A Stained Glass Tour in Italy. By Charles Hitchcock Sherrill.
(John Lane. 7s. 6d. net.)—The delightful photo- graphs of interiors of Italian churches which illustrate Mr. Sherrill's book are in themselves enough to attract many purchasers. But the book is by no means unworthy of the pictures. Mr. Sherrill passes through a score of the northern Italian towns, giving pleasant descriptions of them, and talking especially of their stained glass. In an introduction he gives some historical and technical information upon the making of glass in Italy, and so prepares the reader for a better understanding of what follows. There is some scarcity of stained glass in Italy, and though much has no doubt perished through the agencies of war and time, the true explanation of the fact., according to Mr. Sherrill, is a different one. " The real reason," he says, " for the comparative paucity of stained glass in Italy is the greater interest there displayed in painting church interiors in fresco. Coloured glass, by reducing the amount of light, tended to obscure the sacred stories pictured on the walls, and as Italy is par excellence the home of fresco-painting, stained glass was never so widely used there as in countries where the walls were decorated less with colour than with sculpture." There can be no doubt, however, as to the beauty of such Italian stained glass as exists, and Mr. Sherrill has done much to encourage an appreciation of it.
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