No More Learning

It is instructive to note other hand, Adam owed practically nothing
that a modern astronomer finds confirmation to French or other contemporary art;
THE Report of the work of the Royal in his researches of the results reached his was an original derivation from Roman
contains some items of a distinctly utili astronomy as to the enormous distances of art, if it may be put that way. A good
tarian nature. Experiments have been made the confines of the stellar universe.
many of his excellent designs, now housed
on


## p. 660 (#498) ############################################

660
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
we
are
on
h; the
an
<<
exe-
22
in the Soane Museum, are here repro- Roman, in which essential characteristics exhibition (which,
assured, is
duced. There is also an interesting chap- are indicated with especial reference to intended to illustrate the most independent
ter the Adelphi Lottery. Adam's the methods of manufacture employed. and progressive elements of contemporary
Court and Parliamentary influence must
A second chapter of the same character landscape")Watts (54-61), Leighton (50-
have been considerable, as he got
deals with the jewellery of the Middle Ages 53), and Legros (91-94)owe their import-
-Byzantine, Barbarian, Celtic, and Later
private Bill passed authorizing this lottery, Medieval : an education in taste rather clung to a tradition of landscape which
ance mainly to the degree in which they
and so relieved the brothers of a huge than a guide to the collector, since none but modern art has gradually abandoned.
financial liability.
the poorest of mediæval trinkets is ever In the majority of such painters as are
In Hepplewhite Mr. Cescinsky finds likely to come within his reach.
markedly progressive, the progress is in the
three styles or periods: the first, in which The eighteenth century and the early part merely negative direction of throwing over,
he was influenced by the French
of the nineteenth are, however, Mr. Percival's not only traditional subjects, but also tradi-
second, when he came under Adam's length and with much sympathetic insight. principles to take their place. Cecil Law-
real subject, and these he treats at great tional principles, without evolving any new
influence; and the last, when he had Nearly 200 pages are devoted to a detailed son's large Hop Gardens of England (39) is,
developed his own genius, though he study of the various trinkets of this period perhaps, the most lamentable example
assimilated in this period to the work of likely to attract the minor collector for here of this indifference to painting and
Sheraton. Mr. Cescinsky roughly dis- whom he writes, and in them even experts sole reliance on the interest of subject-
tinguishes the three craftsmen thus :: will find much that is unfamiliar, while matter. If hop gardens have pleasant asso-
ordinary readers will find a renewed interest ciations for him, this picture may be suffi-
“ The era of Chippendale may be de- in looking through the trinkets of their ciently like to please an uncritical beholder ;
scribed as an age of carved and fretted orna-
elders and comparing them with the illustra- but the beauty of the hop garden is allied
ment, that of Hepplewhite as one of painting, tions of this book. These are, indeed, a no analogous beauty of paint, and we
and the period of Sheraton as one of inlay.
great attraction, consisting, as they do, of are of opinion that the numerous modern
Sheraton's personal history is inter- somo 240 photographic and 60 drawings of painters who have produced work of a like
esting. He was at once a designer, a jewellery of all periods. We only remark formlessness under-estimate the public sensi-
drawing - master, a publisher, a writer that Mr. Percival has not told us where bility to technical excellence. Legros's
the objects illustrated (many of them in rather airless Landscape with Men in a Boat
of tracts, and a Baptist preacher ! Coming the objects illustrated (many of them in
museums) may be seen.
(93) has odd look, as though the
to London at the age of forty, he never
practised his craft of cabinet-making, Turner's Water-Colours at Farnley Hall, barque were being pulled past an artificial
but made designs and sold them. Mr.
PART II. , 2/6 net.
panorama.
•Studio' Office
What, on the whole, has modern landscape
Cescinsky does more justice to this un-
The reproductions in the second part of
fortunate man than is usually done by the first. This is not to say that they are
to offer us in place of the magnificent
this series are less charming than those in sixpennyworth of pleasurable sensation
writers on furniture. His later career less faithful, although a drawing
suggested by our last sentence? Some-
was marred by his weak surrender to the cuted in body-colour on brown paper
thing, doubtless, in the way of rather
is
monotonously insistent projection ; but, if
craze of the day for Empire forms, in inevitably more difficult to render than a
we were to judge by the present exhibition,
which good taste and style departed. true water-colour. To modern eyes the
very little of value. Buxton Knight's
But his earlier work shows him to be most interesting plate is ‘A First - Rater
group of works (of which Nos. 36A, 41, and
among the best designers of the century. taking in Stores. The vast ship of war,
44 are the best) show a painter who in
the
He died in poverty, but posterity has fishing boats, "shows how delicately and
towering, story upon story, above
his day was cautiously experimental; and
given him a name second to none but accurately Turner could draw when his
there is at least one fine Steer, The Distant
Chippendale's. Mr. Cescinsky's work is so subject required it. The sense of proportion passing through a period of close research
Severn (8), to remind us that we have been
valuable that it may well become the is conveyed with consummate skill.
