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Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy by Francis Ames-LewisReview by: Nancy HubbeLeonardo, Vol. 17, No. 1 (1984), p. 53Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1574863 .

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leads Goldman to slight the Realists. She states, "Sloan, Hopper, and Marsh had all been workaday illustrators and as artist printmakers they sometimes lapsed into a commercial graphic syntax or-in attempts to escape it-they tried too hard to make art." In reference to Hopper she writes, "he often overworked his plates, particularly when he didn't have a story to tell."

Nathan Oliveira, Michael Mazur, and Jim Dine are appropriate contributors to the peintre-graveur tradition. They are consummate printers and fine draftsmen, sensitive to their materials and processes. Because of their hands-on procedure, they have pioneered a new concept in printmaking in which the term 'proof' is no longer valid. At any point in the plate's development an edition or a series of unique impressions can be pulled. Monotype elements and hand painting abound. These artists transform images, adding lines and changing colors, never working toward the goal of a 'finished' print, but creating a number of equally interesting options.

Two innovative stylists meriting Goldman's praise are Frankenthaler and Stella. The mating of contemporary imagery with the woodcut medium is a special contribution of Frankenthaler. Respecting the organic wood grain, she brings the same concern for scale and color overlays seen in her paintings to her prints on stained hand-made paper. Stella, combining silkscreen with lithography and collage, challenges figures-versus-ground relations, introducing evenly executed repetitions that destroy illusionistic space. Hand painting and glitter regenerate luminosity and randomness.

It is difficult to understand why Goldman included Pearlstein and Francis in this collection. They both stand aside from the print process, and their prints tend to distribute their painting ideas, untranslated, into multiples. Pearlstein's aquatints resemble his watercolor washes. Although the author claims that Francis never reproduces his paintings in prints, it is difficult to tell his seemingly effortless paintings apart; the prints seem mechanically drawn from the same well.

Does modern practice as originated by Tamarind and Tyler really produce peintre-graveurs as Goldman claims? On the other hand, Tamarind printers, far from being mere craftsmen, were in many cases true artists who only now are gaining recognition (for example, K. Nanao and J. Zirker). Should Hopper, who printed each proof lovingly on his studio press, take second place to Francis, who lets his printer make color, sequence, and placement decisions for him? These are questions for tomorrow's print scholars.

Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy. Francis Ames-Lewis. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981. 196 pp., illus. ISBN: 0- 300-02641-2. Reviewed by Nancy Hubbe*

Francis Ames-Lewis states his aim in the preface to Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy: to cast fresh light on the role of drawing in the development of Renaissance art. To do this within a scholarly system, he confines his study to drawings of the fifteenth century. He has assembled 190 drawings, 8 printed as color plates. They range from animal studies to complex crowd compositions in architectural settings, but figure drawings predominate.

The first chapter discusses available written sources, and these are used extensively throughout the volume to explain types and uses of materials and the probable function of the drawings. Next, the drawings are considered as sources. Why did some survive from the two regions of Italy (central and northern) producing art at that time while others did not? With this groundwork laid, the author develops his theme: the emergence of drawing as an art and not merely a tool in the early Renaissance.

The development of drawing is traced through succeeding chapters as different aspects are thoughtfully explored. For example, paper was rare at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and expensive parchment was used almost exclusively to copy model drawings or for manuscript illumination or for 'contract drawings' showing in detail how a contracted wall painting would look. By the end of the century, paper was in good supply. Another encouraging trend was the movement from silverpoint to pen and ink, and then to chalk. Change is also seen in the transition from stylized model books to books containing exploratory figure sketches and compositional arrangements or sketches from a

journey. The chapters on figure drawings and compositional drawings feature

leads Goldman to slight the Realists. She states, "Sloan, Hopper, and Marsh had all been workaday illustrators and as artist printmakers they sometimes lapsed into a commercial graphic syntax or-in attempts to escape it-they tried too hard to make art." In reference to Hopper she writes, "he often overworked his plates, particularly when he didn't have a story to tell."

Nathan Oliveira, Michael Mazur, and Jim Dine are appropriate contributors to the peintre-graveur tradition. They are consummate printers and fine draftsmen, sensitive to their materials and processes. Because of their hands-on procedure, they have pioneered a new concept in printmaking in which the term 'proof' is no longer valid. At any point in the plate's development an edition or a series of unique impressions can be pulled. Monotype elements and hand painting abound. These artists transform images, adding lines and changing colors, never working toward the goal of a 'finished' print, but creating a number of equally interesting options.

