humors of their time struggled TOT inc
mastery against erudition and classicsm lie
could nroye himself an arrant pedant. No'hlh5
oouId stand he held, before a quotation lrou'
Plato. and his work is plentifuly enriched WIN
references to antiquity and antique authors Duo
he was a readable novelist in an age when iaen-
toned its standard on men like Boccaccio anu ,"e
Bishop of Asen; men who, whatever their iaui'S
NAV have been were certainly matchless story
+e,lers He held his own amongst his learned con-
temporaries They praised him for the purity Oh
his Tuscan.
WHY Firanzuola's Dialogue Of the Beauty OF
Women should have been translated oy MISS
Clara Bell, and published recently, is question:
which the late Theodore Child, who wrote an III
PRODUCTION for the new edition. was himself mower
70 ask He had no difficulty In answering IL
satisfactorily. nor will any sympathetic reauer VI
the Gallant old Florentine's discourse. Ills DOOR,
n, al, IFS profuson of classical allusion, is far
from being the lumber which might De eNpec'e"
from so invetcrate an academici;fn. He was
oIs
ona,ris NJ their charm is as fresh and convincing
row as il must have been to his earliest readers
II ;s nreseryed. moreover, in beautiful example
of q beautiful literary form favorlte device oi
The italian novelists was to imagine their tales as
having been told in some villa or palace where
stress Of weather perhaps had detained party
Of hirh-bred men and women. flrenzuoia I'D"
emploved it in writing his novels. he knew us pos
abilities well. and he employed 1t again III con-
structinc his dialogue on the beauty of women. lie
nlaced an embodiment of himself one Ceso IN the
garden of an abbey. There he lei him INTO the
comr.rv NJ four ladies of Prato. Madonna Lam
niada. Madonna Amororrsca, Selvaggia and Yer
desnina and there under the expresses they tar
ried disputing of Madonna Amelia della lor-
renuoya.o whom one called a beauty and another
mot oven well-favorcd." No burden OF artlhciii
culture could eXtinGuish tlrenzuoias store
of shrewdness and vivacity nor conld "
obscure tbe fine quality Of his artistic feeling.
He carries into this dialogue the strongly human
temper of his writing in fiction. but he is Also upon
this occasion, the cOurtier and the connoisSeur 10
his finger tips. Nothing could be more restrained.
more elegant in better taste. This monk OF
Vallombrosa. whose writings were more than once
a scandal TO the Church, is here a very Galahad
among critics. OF the practical value his oo-
modern
dif6cult TO make an estimate. Mr.. Child admits
that some of them are only to be fully under
stood when studied in connection with the
rictoral memorials of the Renaissance, with
the paintings of Botticelli and Mantecna. But
Firenzuola's entire argument makes for noble
ideal of beauty which is comprehensive to-day
and still to be desired. Charm grace, seemiiness'
majesty, are now what they always were, and
Firenzuoa's words on these topics have a con-
temporaneous ring in nineteenth century ears
u know not what to say OF majesty, saws
Celso "save that it is a common use OF daily
speech when a lady is tall and wel-shaped. car
ries herself well. sits with a certain GRANDEUR
speaks with gravity laughs with modesty and
finally difuses as il were, an odor of quccnllness
Thus by majesty mean nothing else
than the movement and carriage Of lady with a
certain regal pomp." And is il not as true now
as IL ever was that il is most secmly in n noble
and gentle lady, as a manifestation of her hap
piness TO laugh with modesty, severity and can
dor, without much motion of her body, in low
tone and rarely rather than often?' Great
are the insight and sagacty of Firenzuola
catalogue" No lover of old Italian literature
and life can fail to perceive the ability with
which he maintains the honor of the one and the
truth with which he reproduces gracious phase
of the other The Dialogue is trenchant
little essay in aesthetics, and it is a charming
picture of Renaissance manners.
variant Of the pseudo classic character typi-
fed in Firenzuoa is provided in the history of
German plastic art by Daniel Ranch. Thls
sculptor was Of the of the Florentine author
in that he Ierpetually seeking the conirina-
ton of his ideas in classic models. With Mrs
Ednah d. Cheney the author Of a - Life OF
Christian Daniel Rauch,' which has lately APP
peared, it is article Of faith that her hero
combined within himself the best of ancient and
modern tendencies. But everything is matter
of faith with this biographer. She will tell you
in cold blood apropos of the celebrated recumben'
statue of Queen Louise, that criticism of this
beautiful work is needless" that IL is the meet
ing point Of the real and the ideal" As a matter
NJ fact Rauch was a sculptor of talent who found
his Waterloo as so many other Germans OF his
time found theirs in the statuary halls Of the
Vatican They thought they had found theii
nromised land there. How unhappy were We
sculptors.n excaims Rauch, but for Greek an
and its works." Happy they were, no doubt, u
their invasion OF Rome, and it is true that th'
revival of enthusiasm for classic art in Germany
WAS of the greatest benefit to the spread Of cul
ture within the boundaries of that country. The
value Of the labors of Winckcnlann rssng and
Goethe is simply incalculable. But to the grouT
of artists at Rome who sought TO realize in TIM
concrete the plastic ideal of antiquity the return
IN that ideal assured nothing but extinction II
the eve Of posterity. The Italian Canova, thu
Swedish Thorwaldsdcn, the German Scladow, ant
Rauch were all committed by their passion fol