THE INSCRIPTION OVER THE GATE By H. R. Wackrill
After dealing with the most general problems of aesthetics in his first book, A Note on Modern Painting, Mr. Wackrill has now gone to the opposite extreme and has written his new volume (Peter Davies, 5s.) on one picture, namely, the water-colour by Blake showing Dante and Virgil going into the gate of Hell. But the author brings to bear on the particular case the same sensibility that he applied to the general theory, and .the book is an extremely interesting record of the reactions of one artist to the work of another. Mr. Wackrill uses a very personal method of analysis, creating the right atmosphere by describing events not directly artistic, but which coloured or help to explain his feelings. In the last chapter he even writes down his views as a dialogue, a form which is perhaps better suited to the matter than the almost artificially objective method of using he instead of I in the first part to describe what are clearly personal feelings. The book contains an excellent analysis of the problems which Blake's, painting raises, particularly the question of how far the formal element is im- portant and how far Blake cared only for the meaning of his symbols. Some readers will probably not agree with Mr. Wackrill's conclusions on this matter, but that does not affect the inter- est of his account. The scope of the book is limited by the fact that the - author speaks ',little. of Blake's poetry-or his • political views, without which it is hard to give any full explanation of the artist's mentality. But as a sensitive analysis of certain aspects of lits. paintings Mr. Wackrill's essay will be of lasting value.
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