CURRENT LITERATURE.
ART BOOKS.
The Study and Criticism of Italian Art. By Bernhard Berenson. (G. Boll and Sons. 10s. Gd. net.)—This collection of essays is one of the most interesting things Mr. Berenson has published for some time. We are given an opportunity of knowing not only the results of the author's critical labours, but his own especial posi- tion in relation to art. The writer classes himself among "aesthetic spectators, for whom—for whom only, if they but knew it—all the arts exist." This is not the place to inquire if the gratification of the "aesthetic spectator" is the entire use and end of the arts. Neither will we stop to ponder-whether such a posi- tion of mental watertight compartments is compatible with the complexity of human emotion. Be this as it may, the attitude taken up by the critic gives him a detachment of view intensely valuable. The essay on Renaissance churches shows how valuable this detachment is, for the critic is able to brush aside all irrelevant archaeology, theories of construction, and theological controversies, and realise at once how it was the architect wished to impress him. The "aesthetic spectator" is able . to crime in _contact at once and instinctively with the aesthetic impulse of the creator of the work of art in question. Mr. Berenson finds the dominating idea of the Italian architects to be the enclosing of harmonious spaces. Hence the 'greater attention paid to the - interiors. "The moment you enter such a church as the Madonna della Consolazione at Todi—the best, although far from perfect, realisa- tion of the Renaissance ideal—youleel as if you had cut loose from gravitation, and as if you took flight not only from the material universe, but also from all that is your conscious self. The builder of such a church makes space no less eloquent than a composer makes sound. An Italian architect is really a space emPoser." The writer instances the glass gallery at Milan as an exempla of the Italian feeling for space still existing. It is in the weneetipirit that Mr. Berenson approaches pictures. He concerns Ittalleltfizet of all with their aesthetic qualities, and when in search
of the key to many a vexed question of authorship it is to the purely artistic considerations that he first addresses himself. Of course all possible historical and documentary facts are called in. But these are treated as subordinate. In an interesting study of "The Rudiments of Connoisseurship" Mr. Berenson shows how untrustworthy contemporary documents may be, because pictures were so often sold secretly, their places being taken by copies. When this has been done what avails the original contract with the painter ? Mr. Berenson's method is well exemplified in the essay on the Caen " Sposelizio." His feeling tells him that it is not, as supposed, the work of Perwzino. This feeling is the result of a profound knowledge of that painter. Lo Spagna is the painter to whom he attributes the picture. But to do this he undertakes a minute study of the characteristics of that artist. The great advantage of this method is that it is the pictures themselves that are studied, and not merely archives that are ransacked. The result is that the critic studies a master so closely that he is able to give us real insight into the feeling of the artist as regards the aesthetic problems he interested himself in. Mr. Berenson makes out a very strong case for the Caen picture being by Lo Spagna,. If this is so, the " Sposalizio" at Milan is not a copy of his master's work, but an original inspira- tion of the youthful Raphael. Those people who are content to enjoy pictures without a too nice inquiry into authorship will appreciate this writer's critical studies, because the living work of art is never lost sight of. And this is such a relief at a time when people write great books minutely studying everything round about a picture, but not the work of art itself.
The second number of Little Engravings, edited by Laurence Binyon (At the Sign of the Unicorn, Gs.), gives us a collection of all Blake's woodcuts, numbering seventeen. These little designs were illustrations to a pastoral, and are strange and weird in con- ception and execution. They all have running through them that feeling of imaginative beauty which made Blake's work sometimes really great.
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