into the structural use of colour which is of
standard treatise on its subject.
considerable value, though as yet hardly
utilized in combination with the finest
plastic sense. The other fine pictures in the
CONTEMPORARY BRITISH show, however, are almost all by men of con-
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
LANDSCAPE.
servative and reactionary influence. This
(Notice in these columns does not preclude longer
influence we consider to some extent salu-
review. )
THE attendance at this exhibition at tary, and the pictures are chosen in such
Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Archæological the Grafton Galleries will offer an interesting a fashion as to make it appear entirely so.
Journal, APRIL, 1/6
test of the degree to which landscapes keep
Reading, Slaughter ; London, Stock their interest for the general public of this
latter day. Conversation and scenery were
Percival (Maciver), CHATS ON OLD JEWEL- given by Mark Twain as constituting in
OTHER EXHIBITIONS.
LERY AND TRINKETS. Fisher Unwin combination the summit of human bliss,
Mr. Percival may be congratulated alike but it is open to us to suspect that move- The Tomb of Oscar Wilde, which Mr. '
on a comparatively fresh subject and on his ment (if not other things) was really implied Jacob Epstein is exhibiting at 72, Cheyne
treatment of it. Personal adornment is one at the same time, and that he saw himself Walk, is a splendidly massive and impressive
of the primitive instincts of the race, and in imagination on a shaded deck, the land- design, showing on the part of the sculptor
when, early in history, the element of design scape slipping past with that lively dis- a profound sense of consistency in the
was associated with beauty of material in engagement of plane from plane which observance, of an accepted convention, and
decoration, the art of jewellery was born. enhances so considerably our appreciation of the sufficiency of simple means for
Here, then, is a wide and satisfying field for of its structure, and facilitates our uncon- utilizing the natural magic of light and shade.
the collector, ranging, in point of time scious estimate of spacial dimensions. The It is excessively derivative, and this might
through fifty centuries, in respect of material mere passive representation of a given scene be taken, perhaps, to indicate confessed
from the commonest to the rarest: each from a given point is a less exciting enter- inability to invent a theme of more distinctly
piece, even the humblest, bringing some- tainment, and the early tradition of land- modern significance which should be capable
thing of the joy of the past into the present scape, whether European or Oriental, strove of expressing the idiom of ancient Egypt, of
by a revival of the element of charm which to atone for this deficiency by ingenious which Mr. Epstein rightly feels the monu-
made it beautiful in the eyes of its maker combinations of subject - matter, by the mental grandeur. The execution of the work
and wearer.
clear grouping of objects at various distances, is very fine, and as the artist is still young,
The little book before us is written for and a crisp directness of touch by which and his development must necessarily be the
minor collectors—those who love old things, the very stroke itself, according as it is slower for the slowness with which the
but cannot afford to pay large prices for blurred or dragged or slashed, becomes, by general public realizes his merit, we may
them. Of course, much fine jewellery a miracle of executive delicacy, a leaf, å forgive him a certain caution in venturing
worked in gold and precious stones is defi- wavelet, or a cloud.
far from his base of operations in Egyptian
nitely out of their reach, but the quantity Within the rather narrow limits of his example,
of really beautiful things that can still be speciality, Whistler, here represented by
obtained at relatively low prices is surprising. the "school-pieces" of Mr. Walter Greaves THE work at Crosby Hall is of a healthier
The arrangement of the book is simple and (1-5), utilized to perfection this last element character on the whole than that shown in
well considered. It begins with a glossary, of the modulation of the texture of the the recent similar competition for Chelsea
and goes on to a brief description of ancient paint down to the threshold of our own day; artists, but it cannot be claimed as yet
jewellery-Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, and I and other represented painters in this that any great decorative genius has been
--


## p. 661 (#499) ############################################

No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
661
un-
some
brought to light by the movement. That,
Luc Sicard, commonly called Sicardi,
perhaps, was hardly to be expected until
MINIATURES AT BRUSSELS. was a miniature painter attached to the
the initial task of setting the artist at work
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide
on the wall, which is the main object of the
THE FOREIGN SECTION,
diplomatic presents in the shape of snuff-
competitions, has been achieved in a suffi.
boxes. He painted many couvercles for
cient number of cases to allow for a reason.