Two innovative stylists meriting Goldman's praise are Frankenthaler and Stella. The mating of contemporary imagery with the woodcut medium is a special contribution of Frankenthaler. Respecting the organic wood grain, she brings the same concern for scale and color overlays seen in her paintings to her prints on stained hand-made paper. Stella, combining silkscreen with lithography and collage, challenges figures-versus-ground relations, introducing evenly executed repetitions that destroy illusionistic space. Hand painting and glitter regenerate luminosity and randomness.

It is difficult to understand why Goldman included Pearlstein and Francis in this collection. They both stand aside from the print process, and their prints tend to distribute their painting ideas, untranslated, into multiples. Pearlstein's aquatints resemble his watercolor washes. Although the author claims that Francis never reproduces his paintings in prints, it is difficult to tell his seemingly effortless paintings apart; the prints seem mechanically drawn from the same well.

Does modern practice as originated by Tamarind and Tyler really produce peintre-graveurs as Goldman claims? On the other hand, Tamarind printers, far from being mere craftsmen, were in many cases true artists who only now are gaining recognition (for example, K. Nanao and J. Zirker). Should Hopper, who printed each proof lovingly on his studio press, take second place to Francis, who lets his printer make color, sequence, and placement decisions for him? These are questions for tomorrow's print scholars.

Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy. Francis Ames-Lewis. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981. 196 pp., illus. ISBN: 0- 300-02641-2. Reviewed by Nancy Hubbe*

Francis Ames-Lewis states his aim in the preface to Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy: to cast fresh light on the role of drawing in the development of Renaissance art. To do this within a scholarly system, he confines his study to drawings of the fifteenth century. He has assembled 190 drawings, 8 printed as color plates. They range from animal studies to complex crowd compositions in architectural settings, but figure drawings predominate.

The first chapter discusses available written sources, and these are used extensively throughout the volume to explain types and uses of materials and the probable function of the drawings. Next, the drawings are considered as sources. Why did some survive from the two regions of Italy (central and northern) producing art at that time while others did not? With this groundwork laid, the author develops his theme: the emergence of drawing as an art and not merely a tool in the early Renaissance.

The development of drawing is traced through succeeding chapters as different aspects are thoughtfully explored. For example, paper was rare at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and expensive parchment was used almost exclusively to copy model drawings or for manuscript illumination or for 'contract drawings' showing in detail how a contracted wall painting would look. By the end of the century, paper was in good supply. Another encouraging trend was the movement from silverpoint to pen and ink, and then to chalk. Change is also seen in the transition from stylized model books to books containing exploratory figure sketches and compositional arrangements or sketches from a

journey. The chapters on figure drawings and compositional drawings feature

leads Goldman to slight the Realists. She states, "Sloan, Hopper, and Marsh had all been workaday illustrators and as artist printmakers they sometimes lapsed into a commercial graphic syntax or-in attempts to escape it-they tried too hard to make art." In reference to Hopper she writes, "he often overworked his plates, particularly when he didn't have a story to tell."

Nathan Oliveira, Michael Mazur, and Jim Dine are appropriate contributors to the peintre-graveur tradition. They are consummate printers and fine draftsmen, sensitive to their materials and processes. Because of their hands-on procedure, they have pioneered a new concept in printmaking in which the term 'proof' is no longer valid. At any point in the plate's development an edition or a series of unique impressions can be pulled. Monotype elements and hand painting abound. These artists transform images, adding lines and changing colors, never working toward the goal of a 'finished' print, but creating a number of equally interesting options.

Two innovative stylists meriting Goldman's praise are Frankenthaler and Stella. The mating of contemporary imagery with the woodcut medium is a special contribution of Frankenthaler. Respecting the organic wood grain, she brings the same concern for scale and color overlays seen in her paintings to her prints on stained hand-made paper. Stella, combining silkscreen with lithography and collage, challenges figures-versus-ground relations, introducing evenly executed repetitions that destroy illusionistic space. Hand painting and glitter regenerate luminosity and randomness.

It is difficult to understand why Goldman included Pearlstein and Francis in this collection. They both stand aside from the print process, and their prints tend to distribute their painting ideas, untranslated, into multiples. Pearlstein's aquatints resemble his watercolor washes. Although the author claims that Francis never reproduces his paintings in prints, it is difficult to tell his seemingly effortless paintings apart; the prints seem mechanically drawn from the same well.

