JEAN GOUJON.* AS the first book in English devoted to
such a great sculptor as Jean Goujon, the present volume deserves a word of welcome. But though we welcome Mr. Litter's work, it is in no sense a complete, and therefore wholly satis- factory, study of the master. It is too evident that the author, in spite of his appreciation of Jean Goujon, does not possess the technical equipment required for so difficult a task as the critical survey of the work of a sculptor. The book is charmingly written, and bears the evidence of much care having been bestowed on the details, but we never seem to come into close contact with the art of Jean Goujon. Again, it is irritating to find so much space given to relatively unimportant matters. A whole chapter devoted to the history of Diane de Poitiers, the favourite of Henry does not make up for the absence of any serious attempt to explain the attitude of the sculptor towards the human form. It is easy to talk in general terms of the "free- dom, grace, and distinction" of Goujon, or to pronounce that his anatomy "may sometimes be at fault." What would be interesting would be to know what were the particular views the sculptor held as regards the treatment of the figure ? Can the conscious exaggeration of certain forms be traced in his work, exaggeration, that is, used to achieve a definite stylistic result ? What, again, was the nature of the faults of anatomy ? When they are found, are they the result of ignorance, or of generalisation and selection for the sake of some decorative effect ? Michel- angelo undoubtedly modified the human body so that his particular feeling of proportion and balance might be accen- tuated. Probably this is the case with all artists who have an intensely individual point of view. Was the elongation of form which is characteristic of so much of Jean Goujon's work the result of his own innate feeling, or was he influenced by the ideal of form which Cellini brought to France and fixed in his Nymph of Fontainebleau ? This is a very interesting question, because this long thin-limbed ideal has had such influence upon all subsequent French art. Certainly Jean Goujon influ- enced his successors. Did he arrive at his ideal independently, or was he in any manner under the sway of Genial's view of form? Of such speculations we find no trace in the volume before us. Yet such questions are essential if we wish to go below the surface, and find out what was the particular in- spiration and message of the sculptor. It is no doubt much easier to ask questions than to answer them, but he who writes a book about an artist should be able to give an account of how that artist worked. The sculptor's thought is imprisoned in the marble : the stone is made to live by the working out practically of ideals of proportion, line, and modelling. To grasp the finished work we must understand these ideals.
The finest efforts of Jean Goujon's genius are to be found in his bas-reliefs, which form the larger part of his output as a sculptor. In these reliefs the treatment of the drapery is re- markable. Everywhere it explaiL 3 rather than masks the form beneath it, and is of a diaphanous nature, falling into endless folds. The smallness and delicacy of these folds suggest effects produced by the Greek sculptors. There seems nothing quite similar in Italian art, for Mantegna's folds are rigid, and those of Botticelli ceremonial and decorative. But could Jean Goujon have seen any Greek work, we wonder? The bas- reliefs made for the Fountain of the Innocents, but now placed in the Louvre, show us the artist at his best. Marvellous grace, touched with dignity, inspires these figures. The long sinuous curves are varied with such skill that though each figure fills a similar space in the same way, • Jean Gt.s;cs. By Reginald Lister. London : Duckworth and Co. [LI 2s.]
there is no monotony. The figures show the peculiarity of the sculptor's theory of proportion. By lengthening the legs con. siderably an effect of height and litheness is produced. The head, too, is small, it being made the unusual, but not un- natural, proportion of one-eighth of the height of the figure. This handling of the human form alone would produce anythink but a pleasing result; and here comes in the wonderful dexterity of Goujon. For the sake of harmony he was obliged to balance the length of the legs and smallness of the head, without losing the effect which these two peculiarities of proportion produce. To do this the sculptor piled up the headdress into a considerable eminence. Thus the head, face, and features, when looked at by themselves, are small, but when taken as a mass, and when considering the whole proportions, they are not outweighed by the rest of the figure. This addition to the height by means of the headdress brings the centre of the body to its proper place, and makes the length of the leis normal. The building up of the bead is to be found in many of Goujon's works, not only in the beautiful figures of the Fountain, but always with the same purpose and effect.
The legend that Jean Goujon perished in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew has been disproved, the same researches showing that he went to Italy, and there lived with people whc, later on got into trouble with the Inquisition for being Protes- tants. It would therefore seem that the tradition that he was a Huguenot is correct. In this connection, Mr. Lister points out "that in all the work which Jean Goujon executed for Catholic churches there is no instance of a statue of the Virgin or of Saints." While awaiting a more exhaustive and tech- nical book on Jean Goujon, the present volume will serve a useful purpose, for besides being written with scholarly clearness and no little literary ability, it is well illustrated. The beauty of the master's work is before us as we read.
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