CURRENT LITERATURE.
An Introduction to .the Study of Painted Glass. By "A. A." (Rivingtons.)—There is a good deal about painted glass in these eighty pages, but the author clings so fondly to the dicta of the late Mr. Winston, that his little work has but small value as an expression of mature judgment or independent opinion. To say that we hero find an implied approval of the Munich picture-glass, and of the plan of inserting figures, designed after the manner of the sixteenth century in borders of the thirteenth, will be a sufficient judgment on the artistic value of the volume. Why, too, did the writer take the trouble to print the names of all the persons who sent paintelglass windows to the Exhibition of 1851 ? When we road of one exhibitor contributing a specimen of "a cheap and durable method of producing windows for churches," of "St. Michael casting out the Great Dragon on a single sheet of glass," and of 'the Prince of Wales's feathers, rose, thistle, and shamrock, encircled with a wreath of oak-leaves," we can but rejoice that twenty-eight years have elapsed since these deplorable productions were publicly shown. Even now we are too familiar with "the style and taste displayed" at that period. Had "A. A." given us a systematic selection of time best examples of painted glass to be seen in this country and on time Continent, had he distinctly described the style or manner of each important period and of each country, had he catalogued the prevalent colours and quality of the glass em- ployed at various times, and had ho introduced a few woodcuts illus- trative of the several modes of treating the same subject in oil- painting and in a glass window, he would then have done more than he has done in producing a small popular history of glass-painting. How easily might his patchwork account of the quite modern work of English glass-painters have been made both interesting and in- structive! In London alone may be found abundant materials for a chapter on this subject. Our author, too, might have drawn more largely from such easily accessible sources of information as Oxford, the South Kensington Museum, and our glorious cathedrals.
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