ART IN SCOTLAND
The Arts of Scotland. By John Tonge. (Kegan Paul. 3s. 6d.)
THERE is comparatively little in Scottish art that can rely for its appeal on its looks alone. The fifth-century Burghead slab, incised with a bull, is impressive even if we know nothing about the symbolism of early Christianity in Scotland; but in the inain it is true that half the appeal of Scottish works of art depends upon our being interested in the Scottish people and their history. There is nothing extraordinary, as pictures, about George Jamesone's portraits Lord Spynie or Marquis of Huntly; but as comments on the religious and political outlook of the seventeenth-century Scot they are most enlightening. Raeburn's children, perhaps, can be enjoyed without further question; but his Highland chiefs and Edin- burgh notabilities are most interesting when they are con- sidered as pictures or men of a particular country at a particular time.
Mr. John Tonge's excellent guide gives us a good deal of the social, economic, religious, and political background which is necessary to an appreciation of Scottish art. His book was written specially for the Burlington House Exhibition; there are chapters on architecture, sculpture, metal-work and furni- ture, but the main part is devoted to painting, with a short account of every artist of any value. (Let us hope that it was exigencies of space that made Mr. Tonge blunder into such a statement as that " Runciman appears to have been attracted to Macpherson's work because it foreshadowed the Romantic Revival.") The book is bound at times to read a little like a catalogue, with the catalogue's way of making each item seem of equal importance; but this is only a superficial impression, and Mr. Tonge's comments on Jamesone, the Runcimans, John Brown and Raeburn show judgement, sensi- bility, and the capacity to distinguish historical importance from aesthetic excellence. There are not many verdicts to quarrel with, except perhaps his opinion of Wilkie, 12 whose pictures Mr. Tonge says that, for the most part, the/ have only the aesthetic merit of masterly chiaroscuro." No doubt Wilkie painted to please his patrons and shock nobody; no doubt the success of his work was responsible for many of the worst nineteenth-century story-pictures; yet, in face of paint- ings like The Bride's Toilet and The Card-Players we must admit a solidity, a sense of design and spacing, a skill in managing light and shade, a sensibility to colour, that could only be matched by the contemporary French painters. In George IV Receiving the Keys of Holyrood Scottish national sentiment for once finds adequate expression in terms of visual art; and some of the sketches at Burlington House help us to understand Delacroix' enthusiasm —ses ebauches et ses esquisses sont au dessus de sous les eloges.
The latest rooms at Burlington House are haunted by the ghosts not of the dead, but of those who are disqualified by being alive. Mr. Tonge, free from such restrictions, can treat George Henry along with the rest of the Glasgow School, Fergusson and Gillies along with Peploe and Hunter. He is appreciative without ever making exaggerated patriotic claims; he writes out of a wide knowledge of European art, and does not ever judge by parochial standards; and his handbook can
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