THE miniatures in the Foreign Section Louis XVI. , and there are two or three
able percentage of failure.
number nearly four times as many as the portraits of that ill - fated king and of
of the designs for Middlesex Hospital, English. Critical detailed notice of such a
his heroic consort in this Exhibition
No. 88, by“ Marjoribanks,” is obviously the number being out of the question, I can
(see Nos. 1108–9–15). He continued to
best, and suggests indebtedness to the work mention only some of the principal masters
practise all through the Revolutionary
of Mr. Augustus John for inspiration. The represented.
period, as is proved by the dates on works
artist, almost alone among the competitors, To begin with Augustin—" élève de la by him exhibited here. The group of two
seems to have derived some satisfaction in Nature et de la Méditation, as he styled children (1107), for delicacy of flesh tints,
complying with the rather paralyzing, de himself-five-and-twenty examples of this accuracy of drawing, and charm of colour,
mand for a portion of the design worked out celebrated French painter of miniatures will is not surpassed by anything in this Exhi-
at the full scale. To most modern painters be found ; they include portraits of men and bition that I have met with. The girl, whose
the part is only complete in the brain of the women well known in the troublous period father was “maître d'hôtel du Roi,” and
artist when the whole is complete, and to of his long career-e. g. , the unfortunate was guillotined in 1794, wears a citron-
formulate a part prematurely is rather a Princesse de Lamballe (544A), belonging to coloured ribbon in her hair ; her simple dress
hindrance.
the Queen-Mother of Italy; the actress is of a soft greenish shade, her eyes are dark
Among the designs for the Dublin Gallery Dugazon, Mademoiselle Duchesnois, Louis and lustrous, her complexion is pale but
of Modern Art, that sent by Mr. Cayley XVIII. , and his last work (537), an very pure, with which her rich red lips and
Robinson under the pseudonym of “Qualis finished portrait of Napoleon I. , whom he the boy's warmer colouring make a delightful
ab incepto" (23) is the best, though hardly, painted many times, as he did 'Joséphine, contrast. The miniature is dated 1796,
in its present form, to be compared with his Caroline of Naples, and others of the Bona- and belongs to Comte Allard du Chollet.
contribution to the loan section of the parte family.
Other Parisian collectors exhibit snuff-
exhibition (No. 2); while there is merit
boxes by Sicardi, who is well represented,
in the sketch of “ Paint Bender” (25), and
Another man of the period, who went on
the largely ordered design-liable, never-
painting portraits all through the years of by the way, at Hertford House.
theless, to monstrous misreading — which
the Revolution, is Dumont, a member of
Although Madame Vigée Le Brun is
is hung in the crypt under the name of
the Academy in 1788, and an exhibitor in not recognized generally as a painter of
“ Shamus” (141).
the Salon of 1824. Like Augustin and miniatures—occasionally she painted them,
Isabey, he came from Lorraine, and was one
as she tells us in her Memoirs—there are two
For the St. Jude's-on-the-Hill decoration
there are several schemes of some interest,
of the greatest miniaturists in France of the small examples of her work in this manner
those of “Stato (18) and “Festina Lente"
eighteenth century. Those of my readers here (1166, 1167, belonging to M. Feuillet).
who visited the Exhibition of Eighteenth- F. T. Rochard may be called a cosmo-
(22) leaving us somewhat doubtful of the Century Art in Paris in 1906 will recall many politan artist. He was born in Paris during
artists' capacity for drawing on a large scale; lovely examples of his work. There are the Revolution, died in Berlin in 1872, and
while in that under the motto of “O Tem- sixteen to be seen now in Brussels, including lived for many years in England, where
pora, O Mores ” (37), which alone has faced in
from the Fitzhenry and Doistau he exhibited largely at the Academy. There
its inception the rather formidable neighbour. Collections, which were shown at the Exhi- is something very animated and vivacious
hood of the surrounding setting of red brick,
we find the circular fillings at the bottom of
bition to which I have just referred.
in his work. Take, for example, the portraits
of Madame Vestris (1057), from the Doistau
the design, though pretty enough in them. A contemporary of the foregoing, who Collection, and Miss Morris, of the King's
selves, quite out of key with the general worked with Isabey in the studio of David, Theatre (1065). Rochard's colour is rich,
colour-scheme.
is Jean Guérin. This artist is well known and, if the term may be allowed, luscious.