Does modern practice as originated by Tamarind and Tyler really produce peintre-graveurs as Goldman claims? On the other hand, Tamarind printers, far from being mere craftsmen, were in many cases true artists who only now are gaining recognition (for example, K. Nanao and J. Zirker). Should Hopper, who printed each proof lovingly on his studio press, take second place to Francis, who lets his printer make color, sequence, and placement decisions for him? These are questions for tomorrow's print scholars.

Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy. Francis Ames-Lewis. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1981. 196 pp., illus. ISBN: 0- 300-02641-2. Reviewed by Nancy Hubbe*

Francis Ames-Lewis states his aim in the preface to Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy: to cast fresh light on the role of drawing in the development of Renaissance art. To do this within a scholarly system, he confines his study to drawings of the fifteenth century. He has assembled 190 drawings, 8 printed as color plates. They range from animal studies to complex crowd compositions in architectural settings, but figure drawings predominate.

The first chapter discusses available written sources, and these are used extensively throughout the volume to explain types and uses of materials and the probable function of the drawings. Next, the drawings are considered as sources. Why did some survive from the two regions of Italy (central and northern) producing art at that time while others did not? With this groundwork laid, the author develops his theme: the emergence of drawing as an art and not merely a tool in the early Renaissance.

The development of drawing is traced through succeeding chapters as different aspects are thoughtfully explored. For example, paper was rare at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and expensive parchment was used almost exclusively to copy model drawings or for manuscript illumination or for 'contract drawings' showing in detail how a contracted wall painting would look. By the end of the century, paper was in good supply. Another encouraging trend was the movement from silverpoint to pen and ink, and then to chalk. Change is also seen in the transition from stylized model books to books containing exploratory figure sketches and compositional arrangements or sketches from a

journey. The chapters on figure drawings and compositional drawings feature

the development of individual artists and how they used drawing to solve their artistic problems in a society that was increasingly interested in worldly reality. Attention to surface textures and employment of symbolic poses give way to solid form and lifelike movement. This shift can be seen in works by Antonia Pisanello, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, among others, and culminates in the powerful drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. His influence at the turn of the century opens the gate to the high Renaissance.

Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy is beautifully printed and assembled. Figures conveniently accompany the text that describes them, and the text faithfully deals with each figure. An excellent glossary follows notes on the text.

Ames-Lewis's second goal is to show the value of the study of the drawings as a key to understanding the early Renaissance. His volume does succeed in proving its own worth, but not without creating a few unnecessary frustrations for readers who have not taken the prerequisite course in art history. Since the subject can be of great interest to artists and art lovers of whatever educational background, knowledge of Italian Geography should not have been assumed. More imaginative concern for communication and less concern with stylish language would have been more in keeping with the directly communicating strokes of pen or chalk that the author admires.

Since this book is likely to be bought for its illustrations, let me say an admiring word on their selection. The eight color plates enhance the book's attractiveness and help us appreciate the prevalent use of color- toned backgrounds with white heightening. For the black-and-white illustrations, Ames-Lewis has included work by apprentices and masters and work in all stages of completion. Comparing them yields new understandings. They certainly give unparalleled insight into that pregnant century of art history.

Rodin in Perspective. Ruth Butler, ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 202 pp., illus. $12.95. ISBN: 0-13-782326-6. Paperback $5.95. ISBN: 0-13-782318-5. Reviewed by S. I. Clerk*

Editor Ruth Butler has rendered a sterling service in compiling this collection of interpretations of Rodin's works and life by seventy leading writers and critics. She includes her own thirty-one page introduction. The period covered is roughly from 1877 when Rodin's first real showpiece, 'The Age of Bronze', was exhibited and reviewed in Brussels to William Tucker's article, Rodin: The Language of Sculpture in 1973. Through these seventy contributions Ruth Butler offers cameos of Rodin the artist, the philosopher, the subtle craftsman and the solitary sage. She also includes adverse comments, such as Adolf von Hilderbrand's, "His [Rodin's] works were only realized in clay and his marbles were fakes stated in an untrue language ... perhaps Rodin was the most courageous of deceivers."

The book is organized by major works-'The Age of Bronze', 'Saint John', 'The Gates of Hell', 'The Burghers of Calais', 'Balzac'-and by important events such as Rodin's success at Georges Petit. There are sections on The Meaning of Rodin's Art, Rodin and the Younger Masters of Early Modern Sculpture, Rodin's Writing, and The Rediscovery of Rodin.

