EARLY CHRISTIAN ART: THE ARUNDEL SOCIETY. MISS TWINING.
The sixth year's issue of the Arundel Society consists of eight en- gravings on wood, in continuation of the series from Giotto's Frescoes in the Arena Chapel at Padua. On previous occasions we paid our tribute to the never-surpassed greatness of the painter, and the good service ren- dered by the Society in this effort, and we need not repeat what was then said. The present set begins with the Salutation, and then enters upon the series of the Life of Christ from the Nativity to the Baptism. With it appears the second portion of Mr. Ruskin's illustrative notice ; limited now to a brief suggestive comment on each of the accompanying designs.
Of these the most beautiful is the first,-the Salutation; of which a water-colour-somewhat "improved" in drawing, as one may gather from the wood-cut-is included in Mr. West's series at the Crystal Pa- lace. Nothing can exceed the noble suavity, the gracious sacredness of this group. The Nativity brings the Announcement to the shepherds into the same composition with the Virgin and her Child and the ponder- ing St. Joseph. The Wise Men's Offering Mr. Ruskin numbers among "the slips or shortcomings of great masters" : we think, however, that the dignity and beauty of the standing angel might claim note as well as the blowzy Madonna and toy-shop camels. The Presentation in the Temple is pointed out as noticeable for the naturalistic spirit which it displays, and for the thoughtful introduction of an angel-apparently the Angel of Death, come that Simeon may "depart in peace." The Flight into Egypt, distinguished by a chaste and beautiful Madonna, presents some figures walking behind her ; whose meaning, to us by no means ob- vious, Mr. Ruskin does not try to clear up. Neither, while ascribing the generally impassive treatment of the Massacre of the Innocents to a possibly abstract intention, does he allude to the three male figures at the left hand, who take no share in the action, but appear troubled at the bloody sight. One may perhaps imagine them to stand for the three wise men, whose withdrawal incited Herod to the massacre, or more likely for the fathers of Israel, horror-struck, yet unresisting : on either assumption, their presence would go far to confirm the idea of an abstract treatment. The kind of grin of agony upon the mothers faces is a peculiarity of which this is not the sole example in Giotto. The young Christ in the Temple, still more justly than the Wise Men's Offering, is pronounced a failure. The last subject, the Baptism, contains much deserving of admiration ; although Mr. Ruskin, ever sympathetic but never hoodwinked by his sympathy, truthfully points out that its devotional significance is not great, The annual report of the Society's Council, which has removed to per- manent quarters at No. 24 Old Bond. Street, states that Mr. W. 0. Wil- liams, the artist employed to make the -copies from the Arena Chapel, has completed his task. "The only work from the hand of Giotto which he left uncopied is the large fresco of the Last Judgment, on the Western wall. This the Council thought it right to omit ; not from any doubt of its interest or merit, but partly because the expense of producing so vast a work would exhaust the income of the Society for one if not two years after completing the present series, and partly because Giotto's treatment of the subject, however appropriate to mediaeval feeling and belief, would probably fail of the desired solemnity in the eyes of the present age." We do not see much force in the second of the reasons assigned. The Council add, that "it is not improbable that same other work, of a some- what different character, may before long be commenced, and carried on conjointly with the publication of the Arena Chapel."
With the name of the Arundel Society we have coupled in our heading that of Miss Twining, the authoress of " Symbols and Emblems of Early and Mediaeval Christian Art " ; a new contribution from whom to the same cause* now lies before us. This is a volume of very tasteful appear- ance ; illustrating, by juxtaposition of designs chiefly of the medimval times, the connexion between Old Testament types and New Testament antitypes. The examples are selected in great measure from the Biblia Pauperum, the earliest example of wood-engraving, from the Speculum Humana) Salvationis, also of the fifteenth century, and a Bible of the thir- teenth in the British Museum ; some from the Catacombs, others from the sixteenth and even early seventeenth centuries. Miss Twining has herself lithographed them in outline, without any elaboration, but with fidelity sufficient to preserve the thought, quaint manner, and often earn- est feeling, which pervade them. The book is rendered completer by ex- tracts from writers who have enlarged upon the same types, and by a few remarks of Miss Twining's own; and it brings together compendiously and well much interesting material for study.
• Types and Figures of the Bible, Illustrated by the Art of the Early and Middle Ages. By Louisa Twining. Published by Longman and Co.
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