There is some promise al:o in the clear by his striking portrait of Général Kléber His portraits seem a mixture of the styles of
colour fo the two small sketches of “Homo in the Louvre. He excelled in painting Sir William Ross and Isabey. By the way,
Homini Lupus ” (72) for Messrs Crosse & men; his portraits of women are more rare,
he was a pupil of the latter. He could do
Blackwell's factory'; in the detail of No. 93 for and fetch high prices. There are a number solid work when he liked, witness the copy
the same competition, which makes a much of the latter to be seen in this Exhibition, of the Rembrandt in the Royal Collection,
better
design than does the drawing of the including Madame Recamier(786), again Buckingham Palace (302).
ensemble; and the sketches for the Village from the Doistau Collection. Guérin began
Hall at Shrivenham, No. 81 (“Oranges and by painting Marie Antoinette, and lived
The mention of Isabey brings us to one of
Lemons ").
to exhibit in the Salon as late as 1827. the most extraordinary men in the whole
He too, as I
In the Sutton Valence School Competition Examples of his work are in the Wallace range of miniature painters.
Nos. 85 and 159 are fairly good, but recent Collection.
have said, was a Lorrainer, and had the
examples of the handling of historical sub-
good fortune to attract the notice of Marie
There are several interesting works by Antoinette, Queen of France, when he was
jects for decorative purposes have been so Vestier, who was father-in-law to Dumont, only 20.
bad that to impose them seems to be to including some theatrical portraits ; but
court disaster. It is satisfactory to see
He began in the very humblest way,
the greatest miniature painter of this period
evidence of the existence of a “buon fresco
remains
and, like many other artists, struggled
be mentioned, viz. , Pierre
class, urgently needed in London to give a Adolphe Hall, the portrait of whose daughter termed "le portraitiste indispensable des
sound technical basis to these experiments. is here (810, belonging to M. Wildenstein),
Gouvernements. ' He was in truth “le
besides two or three women's portraits be-
At the gallery of Messrs. Goupil in Bed- longing to Baron Oppenheim of Cologne. Allies, Louis XVIII. and Charles X. More-
peintre attitré ” of Napoleon I. and the
ford Street the X Club of Painters show, This artist, who was a Swede, died of apo-
like the exhibitors at Crosby, Hall, anony: plexy on his way to Liége, whither he fled to
over, he lived to see Napoleon III. on the
mously. It would have an admirable effect escape the Revolution. He is credited with courtier and successful portrait painter so
throne of France. To have been a favourite
on art criticism if the example were widely having painted over 2,000 miniatures. There long was a unique experience which
Isabey
followed. The exhibits suffer, as a rule, are several examples of his extraordinary turned to good account. He
from a certain paintiness, the colour fall-
was an
ing between two stools, and being neither not equal in quality to those in the Paris extraordinarily prolific artist, and painted
naturalistically nor decoratively just. In Eighteenth-Century Art Exhibition, where every notability of this time. The
Wallace
slight sketches, however, two or three of
some fifty were shown.
the members show some feeling for colour :
sesses at least a dozen portraits of Napo-
X 10, for example, in The Louvre (1), and
A contemporary not much known in this leon I. , to say nothing of other members
X 23 in The Bathing Cave (9). John Street country, I think, though delightful examples of the Buonaparte family. He is the
(33), by X 16, is a well-characterized portrait of his work are in the Wallace Collection, is largest contributor here, being represented
Mansion, by whom a couple of portraits by thirty works, including many celebrities.
Mr. S. J. Peploe's drawings at the Stafford will be found—941, 942.
Two miniatures by this artist (624A) are
Gallery are of excessive slightness, Nos. 18 In the group of distinguished eighteenth- full of interest, as they both were painted
and 57 having, however, some charm ; century French miniature painters stands during the “Hundred Days. That of
while at the Baillie Gallery Mr. Robert Louis Lié Périn. He had lessons from Louis XVIIJ. was begun soon after Napoleon
Gregory shows one firmly painted landscape Sicardi, and painted miniatures for a liveli- was sent to Elba. On the Emperor's return,
imaginatively conceived, "The Lake, Even- hood at a nominal price. The Fitzhenry he at once sent. for Isabey, who straightway
ing (11), and a number of good colour-studies Collection includes one of ‘Le Chancelier commenced a portrait of him, but the over-
for stage scenery.
