NEW PUBLICATIONS.
" LIBRARY OF THE FINE ART S."—The first number of a magazine under this title has just appeared ; and is calculated to supply what has long been a desideratum, a periodical publication devoted exclusively to the discussion of subjects connected with the arts of design. The scope of the work is comprehensive, embracing original essays, criticism, tech- nical and miscellaneous information, and reprints of the standard works on art. The editor is Mr. KENNEDY of Lincoln's Inn ; a gentleman connected witt the world of art in no other way than as a connoisseur. The principles on which he undertakes the work are liberal and impar- tial; and it is entitled both to professional and popular support, the con- tents of the work being designed for the entertainment of the general reader, as well as for the information of the artist. The First Number Contains, among other papers, a Memoir of the late Mr. Dawe ; a Prize Poem, by Mr. Lytton Bulwer, on the subject of Sculpture ; a smart fillip of Mr. Nash the architect ; an account of the process of Lithogra- phy; and the two first Lectures of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
CUNNINGHAM'S LIVES OF BRITISH PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHI- TECTS, Vora IV.—This volume of the Family Library contains the Lives of WILLIAM Of WYKEHAM, INIGO JONES, WREN, VANBRUGII, GIBBS, KENT, and .Cnissinens ; the biographies of the three first oc- cupying the greater portion of the volume. Mr. CUNNINGHAM is quite at home with sculptors and architects, and among blocks of marble and stone. His bold and familiar style, and his rough-hewn opinions, are borne up by sound technical information. The lives of Demo and WREN —the Palladio and Vitruvitis of England—are full of interest ; and the honest biographer has also done justice to the merits of VANBRUGH as an architect, and the originator of a picturesque though ponderous style of building. The injuries of WREN, and the difficulties placed in the way of his vast undertaking, the re-edification of St. Paul's, are by no means solitary instances of the evils arising from the intervention of Ignorant and presumptuous Tower between the man of genius and the execution of his matured designs. We wish Mr. CUNNINGHAM had given a list of the principal public edifices erected by the several archi- tects; he has only pointed out a few prominent examples of their styles, with which almost every one is acquainted. EMBELLISHED MAGAZINES FOR THE Lemes.—The ladies must be per- plexed by the claims to their patronage so tastefully urged by rival Magazines,-and the "addresses" of their. gallant editors. . There are nour in the field no fewer than four candidates : "The Lady's," and "Royal Lady's Magazines ;" "The Ladies' Museum," and old "La Belle A ssemblee," vie with each other in embellishment and letterpress ; French and English fashions and gay colours crowd and jostle as in a drawing-room, and views and portraits are superadded. The literary contents also are improving, and will put the editors of Annuals upon their mettle. We leave it to the fair to decide upon the merits of the competitors.
THE LANDSCAPE ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE WATERLEY NOVELS are improving in the execution of the engravings. The general fidelity with which the beautiful effects of the original drawings are imitated, requires only a little additional finish of the plates, to render this pretty work as perfect as it is popular.
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