A History of Ancient Sculpture. By Lucy M. Mitchell. (Kegan
Paul, Trench, and Co.)—This handsome volume, a large octavo of more than 700 pages, copiously illustrated, is a valuable contribution to the history of its subject, all the more noteworthy because it comes from a woman's pen. Miss Mitchell treats the subject in considerable detail. In her first section she deals with "Egyptian Sculpture," dividing it, after a general introduction, into the " Memphitio or Ancient Empire," the "Theban Empire," and the " SaItio and Lower Empires." "Sculpture in Western Asia" is treated under the five heads of " Chaldaea," "Assyria," "Persia," "Phoenicia and its De- pendencies," and "The Earliest Monuments in Asia Minor." Greek and Roman sculpture is discussed under six headings,—" Earliest Art on Greek Soil," "Archaic Greek Sculpture," "The Age of Pheidias and Polycleitos," "The Age of Scopes, Praxiteles, and Lysippos," "The Hellenistic Age of Sculpture," "Sculpture in Ancient Italy and under Roman Dominion." We do not find always a clear guidance on difficult and controverted points. The discus- sion, for instance, of the "Shield of Achilles" is scarcely satisfactory. It is not "generally agreed" that the " Iliad " and " Odyssey " are creations of the "insular and Asiatic Ionians of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C." Mr. Paley, on the contrary, is inclined to bring them down, in their present form, as late as the fourth oentary, the time of the Alexandrian critics ; and one of hi a arguments would be the discrepancy between the ideal art of Homer and the actual art of the time to which he is attributed. This difficulty is not grappled with. Bat, as a whole, this is a most valuable and interesting, as it is a most laboriously-executed work.
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