460 



The Review of Reviews. 



ART AND MUSIC. 



MUSIC AND PAINTING IN 

 ASSOCIATION. 



The Windsor Magazine for September has an 

 article, by Mr. Austin Chester, on Music in 

 Picture. 



PICTURES INSPIRED BY MUSIC. 



According to Pater, all art constantly aspires 

 towards the condition of music, and if that 

 is true, adds Mr. Chester, the painter's art 

 may well be at its highest when it is treating 

 of musical matter. How many beautiful pic- 

 tures would have been lost to the world had 

 there not been close association between music 

 and painting ! Some depend entirely on music 

 for their inspiration — for instance, Terburg's 

 " The Guitar Lesson." Much of the beauty of 

 Lippo Lippi's " Adoration of the Magi " is 

 due to the mounted heralds blowing trumpets. 

 One of Lord Leighton's important pictures is 

 " The Triumph of Music," and his " Orpheus 

 and Eurydice " also owes its inspiration to 

 music. A fine work by Watts is " Hope " — 

 a symbolic figure sitting on a globe with a 

 broken lyre in her hand, from which she strives 

 to get all the music possible out of the one 

 remaining string. In " The Music-Master " 

 Jan Sleen has introduced the harpsichord, an 

 instrument which Sir William Quiller Orchard- 

 son has also used with decorative effect. 



BIBLICAL SCENES. 



The alliance between music and painting was 

 probably brought about by the instrumentality 

 of religion, and we can no more, says the 

 writer, exclude religion from art without art's 

 suffering than we can sever painting from 

 music. The three, he finds, are inseparable. In 

 the many pictures of Old Testament scenes 

 artists have rightly introduced the trumpet in 

 processions and at feasts. In her triumphal 

 song Miriam took a timbrel in her hand and 

 the women followed her with timbrels and 

 dances. Mr. William Gale is a painter of " The 

 Song of Miriam," and many artists have given 

 us pictures of David playing before Saul. 

 Another picture inspired by the Bible narrative 

 is Mr. Arthur Hacker's " By the Rivers of 

 Babylon," and the same subject 

 treated by Mr. William Etty. 



MODERN SUBJECTS. 



Among modern subjects may 

 " Andante Espressivo," by Mr. 

 Forbes, and " The Violinist," by 

 I'eltie. In Albert Moore's "The Quartette" 

 one of the instruments represented is the viol, 

 ■A modified form of lute, but the performers 

 arc all playing on modern stringed instruments. 



has been 



be cited 

 Stanhope 

 Mr. John 



Harps and organs, ancient and modern, appear 

 in many pictures. Mr. Frank Dicksee's 

 " Harmony," in which an organ figures, is 

 one of the subjects reproduced in the article. 

 .A.mong the pictures of the modern piano may 

 be mentioned " The Moonlight Sonata," by 

 Ernest Oppler, Sir W. Q. Orchardson's " Her 

 Mother's Voice," and many others, not for- 

 getting Whistler's famous picture. Then there 

 are the pictures of Shakespeare's songs, which 

 are to be dealt with in a future article. _ Alto- 

 gether, the subject is a vast one, including as 

 it does representations of all musical instru- 

 ments, ancient and modern, separately or in 

 groups, pictures of fanciful instruments, 

 dancing and singing with musical accompani- 

 ment, pictures of angels, who are mostly repre- 

 sented playing on musical instruments, etc., 

 etc., besides the many pictures in which com- 

 posers and musicians appear. 



THE BELLA ROBBIA FAMILY. 



Continuing his interesting study of the art 

 of the Delia Robbia family in the September 

 number of the Architectural Review, Mr. J. 

 Edgcumbe Staley deals with Andrea and 

 Giovanni, nephew and grand-nephew of Luca . 

 Delia Robbia. 



Andrea Delia Robbia (i 435-1525) was the 

 eldest son of Luca's elder brother Marco. He 

 served a long apprenticeship with his uncle, 

 learning his uncle's methods and not a few of 

 his secrets. His works, says the writer, show 

 how he grafted upon his uncle's simple and 

 devotional manner the attributes of exuberant 

 life and passion. The keynote of his work is 

 human sympathy. Andrea was no mere 

 imitator of his uncle, but constantly struck out 

 .new lines. A distinctive feature of his work 

 is the halo, which Luca used sparingly. His 

 patron saint being St. Francis of Assisi, it was 

 fitting he should display his finest talents in 

 the saint's honour. His best things, therefore, 

 are to be seen upon the Sasso della Verna, the 

 scene of the saint's reception of the stigmata. 

 His masterpiece, " The Crucifixion," is the 

 altarpiece in the Chapel of the Stigmata at La 

 Verna. Of his detached compositions the 

 statue of St. Francis is stated to be the most 

 ■ appealing. The work was executed in Andrea's 

 studio at Florence, and was then carried piece 

 by piece up the mountain fastnesses. Of his 

 seven sons, Giovanni alone remained under the 

 parental roof, and carried on the work of his 

 father. His earliest reliefs were " Nativities." 

 He excelled in plastic portraiture. Two of his 

 brothers also carried on the Della Robbia cull. 



