fication of an article the author contributed to the Magazine
of Art, and which was noticed in these columns. The object of the book is to prove that the traditional face of our Lord goes back to the earlier times, and that no period of the Christian era was without it. The whole argument really may be said to rest on some glass paten:: found in the catacombs. These paters have sometimes engraved on them the likeness as we know it. Tertullian, writing in the second century, is said to refer to these. This would place the likeness very far back. Another point is that portraiture was common over the Roman world at the time of our Lord. Josephus mentions how the portraits of Mariamza and her brother were painted in Syria and sent to Anthony in Egypt. There is a want of preciseness of statement in the book which often makes it difficult to follow the chain of facts. It does not therefore follow that the deductions are incorrect, but the author would have been more convincing if he had been more definite in his statements.
It is with great pleasure that we notice the excellent Catalogue of the Art Gallery of the City of Birmingham. This catalogue has more than eighty pages, contains over two hundred and fifty entries, has two well-executed views of the galleries, and in it the more important painters and pictures are described adequately and intelligently. All this is to be bought for one penny, and the catalogue is produced at no loss to the Gallery. It is greatly to be hoped that the South Kensington Museum and the National Gallery will imitate so good an example. The official catalogue of the latter, which is exceedingly dry and uninforming, might well be supplemented by a penny one like this excellent example from Birmingham.
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