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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 4 (August 1, 1930)

Among The Books

page 54

Among The Books

Our Book Causerie.
Art in the Middle Ages.

“Art and the Reformation,” by G. G. Coulton, M.A., Hon. D.Litt. (Blackwell, Oxford). Having read several of “G.G's.” earlier works, dearly as we love a little argufying, we hesitated taking up this his latest volume. We are glad now we overcame our reluctance, for though the subject is one that we had concluded would prove to Mr. Coulton like a red rag to a bull, we find ourselves agreeably mistaken. For once Mr. Coulton eschews hypercriticism, and gets on with his story. Still, as is his wont, he holds to his own opinion about most things, but this he is content to state, sometimes to state emphatically, and pass on to other, for the time being, more interesting matters. Between the boards of this massive volume is gathered and arranged in easily accessible form much valuable information concerning the arts and crafts of the Middle Ages. Every chapter is worth its place, but the chapter headed “Four Self-Characterisations” is not only one of the best in the book, but, so far as we know, one of the best ever written on the subject. The four artists dealt with therein are the Italian, Cennino Cennini; the South German, Durer; the Master-Mason, Villard de Honnecourt; and the North German Monk, who has been identified as Roger of Helsmerhausen, Another excellent chapter is that dealing with the Freemasons. Mr. Coulton therein gives as his opinion that the word originally meant “workers in freestone,” thus differing from the late Dr. Cunningham and Mr. Kingsley Porter, who, respectively, explain the word as meaning “the freedom of the town,” and “free from any fee on entering the trade.” Throughout the volume there are many quaint touches of quiet humour. We are told that when Henry de Bruxelles (architect and mason of the pulpitum which divided the nave from choir in Troyes Cathedral) married, in 1384:

The Canons docked him of a day's pay, though they made up for this by a wedding present of twelve loaves and eight pints of wine, which would come to very much the same cost.

He quotes Cennini as saying that he found that his profession enticed youthful ladies, “especially those of Tuscany, to ask for face paints and complexion waters.” This provides a peg on which to hang the following story:-

Oreagna, Taddeo Gaddi, and other painters, having eaten well and filled themselves with wine at the table of the Abbot of San Miniato, discussed who was the greatest painter from Giotto onwards. When all had spoken, the sculptor Alberto Arnoldi gave his opinion: No other painter is comparable with the ladies of Florence, who habitually improve upon the Almighty's own handiwork. Are we to believe that God never created a dark Florentine? Yet who knows a lady whose face is not white? The prize was unanimously adjudged to Alberto. But even in the Middle Ages, if we are to believe the preachers, these works of complexional art betrayed a painful lack of durability.

Despite Mr. Coulton's penchant for arguebargue, there is little trace of this throughout the volume. Still the language is often vigorous and vital, while the narrative is rich in humour and humanity. The volume is fully and excellently illustrated, many of the pictures being very fine. Like most other volumes from the same pen, the end of the story is not the end of the book! The “Appendices” reach the respectable total of all but three dozen!

Some Stevensoniana.

“Robert Louis Stevenson and the Scottish Highlanders,” by David B. Morris (Eneas Mac-Kay, Stirling, Scotland). When one remembers the many well known writers who have contributed excellent volumes to the still growing literature of Stevensoniana, one is apt to hesitate and look askance at anything there anent which comes from an unknown pen. There need be no such hesitancy in regard to Mr. Morris's book. We believe the volume is the work of a “‘prentice hand.” If so, it is a” ‘prentice hand” that lacks neither art nor cunning, backed by knowledge and heart. We say “heart” advisedly, for knowledge alone never enabled any author to write in such a way as to grip his reader's attention almost from the first line, and to hold it to the last. No Stevenson lover can afford to ignore this volume. Mr. Morris leads his page 55 readers behind the scenes in Stevenson's literary workshop. There he reverently shows them the material out of which the Master fashioned some of his finest characters. As the title explains, the author deals chiefly with Stevenson and the Scots Highlanders, therefore much of the volume is given up to tracing, interestingly and instructively, the sources from which Stevenson drew his information regarding Highlanders in general, and one Highlander in particular, as portrayed in “Kidnapped” and “Catriona.” Of all Stevenson's Highland characters, Alan Breck is the most consummate. The material out of which this character is fashioned was not always of the choicest, but the finished figure is without a flaw. Space does not allow of our indulging in the joy of quotation at any length, but one passage we must quote. As already said, Alan Breck was Stevenson's supreme study of the Highland character, and Mr. Morris loves Alan as intensely as Stevenson must have done. Here is our author's reference to Alan:

“Alan is portrayed as a lovable little man with the spirit of a game-cock, a faithful friend who risked his life for his companion, and, what is perhaps more trying, endured days of extreme fatigue for and with him. He was filled with an inordinate vanity. ‘Oh, man, am I no' a bonnie fechter?’ He was a bit of a poet. As he lay in the haystack near Silvermills he made songs about the deer and
“Delivering The Goods.” (Photo., A. P. Godber.) Portion of a week's output of nine engines recently delivered to the Traffic Department after being repaired in the New Workshops in the Hutt Valley, Wellington.

“Delivering The Goods.”
(Photo., A. P. Godber.)
Portion of a week's output of nine engines recently delivered to the Traffic Department after being repaired in the New Workshops in the Hutt Valley, Wellington.

the heather and the ancient chiefs. In the heat of victory he composed ‘The Song of the Sword of Alan!’ and was musician enough to make the melody. Throughout the tale recur the weird notes of Alan's choice of a Highland tune, which David Balfour called ‘Alan's Air,’ when he whistled it to Barbara Grant, but which Barbara renamed ‘David's Air,’ as she played it on the harpischord. Alan performed it creditably on the pipes. In spite of his extreme jealousy of his rival, he could say in a burst of generosity, ‘Robin Oig, ye are a great piper! I am not fit to blaw in the same kingdom wi’ ye. Body o' me! ye ha'e mair music in your sporran than I ha'e in my heid.’”

Familiarity with the contents of this volume will enable the reader of Stevenson's Highland novels the more intelligently to enjoy the Master and to enjoy him to the full. The volume shows that Mr. Morris has read carefully the history of the various Jacobite families, especially those of Stirlingshire and Perthshire, and his literary skill enables him to pass his knowledge thereof on in an easily assimilated form to his readers. Indeed, Mr. Morris has acquired some of Stevenson's own charm of writing, so that one reads on and reads on captivated, and must needs read on to a finish. The get-up of the volume is one with the best of Eneas MacKay's productions, and Eneas MacKay's best is some “best.” Price 5/-.