Maupéou' (1012), which is here shown. throw of the Empire after Waterloo led to
to


## p. 662 (#500) ############################################

662
No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
the abandonment of the second picture and Füger, the Austrian painter, whose work
the completion of the first. They are both enjoys, and deservedly so, a great reputa-
Fine Art Gossip.
of them beautifully finished work, and tion in Vienna, where he was a Director of
belong to the Musée Ducal de Carls- the Académie des Beaux-Arts at the end of
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND,
ruhe.
the eighteenth century, is represented by which has been enlarged and rearranged,
Taking the miniatures shown in the eight or nine portraits (761-8).
was reopened by the Secretary for Scotland
Foreign Section chronologically, it is inter- Another artist of European celebrity who building on the Mound
on Monday. Formerly only half of the
was available ;
esting to find an example by an artist whose is not generally reckoned as a miniature
work is extremely rare in this country, but painter, so far as I am aware, is Goya. His and drawings of the foreign and British
now the whole area is occupied by prints
three portraits and two 'Études (774–7) schools, and paintings of the British, Italian,
in the early history of miniature painting will be examined with interest. They are
French, Dutch, and Flemish schools. A
in England, viz. , Lavinia Teerlinck. This lent by the Marquis de Casa-Torres, and
new feature is the black-and-white section.
lady was attached to the Court of Mary come from Madrid,
Tudor, and there are notes of payments
We have to announce the death of the
made to her by that Queen. She was the by Peter Fendi. This artist must be reckoned 20th ult. , aged 68. The most prominent of
Unexpected beauty is revealed in works
Danish sculptor Louis Hasselriis on the
daughter of the well-known miniature a Viennese, as he was born in Vienna in 1796,
painter Simon Teerlinck of Bruges. There
and died there in 1842. He lived also in his works was the Heine statue ordered
is a portrait said to be LadyHunston-by Venice. There is something suggestive of by the late Empress of Austria for her villa
her here (1132), lent by the Rijks Museum
at Amsterdam.
Kate Greenaway in his works shown here, at Corfu, and now in Hamburg.
Moroover, the Foreign although, of course, he was dead long before M. PAUL FOUCART, the veteran Acade-
Section is exceptionally rich in the work of her reputation was made. They have the mician, has returned to the study of the
the Olivers, by reason of the important con-
naiveté and sweetness of childhood to an Mysteries of Eleusis, a fresh memoir on
tribution by the Queen of Holland of some
half-dozen of their best works, including, one
astonishing degree. When one thinks of which, prepared with the collaboration of
the hideous costume of the Early Victorian his son M. George Foucart, Professor at
of the Duke of Buckingham by Peter Oliver, period, to which these works belong, it the University of Marseilles, he has just
after the artist's father (1002), and another adds to the wonder that such a charming read before the Académie des Inscrip-
piece, by Isaac Oliver, also assigned to effect could be obtained. They are water tions. He thinks that in the yearly cele-
Buckingham, dated 1614; but, as this
colour drawings rather than miniatures in bration of these Mysteries the drama
miniature (996) bears on its face the age of the ordinary sense, but are full of deli. representing the Rape of Persephone, her
the original, viz. , 30, and as George Villiers
was not born till 1592, it is quite clear it
cacy and refinement.
Two examples, repre- return to earth, and the marriage of Zeus
senting
cannot be Buckingham, nor, indeed, could Figure of the Madonna," leave us cold, but not as a spectacle, but as a liturgical act
Repose and Prayer before the and Demeter, was played by the priests,
I discover a likeness to the “ favourite ”; the colouring of the other three, representing having for its object the assurance by magical
but it is a beautifully finished miniature, children at breakfast, reading, and at play(? ), means of good harvests and other benefits
and is deservedly given a place of honour.
is fresh, tender, and dainty. All are dated to the State. This he declares to have been
The interesting group of three (993), 1840, and belong to the Princess Arnulf of copied from the similar scenes represented,
belonging to the Baroness G. de Rothschild, Bavaria.
according to Herodotus, at different festivals
modestly termed Portrait d'Homme, de
Femme, et d'Enfant, I have already dealt Corinthum," and perhaps not all my readers
“Non cuivis homini contingit adire in Egypt which had the same intention, but
were not mysteries in the ordinary sense of
with in my notes on the English Section.
may find time to go to Brussels, but I the word, requiring a special initiation on
Another great name, one of the greatest
can safely promise those who do so that the part of the worshippers. In this view
in the history of the art, Petitot, must not they wil not be disappointed with the M. George Foucart, whose competence in
be forgotten, but the works shown do International Exhibition of Miniatures in Egyptological matters is well known, sup-
not compare favourably with the numerous the Avenue des Beaux-Arts.
ports him.
specimens of his wonderful skill which may
In conclusion, I venture to make a few THE learned Dominican Father Scheil has
be seen in the Jones Collection at the Vic remarks germane, as I think, to the subject just discovered, or rediscovered, the clay
toria and Albert Museum. Of the half- of these notes.
tablet containing the plan and description
dozen portraits here, that of Turenne
(on a snuff-box, 1023, belonging to Prince Brussels is undoubtedly a huge success.