Ruth Butler's compilation is a definitive assessment of Rodin through the reviews of his exhibitions, comments by writers and art critics, the artist's own writings, letters, and speeches. Butler traces praise of Rodin to the writing of the critic-novelist Felicien Champsaur (around 1885-86), who found Rodin an "artist of integrity, who scorns money, has no other passion than the attainment of his creative dream." She also tells us that the press was a major factor in Rodin's life and that conversations with writers were valuable experiences for him that considerably influenced his life and work.

There is a reference to how Rodin was able simultaneously to realize form and idea and how, at the beginning of the present century, Rodin revealed through his sculpture his intense relationship to nature and expressed his ideas about national heritage, decay, lust, and sin. According to Henry Moore, Rodin "helped open the eyes of modern sculptors to the fragment, the sketch, the accident, and the importance of much older sculpture that was being ignored".

Rodin is quoted on his work: "My principle is to imitate not only form but life. I search in nature for this life and I amplify it by exaggerating the

the development of individual artists and how they used drawing to solve their artistic problems in a society that was increasingly interested in worldly reality. Attention to surface textures and employment of symbolic poses give way to solid form and lifelike movement. This shift can be seen in works by Antonia Pisanello, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, among others, and culminates in the powerful drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. His influence at the turn of the century opens the gate to the high Renaissance.

Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy is beautifully printed and assembled. Figures conveniently accompany the text that describes them, and the text faithfully deals with each figure. An excellent glossary follows notes on the text.

Ames-Lewis's second goal is to show the value of the study of the drawings as a key to understanding the early Renaissance. His volume does succeed in proving its own worth, but not without creating a few unnecessary frustrations for readers who have not taken the prerequisite course in art history. Since the subject can be of great interest to artists and art lovers of whatever educational background, knowledge of Italian Geography should not have been assumed. More imaginative concern for communication and less concern with stylish language would have been more in keeping with the directly communicating strokes of pen or chalk that the author admires.

Since this book is likely to be bought for its illustrations, let me say an admiring word on their selection. The eight color plates enhance the book's attractiveness and help us appreciate the prevalent use of color- toned backgrounds with white heightening. For the black-and-white illustrations, Ames-Lewis has included work by apprentices and masters and work in all stages of completion. Comparing them yields new understandings. They certainly give unparalleled insight into that pregnant century of art history.

Rodin in Perspective. Ruth Butler, ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 202 pp., illus. $12.95. ISBN: 0-13-782326-6. Paperback $5.95. ISBN: 0-13-782318-5. Reviewed by S. I. Clerk*

Editor Ruth Butler has rendered a sterling service in compiling this collection of interpretations of Rodin's works and life by seventy leading writers and critics. She includes her own thirty-one page introduction. The period covered is roughly from 1877 when Rodin's first real showpiece, 'The Age of Bronze', was exhibited and reviewed in Brussels to William Tucker's article, Rodin: The Language of Sculpture in 1973. Through these seventy contributions Ruth Butler offers cameos of Rodin the artist, the philosopher, the subtle craftsman and the solitary sage. She also includes adverse comments, such as Adolf von Hilderbrand's, "His [Rodin's] works were only realized in clay and his marbles were fakes stated in an untrue language ... perhaps Rodin was the most courageous of deceivers."

The book is organized by major works-'The Age of Bronze', 'Saint John', 'The Gates of Hell', 'The Burghers of Calais', 'Balzac'-and by important events such as Rodin's success at Georges Petit. There are sections on The Meaning of Rodin's Art, Rodin and the Younger Masters of Early Modern Sculpture, Rodin's Writing, and The Rediscovery of Rodin.

Ruth Butler's compilation is a definitive assessment of Rodin through the reviews of his exhibitions, comments by writers and art critics, the artist's own writings, letters, and speeches. Butler traces praise of Rodin to the writing of the critic-novelist Felicien Champsaur (around 1885-86), who found Rodin an "artist of integrity, who scorns money, has no other passion than the attainment of his creative dream." She also tells us that the press was a major factor in Rodin's life and that conversations with writers were valuable experiences for him that considerably influenced his life and work.

