10 SEPTEMBER 1870, Page 21

Specimens of the Drawings of Ten Masters. (Macmillan.)—This very handsome

volume contains twenty reproductions of drawings contained in the Royal collection at Windsor, executed by the photographic pro- cess invented by Mr. Ernest Edwards, a process in which carbon is employed, and which has, as many of our readers will be aware, the signal merit of giving permanency to the work, permanency which, even more than colour, the only victory remaining to be achieved, has been the great need of photography. The descriptive text has been furnished by Mr. B. B. Woodward, late Royal librarian, a man of learning, and an accomplished critic of art, whom, unhappily, the world lost since—we are not sure whether it was not before—this volume was published. About the drawings themselves it is not within our province to speak. The drawing of a great master is, in some respects, of greater interest than his finished work. Mr. Woodward compares them respectively to familiar letters and regular literary work, and says, very truly, that they tell us so much of the man's power because "they bring us so close to the artist himself." Here we have specimens of Michael Angelo, Raphael ; Leonardo da Vinci, two of whose beads, "Judas Iscariot" and another simply named "a study," are very remarkable; Julio Romano, Holbein, &c.