Shorter Notices
Venice : An Aspect of Art. By Adrian Stokes. (Faber and Faber. 10s. 6d.)
LOVERS of art know that a book by Mr. Adrian Stokes will be worth reading, for he is no conventional art critic using well-worn phrases and expressing conventional opinions, nor is he one of those who fall ready victims to every new aesthetic theory or aesthetic pro- paganda. On the contrary, the danger is that Mr. Stokes's descrip- tion of his Qwn sensibility, of what he finds when confronted with a picture or a building may be too personal and idiosyncratic for many readers. But this new book on Venice, superbly illustrated with photographs chosen with exquisite taste, will give intense pleasure to all who have a true sensuous and intellectual apprecia- tion of art. In Part II there is a detailed appreciation of Giorgione's famous picture The Tempest, which rivals Mr. W. J. Turner's poem about this painting in Songs and Incantations, and proves, incidentally, that Mr. Stokes's interpretation is not purely personal but has a basis of truth, since it is hardly likely that either writer was aware of the other's reactions to a picture that, in spite of its fame, has only once been exhibited in England.
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