There is a reference to how Rodin was able simultaneously to realize form and idea and how, at the beginning of the present century, Rodin revealed through his sculpture his intense relationship to nature and expressed his ideas about national heritage, decay, lust, and sin. According to Henry Moore, Rodin "helped open the eyes of modern sculptors to the fragment, the sketch, the accident, and the importance of much older sculpture that was being ignored".

Rodin is quoted on his work: "My principle is to imitate not only form but life. I search in nature for this life and I amplify it by exaggerating the

the development of individual artists and how they used drawing to solve their artistic problems in a society that was increasingly interested in worldly reality. Attention to surface textures and employment of symbolic poses give way to solid form and lifelike movement. This shift can be seen in works by Antonia Pisanello, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, among others, and culminates in the powerful drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. His influence at the turn of the century opens the gate to the high Renaissance.

Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy is beautifully printed and assembled. Figures conveniently accompany the text that describes them, and the text faithfully deals with each figure. An excellent glossary follows notes on the text.

Ames-Lewis's second goal is to show the value of the study of the drawings as a key to understanding the early Renaissance. His volume does succeed in proving its own worth, but not without creating a few unnecessary frustrations for readers who have not taken the prerequisite course in art history. Since the subject can be of great interest to artists and art lovers of whatever educational background, knowledge of Italian Geography should not have been assumed. More imaginative concern for communication and less concern with stylish language would have been more in keeping with the directly communicating strokes of pen or chalk that the author admires.

Since this book is likely to be bought for its illustrations, let me say an admiring word on their selection. The eight color plates enhance the book's attractiveness and help us appreciate the prevalent use of color- toned backgrounds with white heightening. For the black-and-white illustrations, Ames-Lewis has included work by apprentices and masters and work in all stages of completion. Comparing them yields new understandings. They certainly give unparalleled insight into that pregnant century of art history.

Rodin in Perspective. Ruth Butler, ed. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 202 pp., illus. $12.95. ISBN: 0-13-782326-6. Paperback $5.95. ISBN: 0-13-782318-5. Reviewed by S. I. Clerk*

Editor Ruth Butler has rendered a sterling service in compiling this collection of interpretations of Rodin's works and life by seventy leading writers and critics. She includes her own thirty-one page introduction. The period covered is roughly from 1877 when Rodin's first real showpiece, 'The Age of Bronze', was exhibited and reviewed in Brussels to William Tucker's article, Rodin: The Language of Sculpture in 1973. Through these seventy contributions Ruth Butler offers cameos of Rodin the artist, the philosopher, the subtle craftsman and the solitary sage. She also includes adverse comments, such as Adolf von Hilderbrand's, "His [Rodin's] works were only realized in clay and his marbles were fakes stated in an untrue language ... perhaps Rodin was the most courageous of deceivers."

The book is organized by major works-'The Age of Bronze', 'Saint John', 'The Gates of Hell', 'The Burghers of Calais', 'Balzac'-and by important events such as Rodin's success at Georges Petit. There are sections on The Meaning of Rodin's Art, Rodin and the Younger Masters of Early Modern Sculpture, Rodin's Writing, and The Rediscovery of Rodin.

Ruth Butler's compilation is a definitive assessment of Rodin through the reviews of his exhibitions, comments by writers and art critics, the artist's own writings, letters, and speeches. Butler traces praise of Rodin to the writing of the critic-novelist Felicien Champsaur (around 1885-86), who found Rodin an "artist of integrity, who scorns money, has no other passion than the attainment of his creative dream." She also tells us that the press was a major factor in Rodin's life and that conversations with writers were valuable experiences for him that considerably influenced his life and work.

There is a reference to how Rodin was able simultaneously to realize form and idea and how, at the beginning of the present century, Rodin revealed through his sculpture his intense relationship to nature and expressed his ideas about national heritage, decay, lust, and sin. According to Henry Moore, Rodin "helped open the eyes of modern sculptors to the fragment, the sketch, the accident, and the importance of much older sculpture that was being ignored".

Rodin is quoted on his work: "My principle is to imitate not only form but life. I search in nature for this life and I amplify it by exaggerating the

*288 Katahdin Ave., Millinocket, ME 04462, U.S.A. *288 Katahdin Ave., Millinocket, ME 04462, U.S.A. *288 Katahdin Ave., Millinocket, ME 04462, U.S.A. * 105A Simla House, L. J. Marg, Bombay 400036, India. * 105A Simla House, L. J. Marg, Bombay 400036, India. * 105A Simla House, L. J. Marg, Bombay 400036, India.

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