ART IN ALSACE-LORRAINE.*'

You, Phillis, who have never learned to read, are the mistress of MOST people (at least in England) will read this large and fully- your own mind,—keep it clear,—get information and remember illustrated volume for its Art-history, and care very little for the it,—learn by hearing and watching." Our authors answer their political theory, the exposition of which is not the least part of own question by making MISS Phillis sally forth with a big dog the author's design in writing it. We will not say much of this for her only companion, into the middle of St. Giles's, at four political theory, as our interest in the book is purely artistic, but o'clock on the first morning of her emancipation ; ask a young a notice of it would not be complete without a slight mention of man to luncheon, tete-a-tete, and call him " Jack," at their first in-

this feature. M. Menard's object is to prove, by means of the history of the Arts in Alsace and Lorraine, that though German terview ; accompany him alone in excursions to the Tower and is the prevailing language in Alsace, the artistic aptitudes of the he tries to kiss her. She turns the head of every man till population prove that the Gallo-Roman element in the race was not she meets, and excites the jealousy or love of every woman, superseded by the German (the language being a "fait purement shining out in her downrightness and graceful simplicity, politique") because " la sterilite la plus absolue se fait remarquer in contrast to their conventionalisms ; and so she goes on dana la partie purement Teutone" of Europe. "En considerant in in her own way, till the completion of her education by a happy carte, on se convaincra que le developpement artistique de l'Europe moderns n'a guere &passe le Rhin et le Danube, qui formaient union with Jack, her first acquaintance. They save just enough precisement lee limites de I'Empire Romain." We will not stop to able, too, that however little effect the Teutons may have pro- Roman element to be strong, we find hardly any important archi- tectural remains, and no Art at all before the Renaissance —a (and German) Alsace.

begins with a general description of the state of the ry a unequal in quality, of buildings and works of art referred to in the text. To follow and an Abbot of Wissemburg, before the twelfth century, coins attributed to a certain Herrade, Abbess of Hohenburg, and daughter of a Suabian noble, who is described as a wonder of learning and piety. The work is a religions one, but includes a number of " moralised" classical subjects, so that we have in the specimens before us Biblical subjects side by side with the Muses, Apollo, and Ulysses. The style is Byzantine, but the vigour of expression and decorative grace of composition are remarkable. Figures 5 and 12 are especially fine, the former representing the Woman from the Apocalypse, clothed with the sun, and standing on the moon, with the angel receiving her new-born child, and the dragon, whose tail brushes down the stars, at her feet; the latter, Christ in glory, surrounded by angels and adored by saints. One can imagine what the magnificent effect of these must have been, with all the advantages of gold, splendid colour, and fine workmanship, and it is sad to think that the Hortus Deliciarum, filled as it was with these specimens of early art, was lost for ever, in the destruction of the Strasburg Museum, during the bombardment in the late war. M. Menard is constantly referring to this unhappy destruction, as if it bad been intentional on the part of the Germans, who, on the contrary, requested the town authorities to remove or protect the treasures of the Museum. They did not, or could not do so, but the besiegers can hardly in fair- ness be reproached with the destruction of an exposed build- ing, though all the art-treasures in the world had been collected in it ; least of all should those reproaches come from the nation who, in 1849, bombarded Rome itself, in the most unjust war ever waged. We next come to a series of interesting plates from the sculptures of Strasburg Cathedral, accompanying the accounts of the various architects of that wonderful building, from Hermann Auriga and Erwin de Steinbach, the designers of the choir and the facade, to Jean Hultz, who raised the )(lecke of the tower. The prin- ciples of architecture were disseminated by Guilds, which probably gathered their inspiration in all countries, especially in days when nations were not defined as now. Amongst the early sculptors we find a woman, Sabine or Savine, the daughter of an architect, perhaps Auriga. Figs. 16 and 17 represent the magnificent figures of the " church " and the "synagogue," (the old Law and the new) from the south doorway. Fig. 20 is the portrait of Humbert de Marbourg, the architect of St. Martin of Colmar, found in a doorway of that church. A wise- looking, beardless man, he sits under his little canopy, with the implements of his art on his knees, half-way up the curve of his own fine archway. Erwin de Steinbach, the great architect of the facade, gives our author occasion for more anti- Teutonic controversy, as he is not satisfied with proving Stein- bach to be Alsatian (and therefore French), but says he was not Steinbach at all, but Pierrefont. Fig. 23, the beautiful fifteenth- century portail St. Laurent, closes the chapter on Gothic archi- tecture. In "La Statuaire Monumentale," we have a fine tympanum full of subjects from the life of Christ ; and some grand prophets and patriarchs, single figures, from the central portal. Then follow specimens of the grotesque imagery of sculpture, to which later times have attached elaborate morals. Of painted windows, in which the cathedral is rich, there are two specimens, containing the figures of St. Sylvestre and Henry the Fowler. No early paintings remain, though some were discovered in 1824.