(1) L'Exposition de la Miniature at
of the famous temple of Esagila at Babylon,
seen for a short time, but not copied, by the
de Lichtenstein) is, perhaps, the finest.
One of the most versatile and delightful mitted to be one of its most attractive Babylonia. It turns out to be a copy made
(2) The English Section therein is ad. late George Smith during his last visit to
artists of the eighteenth century, Jean features.
by the scribe Ea Belshunu at Erech, in the
Fragonard, is represented here by half
eighty-third year of the Seleucid Era (or
dozen examples.
(3) The works there shown are but a mere
He is not usually fraction of similar treasures available in
229 B. C. ), from anoth tablet found at
reckoned
miniature painter, but
his facility was such that he could paint in
Borsippa. It contains the measurements of
this country.
(4) With the exception of a small number, the number, names, and orientation of the
the courts and the sanctuary of the temple,
any manner, as specimens of his work here
abundantly prove.
Most of them are mostly from the Duke of Buccleuch’s Collec different doors and chapels, and also of six
marked by that broad, free handling tion, shown at the R. A. Old Masters 1879,
which corresponds to the examples to be seen
out of the seven stories or stages of the
no public exhibition of portrait miniatures famous ziggurat or step-pyramid celebrated
in the Wallace and Ashmolean Collections.
has been held in London since 1865. (the by Herodotus and Strabo. The description
They differ toto coelo from the portrait Burlington Club Exhibition of 1889 being a
of the sixth story is missing, as noted by
of the actor Préville (758), painted on a private show).
snuff-box belonging to M. Flameng. The
(5) The time seems ripe for a British municated by Father Scheil to the Académie
George Smith, which proves the tablet com-
likeness of this favourite actor is most Exhibition to be held in London in the near
des Inscriptions to be the same
as that
minutely and carefully finished, and is of future, say, in the summer of 1913.
formerly seen by our countryman.
a very different character from the rest of (6) To such an Exhibition, held under
Fragonard's work in miniature.
proper auspices, and with due precautions
MR. STEPHEN LANGDON, Reader in Assy-
A group of artists other than the for safety, contributions may confidently be riology at Oxford, has found among the
tablets from Nippur studied by him at the
French School may here be noticed, viz. , expected from owners who have been un-
Füger, Goya, Fendi, and Quaglia, a quartet
of willing to send their valuable collections Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople
abroad.
a tablet containing a whole section of the
painters who show, it must be owned, very
different powers and styles of work.
(7) Besides the pleasure such an Exhibi- Code of Hammurabi, which purports to
Ferdinand
have been revised and transcribed by
tion would afford to the public, it should
Quaglia, the Italian artist,
the scribe Bel-ibni in the reign of Ham-
painted many portraits of the Empress (8) Raise the standard of miniature murabi's son and successor, Samsu - iluna.
Joséphine. There is in this Exhibition one painting, in this country; and last, but not He gathers from this that the Code shortly
of her (1041, belonging to M. E. Stern). His least, might
after its enactment was often copied, and
work may be seen in the Wallace Collection (9) Pave the way for the formation of a the examples sent to many places in the
in the shape of another portrait of the National Collection of Miniatures, to the empire, in order that no Babylonian should
Impératrice, painted long before great enjoyment and profit of succeeding be able to plead ignorance of the law.
Waterloo.
generations.
J, J. FOSTER, AFTER an interval of sixty-three years
A woman's portrait here, from the Doistau
the Cambrian Archäological Association
Collection, is dated 1826. But Quaglia is
will this year hold its Annual Meeting at
generally supposed to have died a year
before
Cardiff, the week selected being that of
that,
July 22nd to 27th.
a
as
a
1
-


## p. 663 (#501) ############################################

No. 4415, JUNE 8, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
663
London Trio, 3 30, Æolian Hall
Elena Gerhardt's Recital, 8. 15, Queen's Hall.
Frederick Morley's Pianoforte Recital, 8. 15, Bechstein Hall.
Charles Anthony's Pianoforte Recital, 8. 30, Æolian Hall.
WED.
Alex under Raab's Pianoforte Recital, 3, Queen's fall.
Olenine d'Alheim's Vocal Recital, 3. 15, Bechstein Hall.
Steinway Hall.
Marion Dykes &picer's Vocal Recital, 3. 16, Æolian Hall.
