New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-12-20

| make his cyClOpe0ld q ldlTly pcIlcSt pooh, osSNt
! ing 1t even more positively the high position IN
| which II Is already fixed
The late Anna Jameson never pretended to such
I omniscience as Professor Longfellow has achieved
as a matter Of course: but there is nevertheless.
| an encyclopedia character to her writings on ART
! We appreciate this the more now that her works
have been thoroughly revised and amplified by
Miss Hurl reprinted with every circumstance OF
mechanical excellence and sent forth IN hve hand-
some volumes copiousy enriched with good Illus
trations and ndexed with completeness one
NAV grasp under these conditions the peculiar
| value OF Mrs Jameson's aesthetic literature We
call 1t aesthetic il Is certainly that. but 1t Is much
mora into the bargain II is historical II is anec-
dotic II is not exactly didactic but It's unremttlng
concern with elements Of religious symbolism and
failing gives II q character not merely critical.
| Irdeed among all the writers who have devoted
! themselves to the art of Italy, there is not one
who writes with so much feeling and sympathy as
Mrs Jameson possessed; not one, with the excep-
ton OF Ruskin. And she who had not 1.-THE OF
Ruskin's genius is his superior In the judicial
| tone OF her essays.
Sbe had her preiudices certainly. and she
had some of the moral prepossessions which
| have wrought havoc in Ruskins work. But she
was neither gifted enough nor defective enough
! as writer to be carried away on the wings
Of Rhapsody and. with the complete renovation
of the text that Miss Hurll has given her vol
umes. they promise to advance not little IN
the estimation Of writers on art They make
valuable books of reference, valuable IN mat
ters of curious information. In such matters OF
anecdote and minor history as often serve TO
expand the horizon of a critical dissertation ana
suffuse It's dusty pages with human color. Mrs.
oil Q1 b.
served much She collated material which had
never before been systematized as she sys-
tematized it. and which has not since been
| treated by any one with the same patience and
| fitness Her two volumes on Sacred and Leg
| endarv Art" her Legends Of the Monastc Or
ders" and Legends of the Madonna, make
together a mine Of interesting facts. and they
are written with the good taste, the measure
| the general literary excellence of one who al
WAYS approached her theme on high grounds.
The Memoirs Of Italian Painters" may not be
very precious to-day Vassari having been edited
so irreproac hably by MS modern critics. but with
this exception all Mrs Jameson's writings have
a reason for being and are well worth the at
. tractive form given them In the new edition.
These volumes revvify old-fashioned writer
make her new again, and prove that she stlli
is of serious account in the literature of art
Mrs. Jameson is illustration or what a
genial sympathetic writer can do with matters
of exact record, taking great masses of material
and reducing them from an amorphous condition
to something like inspired order. Frank Pres
ton Stearns deals with more or less concrete
things in his small volume on 1.-The Midsummer
of Italian Art" but the final significance of his
! criticism Is personal and interpretative He sets
down his impressions of Angelica. Da Ninci and
the others named in his subtitle and leaves
minute biogra phical historical statement
to others What he has TO say is quite enter
tanning enough to make the historical tenuty
Of his volume a matter Of trifling import lie
writes clearly and persuasvely Of his painters,
and though he advances no striking hypothesis.
throws no light upon the men with whom
he deals, his essays will be found companionable
| in Italian galleries by those tourists who de-
mand neither eruditon nor profound insight.
but enjoy a gentle talker and can meet him
halfway in aesthetic enthusiasms.
With all the observations printed In this book
we do not find ourselves in agreement. To say
| that "Charoscuro was Correggios great contribu-
ton to art" reveals commendable appreciation
| of the ponderabe elements in the Italian mas
| ters work. but would have expected critic
| with Mr. Stearns's prediction for subtle induc
| tion to have seized on what is really the dstin-
| gushing gift of Correggo TO the history of art
the gift OF unsurpassed elegance. Beneath
the great domes of Parma and in the presence of
Correggio's pictures there and elsewhere in
Europe gives his light and shade high
praise. but the thing setting him apart from
all other painters in history is, we have stated.
elegance Of style. 1t rooted in his tempera
ment it was OF the very fibre of his genius and
his art it is still the quality for which he is
valued and admired. And elegance in Correggio
| ic off ite q thing 60 a factor that
he may be said to have made his contribution to
art Just in showing its possibilities There
other points somewhat puzzng in the volume
before Mr.. Stearns says that "Raphaers In
tellect not of the scientific order Like
true artist. he perceived ideas not abstractly,
but in form, and things always in their rela
ton to one another and tremendously arranged"
If Mr.. Stearns thinks that the true artist his
composition as in a kind OF revelation. all well
and good; but If he thinks, believe he must,
that q true artist clearly because he knows
thoroughly then Mr.. Stearnss own words might
be taken to prove what In our opinion Is indis-
putable that Raphaels intellect was decidedly
Of the scientific order The virtue of points like
this in THE Midsummer Of Italian Art is that
they keep the reader interested and provoke dis
cussion. Mr.. Stearns has independence
critic II no great powers Of divination. and his
pages possess vitality. His book is charmingly
made as to print, paper and illustrations.
In changing the scene Of his abors from Italy
to the Low Countries. Mr.. Timothy Cole did not
change his character engraver II he
did, he changed 1t in the right way, accommodate
ing his BURN to the broader issues Of Dutch and
Flemish technique and showing that he felt to
the very extremity of his instrument the differ
ence between Bottce and Rembrandt, Halls and
the pensive painters of the golden age in Italy.
In reviewing his earlier volume. the book devoted
exclusively TO the Tuscan primitives and their
successors we found the peculiar value Of Mr..
Coles engraving to lie In their combination Of
impeccable execution with uncommon sympathy.