ANCIENT ART.*
This book—a translation from the French—is rendered delightful by its extraordinarily good photographic reproductions of the arts of the ancients. The examples are most happily chosen. In books of this kind the dullest subjects are too often taken for the illustrations. Here just the reverse is the case. It is hardly possible to imagine a better selection, whether the subject is primitive Greek art, the Great Period, or the Decadence. The Egyptian arts are well illustrated, while the specimens of Roman sculpture and Roman engineering are as good as possible, considering the space available and the size of the page. No one who gets hold of this book and turns its pages will fail to be pleased, granted that he or she has a mind which can be moved by the beautiful. For the present writer perhaps the greatest discovery in the volume is the example of " Hispano-Phoenician Art (Fifth Century a.c.). Head from Elche. (Louvre)." That is a strange inscription to find under the head of a modern- looking lady, but ancient sculpture is always full of such sur- prises. No doubt, when the new bas-relief found in a remnant of the great wall of Athens is reproduced we shall hold it strangely curious from this point of view. Two athletes, one with a cat • History of Art. Ancient 44. By Elk Faure. London : John Lane. Mil. net.]
on a string and the other with a dog under similar restraint, executed with great verve, is not the kind of thing one would naturally expect in a piece of archaic sculpture. Let us hope we shall see it in the next edition of this attractive book.
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