Bronislaw Huberman's Violin Recital, 8. 15, Queen's Hall.
Eva Liesmann's Vocul Recital, 8. 15, Bechstein Hall.
Miss D'Almayne's Vocal Recital, 9. 30, Æolian Hall.
THURS. Paul Kochanski's Orchestral Concert, 3, Queen's Hall.
Wladimir Cernikoff s Pianoforte Recital, 3. 15, Æolian Hall.
Mario Lorenzi's Harp Recital, 3. 15, Broadwood's.
Robert Lortut's Pianoforte Recital, 3. 15. Bechstein Hall.
South Hampstead Orchestral Concert, 8. 15, Queen's Hall.
Bechstein Hall.
FRI. Tina Lerner's Pianoforte Recital, 3. 15, Polian Hall.
Nordica's Orchestral Concert, 3. 15, Queen's Hall.
Maggie Teyte's Vocal Recital. 3. 15, Bechstein Hall.
Frederick Stock and Victor Watson's Recital, 8. 15, Steinway
Hall.
ווווווווון
11111
Hall.
Rodolfa Lhombino and Heinrich Fiedler's Recital, 8. 30,
Bechstein Hall.
Clark Butt and Kenderley Rumford's Concert, 3, Royal
Albert Hall.
Mengelberg-Schelling Concert, 3, Queen's Hall.
Leila Doubleday and Arthur Alexander's Recital, 3. 15,
Eolian Ball
Il 11
Fanny Davies and Pablo Casals's Concert, 8. 15, Æolian Hall.
this opera is remarkable, for though it is
TUES. Paulo Gruppe's 'Cello Recital, 3. 15, Bechstein Hall.
ably written, the style of the music differs
MUSIC
from that in vogue at the present day.
SIGNOR BUSONI gave an orchestral concert R. and E. Laparra's Pianoforte and Violin Recital, 3. 15,
at Queen's Hall on Wednesday evening,
WOLF-FERRARI'S ‘I GIOJELLI DELLA The first part of the programme included
MADONNA. '
Beethoven's ' Emperor Concerto and Liszt's
‘Dies Iræ' Paraphrase, the accompani.
WOLF-FERRARI was born at Venice in
ments to which were played by the Queen's
1876, and his first two operas were produced
Helen Sealy's Evening Concert, 8. 15, Æolian Hall,
Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood's
in that city. Afterwards he went to Munich direction, The second part of the pro-
Mary, Jocelyn and Frank Gleeson's Vocal Recital, 8. 30.
and studied with Rheinberger. There he gramme included Mozart's Overture to
produced ‘Die neugierigen Frauen. ' His
Die Entführung aus dem Serail,' to which
latest opera, 'I Giojelli della Madonna,' pro- Signor Busoni has added a short and
duced last year in America, was given at effective coda, as in Mozart's score it leads
Gervase Elwes and Campbell McInnes's Recital, 8. 30, Æolian
Covent Garden on Thursday in last week without break into the opening scene. The
for the first time.
pianist's 'Berceuse Élégiaque for orchestra Sat.
Wolf-Ferrari is only thirty-six years old.
proved somewhat artificial in its harmonies,
It is, therefore, not surprising to find his
yet the coda was impressive. Last in the
music showing the influence of Wagner,
his
programme came Turandot' Suite.
Jane Gair's Vocal Recital, 8, Bechstein Hall.
especially in the dramatic scene between
Its earlier numbers are very characteristic,
Gennaro and Maliella in the second act.
but, like most incidental music-it was
In the first act, with its laughing, bustling originally written to Gozzi's comedy
crowd, and the solemn procession and singing Turandot'-it is not heard to best advan.
of the chorus, the composer shows that his tage in the concert-room. These works were
DRAMA
studies with Rheinberger enabled him to ably conducted by the composer.
present striking contrasts with considerable
effect; for the chanting of the choir in LAST SATURDAY AFTERNOON Sir Henry J.
Gregorian melodies accentuated the contrast Wood gave a Hamlet concert in the
THE IRISH PLAYERS.
between the sacred and the secular music. Empress Hall, at the Earl's Court Exhibition. The presence of a massed and enthusiastic
This first act achieved a legitimate success.
