5 MARCH 1864, Page 21

Vatican Sculptures Briefly Explained. By Robert Macpherson, of Rome. (Chapman

and Hall.)—A beautifully printed pocket volume of outlines of the principal sculptures of the Vatican. The author took photographs of the statues, then made a tracing from them, and reduced the tracings to their present size by photography. They were then carefully re-drawn, and the woodcuts resulting therefrom are certainly good. The descriptive notices are admirably to the point and concise. The book is equally useful to art students who cannot visit Rome, and as a protection against a short memory to those who have left it.