THE Volumes which stand first on the list given below form the conclusion of the interesting series designed by the late Mrs. Jameson for the illustration of Christian Art. They are devoted to the last and highest theme of all; and Lady Eastlake, upon whom the execution of by far the greater part of the arduous task has devolved, has performed her part with rare fidelity and judgment. In the first place, *The History of our Lord as exemplified in Works of Art, with that of his Types; St. John the Baptist; and other Persons of the Old and New Testament. Commenced by the late Mrs. JAMESON; continued and completed by Lady EASTLAKE. Fine Art as a Branch of Academic Study. A Letter addressed to Members of the Senate. By W. J. BEAMONT, M.A. Cambridge. Letters from Rome to Friends in England. By the Rev. JOHN W. BURGON, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College. VOL. LXIII.-NO. 3 ART. * we have to thank her for having placed the subjects chronologically, commencing with that which heads most systems of Christian Art-the Fall of Lucifer, and Creation of the World; passing next to the Types and Prophets of the Old Testament; the History of the Innocents and of John the Baptist; the Life and Passion of our Lord; then to the abstract and devotional subjects growing out of these materials, and terminating with the Last Judgment. This arrangement gives method and connection to the whole work; and as the specimens of art with which it is illustrated are likewise placed under each head, in the order in which they were produced, Lady Eastlake, "simply following their teachings," as she truly says, but, in fact, commenting upon their meaning out of the fulness of a gifted and 18 THE Volumes which stand first on the list given below form the conclusion of the interesting series designed by the late Mrs. Jameson for the illustration of Christian Art. They are devoted to the last and highest theme of all; and Lady Eastlake, upon whom the execution of by far the greater part of the arduous task has devolved, has performed her part with rare fidelity and judgment. In the first place, *The History of our Lord as exemplified in Works of Art, with that of his Types; St. John the Baptist; and other Persons of the Old and New Testament. Commenced by the late Mrs. JAMESON; continued and completed by Lady EASTLAKE. Fine Art as a Branch of Academic Study. A Letter addressed to Members of the Senate. By W. J. BEAMONT, M.A. Cambridge. Letters from Rome to Friends in England. By the Rev. JOHN W. BURGON, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College. VOL. LXIII.-NO. 3 * we have to thank her for having placed the subjects chronologically, commencing with that which heads most systems of Christian Art-the Fall of Lucifer, and Creation of the World; passing next to the Types and Prophets of the Old Testament; the History of the Innocents and of John the Baptist; the Life and Passion of our Lord; then to the abstract and devotional subjects growing out of these materials, and terminating with the Last Judgment. This arrangement gives method and connection to the whole work; and illustrated are likewise placed under each as the specimens of art with which it is head, in the order in which they were produced, Lady Eastlake, "simply following their teachings," as she truly says, but, in fact, commenting upon their meaning out of the fulness of a gifted and 18 richly-stored mind, and in her own spirited and graceful style, has been enabled to present to her readers a view of the whole current of Christian feeling and opinion from the earliest ages. Time was when a few centuries up or down made no difference in classification; but a more patient and inquiring spirit now prevails, and in the history of Art, as in civil history, the date and the succession of the different specimens are carefully weighed in determining their meaning, and order is succeeding chaos. We have at length discovered how much clearer a subject may be made by diligently studying it in its successive phases, by tracing its progress from one stage to the next, and noting how each affected the other. But if this mode of study is profitable where art is examined merely for its own sake, still more is it worthy to be adopted where art is studied as the exponent of the thought and belief of mankind on the loftiest of all subjects. It is thus that Lady Eastlake has studied Christian Art. "We must," she says, "in the task that is before us, keep in mind that the object of Christian Art is the instruction and edification of ourselves, not any abstract and impossible unity of ideas that cannot be joined together. Early art never loses sight of this instinct. Pictures, as we have said, were the books of the simple.' The first condition, therefore, was that the book should be easily read. "Having thus seen certain moral excellences appertaining to early Christian Art—its faithful adherence to Scripture, and its true instinct as to its duty-we shall be the more justified in bringing it largely before the reader in a research intended to define the true standards of religious modes of representation. It is not only that from these simple and nameless artists have descended those scriptural types and traditions which constitute the science of Christian Art, but that in them we find the subject, and not the art, the chief aim of their labors. Art was for many centuries, where not affected by classic influences, too undeveloped to allow its votary to expand and disport himself in the conscious exercise of mechanical skill. He therefore suited his art, such as it was, to his subject; later painters may be said to have done the reverse. The transition from the one to the other, considered in a general way, is a curious scale, beginning with moral and ending with physical indications. Thus reverence is seen first, endowing scenes devoid of almost every other quality with a pious propriety which, if not art, is its best foundation. Then came a certain stereotyped dignity of forms, descended from Byzantine tradition; to this followed expression of feeling and dramatic action, as with Duccio and Giotto; next, the true variety of the human countenance, as with Fra Angelico; and then all these qualities together, heightened by greater skill in each, as with the great quatThese found their height of culmination in Letrocentisti of Florence, Padua, and Venice. onardo da Vinci, and partially in Raffaelle, who threw down the last barriers of difficulty between a painter's hand and mind, and in whom, therefore, subject and art may be said to have had equal part. From this time commence the triumphs of art proper the glories of color, the feats of anatomical skill, the charms of chiaroscuro, and the revels of free-handling; all claiming to be admired for themselves, all requiring the subject to bend to their individualities. Here, therefore, there is little to say, however much to delight in. This is art alone— as much as, in another sense, the Dutch school is art alone-taking its forms from elevated or from homely nature, and accordingly producing works before which, to use a too familiar phrase, the mouth of the connoisseur waters, but, with very few exceptions, the eye of feeling remains dry.”—(Vol. i. p. 9.) It is by no means in the works of what we call the Old Masters only that the materials for study are to be found. From the symbolical gems and signet-rings, the first timid efforts of Christian art; from the mural paintings of the catacombs; from sculptured sarcophagi; from the mosaics with which the walls and cupolas of ancient basilicas and churches were covered; from doors of ancient churches, cast in bronze or brass or carved in wood; from ivories and enamels; but, above all, from miniatures and early block-books: from the careful examination of all these multifarious materials according to the order of their production Lady Eastlake has drawn a luminous and instructive history. Let us hear her account of one of these sources of information: "Richer," she says, "than any other source hitherto considered, and almost as ancient, we may now advert to the so-called miniatures, or illuminations, of the Scriptures and ancient religious books, which literally supply galleries of curious and beautiful conceptions, often within the compass of a few inches, and for the most part the work of unknown minds and hands. Even after the varied and accumulated forms of destruction, common to all things, and more especially to monuments of religious art-ignorance, neglect, and cupidity, war, fire, and time-have done their worst, the number of these books is still fortunately Legion. For no church treasury, or convent choir of any pretensions to wealth-no royal or noble personages of piety, pride, or taste-failed to reckon these precious volumes among their choicest possessions. Here, on these solid and well-nigh indestructible parchment folios, where |