In the second act, to which reference has Symphonic Poem 'Hamlet,' but Ramann, his audience at the Court Theatre on Monday
been made, the music was appropriate, biographer, concluded, from a note on the night, at the opening of the season of the
yet, owing to the Wagnerian influence, it manuscript score, that it was intended as a Abbey Theatre Company, was ample
did not create strong interest. Nor was it Prelude for a performance at Weimar of testimony that these original players
worked up, as in the first act, to an impres- Shakespeare's play. The music is interest- have at length reached the inner citadel
sive climax.
ing, though naturally sombre, with the of favour in London drama. For that
In the third act there was clever music,
exception of a short section intended, no
but here again the close was unsatisfactory. doubt, for Ophelia. As Prelude to the play for nothing can
be more damaging to their
reason it behoves them to be circumspect,
The music was not powerful enough to it would create the right atmosphere, but
counteract the realism of Gennaro's death.
as a concert piece it is not effective. Another exquisite art than the popularity of
Throughout the opera Neapolitan folk: number in the programme was ' L'Enterre- London playgoers-somewhat clamorous,
melodies were introduced for the purpose of ment d'Ophélie, by Bourgault Ducoudray, aggressive, and too eagerly responsive
local colour; but only in a few instances an emotional and delicately scored piece, to note the finer shades of dramatic repre-
did they prove characteristic. The aim of given for the first time in England.
the librettists, C. Zangerini and E. Golisciani,
sentation. Appropriately enough, they
so it seems to us, was to arrange a series of The sudden death is announced in his inaugurated their programme with Mr.
sensational tableaux rather than to present 61st year of Jan Blockx, a Flemish composer W. B. Yeats’s ‘Kathleen Ni Houlihan'
a story of strong and developing human whose works were successful not only in his and Synge's 'The Playboy of the Western
interest. Maliella, a kind of Carmen, is the native city Antwerp, but also in Belgium and World,' which threw certain ferocious
most striking character.
in France. His Herbergprinses,' produced Philistines of America into an anguish
The impersonation of Maliella by Madame in 1896, was his first work for the stage, of deprecation and gave the play itself
Edvina was excellent, though her voice is though previously he had written many the subtlest form
of
advertisement.
not quite suited to the part. Signor Marti- vocal and instrumental works. Another
nelli as Gennaro sang well
, but his rôle did successful opera of his was . La Fiancée de la It is because the present critic has seen
not enable him fully to display either his Mer,' produced two years later.
and delighted in The Playboy' many
histrionic or his vocal powers. The per-
times that it is incumbent upon him to
formance, under the direction of Signor
ACCORDING to Le Ménestrel, a complete warn its interpreters against accepting
Campanini, was excellent, and the staging of libretto of “King Lear' in Verdi's hand-
the piece deserves all praise.
writing has been discovered among his any other standard of valuation than that
An English version of the libretto has papers. This confirms the report that he they themselves revealed when first it was
acted in London. "The Playboy
intended to write an opera on that subject.
been made by Mr. Claude Aveling.
' is
by no means the simple “comedy
HERR SIEGFRIED WAGNER, whose opera that the majority of London critics would
Banadietrich' has just been produced at have us believe. Its strands are woven
Musical Gossip.
Vienna, has stated that there will be no
of both comedy and tragedy, patterned
festival performances at Bayreuth in 1913. into an harmonious shapeliness upon a
MANY opera-goers regard Rossini's “Il BERTHOLD LITZMANN's biography of background of grim actuality, shot through
Barbiere ' merely as an amusing opera, and Madame Schumann has been translated at the same time, for all its sternness,
the Lesson scene with a prima donna from the fourth German edition by Miss with a radiant and transfiguring imagina-
of note as most enjoyable ; but there is Grace Hadow, and will. shortly be pub- tion. It is satire, poetry, realism, and high
genius in the bright, spontaneous music; lished by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. , with
moreover, the agreement between tone and an Introduction by Dr. W. H. Hadow. exuberant humour poured into and fused
word is complete. The performance last The book will be in two volumes, with in the alembic of art. Only so puissant
Saturday evening, at Covent Garden with portraits and other illustrations.
a dramatist as Synge could have sharpened
Madame Tetrazzini as the Rosina was
and finished such heterogeneity into
brilliant. Both Messrs. McCormack and
dramatic verisimilitude. For, however
Sammarco as the Count and Figaro sang
much the critics may differentiate between
well, though their acting was more or less
the transcendent prose - poetry of The
formal.
Playboy' and its dramatic machinery,
On the following Monday 'Samson et
Dalila' was given, the two chief rôles
the two are inseparable.
being taken by M. Paul Franz and Madame
London Symphony Orchestra, 8. Queen's Hall.
Kirkby Lunn. The latter was at her
The Playboy of the Western World. By J, M. .
best.
Synge.
M. Franz, both in voice and appear.
Recital. 8. 15. Ateinway Hall.
ance, is an ideal Samson. The success of
Kathleen Ni Houlihan. By W.