LABARTE'S AB.T HANDBOOK..
The translator's preface describes this ample volume as treating of set applied to the objects of domestic life; a definition which may be so- cepted, but in a broad sense, as the panoply of war and the para- phernalia of the church are included more or less fully. " It was origin- ally written as an introduction to a descriptive catalogue of the Debruges Dumenil Collection, of which M. Jules Labarte, its accomplished author, was co-inheritor" ; and is a work of reputation and authority in France. For the English reader it may be termed the beat general book of refer- ence, at once full and rapid, with which he can prepare himself for a visit to such a collection as the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House.
The plan of the book combines an historical sketch of the several arts from an early period of the Christian sera down to the eighteenth cen- tury, where the art's existence extends so far, with technical and critical particulars. It steers a reasonable middle course between art on the one hand and archseology or historic narrative on the other; not always so de- cisive in its judgments and sympathies as quite to satisfy the reader whose own opinions on the subject are formed, but ever ready to furnish him with accurate knowledge and enlarged material for study. In this way M. Labarte passes under review successively sculpture in its various branches falling within the scope of his purpose, painting and caligraphy, engraving, enamels, which he treats with considerable fulness, damascene work, goldsmith's work, ceramic (or, as the translator has it, keramic) art, glass, armour, lock-smithery, clock-work, ecclesiastical and domestic furniture, and, in briefer mode, Oriental art. Interspersed with the more technical matter, short but agreeable biographical summaries occur every now and then ; as in the cases of Cellini, Palissy, and &etcher ; and the development of the art-history often includes particulars of a more gene- ral bearing. Such is this glimpse into the despotism of Venetian legis- lation.
" At the end of the fifteenth century, or rather in the first years of the
sixteenth, the Venetian glassmakers distinguished themselves by a new in- vention,—that of vases enriched with filagrees of glass, either white or co- loured, which twisted themselves into a thousand varied patterns, and ap- peared as if encrusted in the middle of the paste of the colourless and trans- parent crystal. This invention, which, while it enriched the vases with an indestructible ornamentation, preserved at the same time their light and graceful forms, gave a new impulse to the manufactories of glass ware, and caused their beautiful productions to be even more sought after by every na- tion of Europe. Accordingly, the Venetian Government used every possible precaution to prevent the secret of this new manufacture from being disco- vered, or Venetian workmen from carrying away this branch of industry to other nations.
"Already, in the thirteenth century, a decree of the Great Council had prohibited the exportation, without the authority of the state, of the princi- pal materials used in the composition of glass. On the 13th of February 1490, the superintendence of the manufactories of Murano was intrusted to the chief of the Council of Ten; and, on the 27th of October 1547, the Coun- cil reserved to itself the care of watching over the manufactories, to prevent the art of glassmaking from being carried abroad. Yet all these precautions did not appear to have been sufficient ; and the Inquisition of State, in the 26th article of its statutes, announced the following decision—' If a work- man transport his art into a foreign country, to the injury of the republic, a message shall be sent to him to return. H he does not obey, the persona
most nearly related to him shall be put into prison If, notwithstand- ing the imprisonment of his relatives, he persist in remaining abroad, an emissary shall be commissioned to put him to death.' IL Dare, who, in his
• Histoire de in Republique de Venise,' has given us the text of this decree, which he had copied from the archives of the republic, adds that, in a docu- ment deposited in the archives of foreign affairs, two instances are recorded of the execution of this punishment on some workmen whom the Emperor Leopold had enticed into his states. "Resolutions of the Great Council, of the 22d of March 1705 and the 13th of April 1762, confirmed the measures previously taken, and added new rigours to the ancient laws, not only against the workmen who should establish themselves in foreign countries, but also against those who should. divulge the secrete of the manufacture."
Of the 204 wood-cuts which illustrate this work, some are reproduced
from the French edition, others from liuglees Handbook, previously published by Mr. Murray ; others again, representing objects from the Londesborough and Bernal collections, &c., appear to be original. Dis- agreeable as they are, the examples which not unfrequently appear of base styles must be pardoned, as elucidating the subject ; but the refer- ences in the text are sometimes inexcusably careless. Thus, we are referred from reading of saddle-painting in the twelfth century to an illustration of it in the sixteenth ; from a period of the Cologne school of painting in which "the Byzantine school reigned paramount" to a pic- ture in a highly advanced stage of Gothic ; from embroidery in the fifteenth century to mosaic in the eighth ; and from " the Greeks of the Lower Empire" to a masterpiece of Giotto.
Generally, however, the editing and translation are extremely careful
Technical terms are often adopted from the French, but the translating lady sticks to plain English in the narrative. The terms in question moreover are diligently explained in notes ; foreign quotations and proper names are actually correct as a rule ; and three indices—one. general, one of proper names, and one, with brief descriptions, of the engravings— render the information in the volume more accessible. It is curious to note that the table of the abbreviations used with the proper names in- cludes no abbreviation for "English," though there is one for so unart- istic a people as the " Swedish" ; so little was art practised by natives of England in the middle ages, and so tardy has the French mind bean in discovering that we have ceased by this time to be destitute in quite the same degree.
• Handbook of the Arts of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as applied to the Decoration of Furniture, Arms, Jewels, &c., Re. Translated from the French of M. Jules Labarte. With Notes, Re. Copiously Illustrated. Published by Murray.
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