We commence the Renaissance with some medals, and then come to an "Annunciation," by Martin Schongauer, the greatest name of Alsace, at least in painting. A pupil of Van der Weyden, and follower of the school of Van Eyck, his works show the painstaking realism characteristic of those masters. There are several copies of his original engravings,—one, a grotesque "Temptation of St. Anthony," said to have been copied by Michael Angelo in his student days ; another, a charming "St. Agnes" (etched), is one of the best things in the book. Passing over several Strasburg artists and engravers, we arrive at the eighteenth century, and meet with no more works of really high art,—here, any more than elsewhere in Europe at this period. The Alsatian potteries and faience designers were celebrated, and would have been more successful had it not been for the jealousy of the French manufacturers in the days of Louis XV. There are several engravings from the works of Loutherbourg, an artist well known in England. Then follows a long series of short notices of artists and engravers, of more or less distinction, with illustrations from their works. Amongst contemporary artists a vigorous equestrian statue of Vercingetorix, and a monument to Martin Schongauer, in a charming old cloister at Colmar, are by Bartholdi, the sculptor (we believe) engaged on the gigantic Franco-American monument

at the present day. Landscapes and pictures of peasant life are numerous. M. Menard is so proud of Dore as an Alsatian that he insinuates that, owing to the admiration of England, " it y a is Londres une galerie exclusivement consacre aux ouvrages de cet artiste, et qui porte le nom de Dore Gallery." We are sorry to- say there is, and would it were not so, except that perhaps it presents a good example of what to avoid.

In the division of topography we have some quaint old prints of the town of Strasburg, and more views of the cathedral, with its history retold ; some remarkable churches, notably those of Haslach, Marmoutier, and Rosheim ; and some fine ruins of castles. In the museum at Colmar is a celebrated " Vierge aux Roses," by Schongauer, here represented by a poor etching ; and more works by the same master, besides other pictures and antiquities. The churches of Mulhausen and Than are worthy of notice.

When we come to Lorraine, the only remains of medieval art are a chalice, patena, and comb of St. Goslin, Bishop of Toul, in 962. The most interesting monuments of the Renaissance are the ducal palace of Nancy and the sculptures of Ligier Richier ; this latter is decidedly a great sculptor, and his " entombment" at St. 31iihiel, even judging by the bad etching of it in this book, seems almost to justify M. Menard's saying, that "la sculpture Chretienne ne s'est jamais elevee plus haut que le sepulcre de St. Mihiel." These are bold words, when we think of Michel Angelo, not to mention more Italians. We come upon more works of Ligier Richier, and all are remarkable. Foremost in the

seventeenth century stand the works of Callot, but this admirable artist in black-and-white is too well known to require that we should dwell on him. In the account of him it is amusing to find that he ran away at the age of twelve and journeyed with a party of gipsiea to Italy, in his eagerness to study art, and was twice brought back by indignant relations before he was allowed to follow the road nature had marked out for him. There are a good number of engravings and fac-similes of the works of Claude Gellee, the Lorrainer par excellence, but of him, too, we need not speak. Amongst the other sculptors, painters, and faience manufacturers of this century there is little worthy of special notice, though the plates are not without interest.

The most noteworthy plates in the eighteenth century are the iron-work " grilles " and balustrades of Lamour, which decorate the Place Stanislas of Nancy and several public buildings in that town. The work is fine in design and effect, and the account of Lamour shows us a sort of Caleb Garth of iron-work, who thought

there was nothing finer in the world than doing good work as a serrurier, and devoted his life to ornamenting his native town.

The remarks quoted from his treatise on iron-work are interest- ing, as being the expression of the thoughts on work of a man who was, above all, a thorough workman.

There are a number of good landscapes amongst the works of contemporary artists, and a portrait of Napoleon at Mal- maison by Isabey. An anecdote is related a propos of this

artist which will much amuse English readers :—

" En 1815, Isabey repo la mission delicate de representer ensemble. lea Plenipotentiaires rennin an Congres de Vienne. La Revue Britannique nom; rev'ele sur ce sujet une anecdote curious° qui montre Is position difecile on se trouvait Tartiste: ' Monsieur,' IM dit Lord Wellington, it me taut Is premiere place dans votre tableau,—c'est la mienne, et j'insiste a cet egard.' D'un entre cote, Talleyrand lui dit, tout bas l'oreille, Dana votre interet, comme le mien, je volts engage de faire de moi Is premier personage de votre tableau, ou & m'omettre

fait ; mon absence sera remarquee.'"

Our artist got out of the difficulty by making Wellington coming in at the door, and Talleyrand in the centre of the picture. Only a Frenchman could have invented such an anecdote of Wellington, and only a Frenchman would seriously repeat it. In the topography we begin with Nancy, the chief points of which are the Place Stanislas, before mentioned, and the Museum, which contains a fair collection of antiquities, pictures ancient

and modern, and some tapestries belonging to Charles the Bold of Burgundy, which present a quaint old "morality" on the subject of moderation in meals. The cathedrals of Toul and Metz are the only fine architectural monuments of Lorraine, and of these the latter is by far the largest and finest. Commenced in the twelfth century, and carried on in various styles till 1519, it has suffered considerably during the many wars that have gone on round it, and still more from the erection of a frightful eighteenth-century monstrosity by Louis XV. in front of the facade. Though our author does not mention the fact, the Emperor William has undertaken the destruction of this and other ob- structive buildings, so that we may hope it will be restored to its original grandeur and preserved by the Germans. The Museum

of Metz is not specially remarkable. It contains a charming Corot, represented here by an engraving, noteworthy as the first picture sold by the artist after so long a period of ill-success that when, with a face half-glad, half-sorry, he told his friend Troyon of the sale, he added, " J'avais la collection" (of his own works) " complete ; la voilk depareillee ! "

It is of little consequence that the book does not seem quite to support the author's theory politically. Though we would not pin our faith on M. Menard's accuracy, the greater part of the hook is interesting, and with its illustrations will reward study.