Current Literature [pp. 484-487]

CURRENVT LITERA TURE.
and made to serve the highest uses of aesthetic culture.
THE artists of this city have concerted
measures looking to a series of receptions.
The social and professional advantages promise to be satisfactory to all concerned. Not
only artists, but lovers of art and men of letters, who have kindred tastes and sympathies,
will help forward such an organization.
Heretofore, artists have been working in an
isolated way, knowing less of each other than
was desirable, because there was no plan devised to bring them together. The public
knew little of men whose fame has since extended to other countries. There is always
a considerable number of resident artists who
are working their way toward fame and fort
une. The company will increase from year
to year. They are the most unobtrusive of
men. Shy and shrinking from public observation, because this is often one of the
"fatal gifts" of genius, their most intimate
friends would rarely meet them without hunting in some by-place, where sometimes not so
much as a name indicates that an easel has
been set up, or a picture might be found.
These are not of the sort to enter into an organization for self-glorification. But we can
see how social and professional interests
might be promoted, and how a noble calling
might be honored, even among a people
whose materialism appears at times frightfully hard and unyielding. If it is early spring
now among the artists of this city, there will
yet be autumnal days and mellow fruit.
CURRENT LITERATURE.
A HAND-BOOK OF LEGENDARY AND MYTH OLOGICAL ART. By Clara Erskine Clem ent. New York: Hurd & Houghton.
We feel a personal interest in this book;
for it seems to be our own, and not Mrs.
Clement's et all. We have wanted such a
compilation, and only the lack of time - and
knowledge —has kept us from undertaking
it. We have urged a more competent friend
to supply the manifest need. Has Mrs.
Clement heard the echo of our cry? Really,
it is strange that so plain and urgent a want
has not sooner been met by some practical
American tourist. Here, as in so many literary and artistic emergencies, it is a lady
that comes gallantly to the rescue. We lift
our hat, and utter our thanks. We are impatient to go at once to Europe, with this
book in our hand, in order to enjoy, amid
the treasures of religious and classical art,
the information culled with so much painstaking, and crystallized into forms so clear.
Thirty of these fair pages are devoted to
"Symbolism in Art:" first, general symbols, such as the fish-in Greek, the anagram of the name of Jesus-the crown, the
anchor, and the cross; next, the symbolism
of colors; then symbols of the Father, the
Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Trinity; then
symbols of angels; then those of the Virgin,
giving the long list of the Santa Marias;
afterward, symbols of the Evangelists- useful to such as have been puzzled by the
winged lion of St. Mark at Venice; next, of
the Apostles; and finlially, of the Monastic
Orders. There is a serviceable caution against
charging anachronisms on works of religious
art, representing the dead, for whom time is
no more.
The second and larger division of the
book is given to "Legends and Stories which
have been illustrated in Art:" that is, religious art. Here is a full list of the Church's
revered saints, with the miracles they wrought,
and the glorious martyrdoms they suffered.
Here one can learn of such patron saints as
St. Denis and St. George; of the giant Christopher, and the golden - mouthed Chrysostom; of Anthony, founder of Monachism,
and his worthy successors, Benedict, Dominick, and Francis of Assisi, whose story San
Franciscans at least ought to know. Here
we reaj the legends of the Madonna, and of
such saintly women as Agnes and Catherine,
Ursula and Genevieve. We have the story
of Judith and Holofernes, and the legends
484
[MAY,