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The New Books.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CORREGGIO.*

It has always seemed somewhat odd that a painter of Correggio's genius should have lived and worked in the centre of Italy, in the bright est period of the Renaissance, without creating notice for himself or his art, outside of his local province, until long after his death. No contemporary writer mentioned him; Ariosto overlooked him; Vasari could get little exact data about him, and had to write the first life of him from hearsay. In 1552 Landi said of him that he was "a painter nobly formed by him that he was "a painter nobly formed by nature herself rather than by any master," and Titian at Parma with Charles V. praised his Cathedral frescoes; but the man's life was still unknown. Baldinucci added nothing to the Vasari biography but eulogy, and it was not until the eighteenth century that Tiraboschi published documentary evidence about the painter and tried to get at the facts of his life. In our century much has been written about him: Pungileoni published new documents, Meyer sifted all the old material into new form, Morelli straightened out the attribution of his pictures; and now the director of the Parma gallery, Dr. Corradi Ricci, comes forward with more new documents in a large handsomely-illustrated folio which finally sums up all the recorded life of the painter.

Students of history will take up Dr. Ricci's book with eagerness, and they may put it down with some shade of disappointment. It doubtless contains all there is to be known about Correggio, but the gist of it was already known. And those "new documents" to which the writer has had access, and which were to throw new light upon the painter, are neither very important nor very illuminating. Dr. Ricci has written a sound critical and historical account of Correggio- the best yet published but it revolutionizes no old theories and establishes no new point of view. It collects, corrects, amends, and in that way doubtless gets at the truth of matters; for the writer seems to have no conception of Correggio that requires a distortion of probability. He gives the facts as they are known, and his inferences from them are neither far-fetched nor illogical. For this his readers will thank him. There is so much

ANTONIO ALLEGRI DA CORREGGIO. His Life, his Friends, and his Times. By Corrado Ricci. Translated from the Italian, by Florence Simmonds. New York: Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons.

theory-forming and fact-straining in modern historical writing, that a plain common-sense statement is refreshing.

The facts of Correggio's early life are practically unknown, and this accounts for the " isolated genius" theory advanced by various writers. enough that Correggio had neither teachers nor education, and that he sprang up suddenly, like a fountain in the desert, by virtue of inherent force. Neither the tale of his childish

The absence of record was to them evidence

ignorance nor that of his great learning has any basis in historic statement. He wrote a good hand and painted magnificent pictures: that is positively all we know about his learning. It is fair to suppose, however, that he could have

done neither without some cultivated intelligence. He probably received the education of the youths of his time. His native town and province were quite as awake to the intelligence and learning of the Renaissance as other Italian towns and provinces; there was building, Italy, and the young Correggio was probably carving, and painting there as elsewhere in just as susceptible to the spirit of the age in the Emilia as the young Raphael in Umbria.

Correggio was born in 1494, of respectable but not rich or noble parents. His first master in painting was doubtless some local artist, like his uncle, or Antonio Bartolotti degli Anceschi; but this is not positively known. There is no record of his apprenticeship in art, save what shows in his early works. These are reminiscent of Ferrara and Bologna, but it cannot be inferred that he was a pupil of Francesco Bianchi-Ferrari, or of Francia, or of Costa. His first important picture, painted when he was twenty, was the "Madonna of St. Francis," now in the Dresden gallery. In it one meets with many resemblances to wellknown artists. Mantegna's " Madonna of Victory," now in the Louvre, seems to have been studied by the young painter. The pose of the St. Francis Madonna, the outstretched hand, the black-and-white of the pedestal, the drapery, the foreshortening, the children, all indicate a study of the great Paduan. Yet Mantegna died when Correggio was twelve years of age; he could not have been the latter's master. The Mantegna's work. And other influences were young Correggio was merely influenced by evidently upon him at the same time. The St. Francis and the St. Catherine in the Dresden picture are strong reminders of Francia, and, though Dr. Ricci will not admit it, the picture shows the influence of Leonardo da Vinci. The

figure of John at the right belongs to the Lombard school of Leonardo. The Madonna's smile, the heavy eyelids, the oval face, the contours, the light-and-shade, are all borrowed from the same source; and that foreshortened hand and arm may be seen in the "Madonna of the Rocks" in the Louvre, as well as in Mantegna's "Madonna of Victory." The Lombard tinge is again noticeable in Correggio's "Bolognini Madonna" at Milan, and in other early works. There is no record that Correggio ever was in Milan or ever saw Leonardo. It is highly probable, however, that he had seen and studied some Lombard pictures; for during his youth Parma was at one time subject to Milan, and Milanese painters had been there yes, Leonardo himself for a brief visit. The study of Correggio's masters and early influences ends where it begins, in conjecture. Like most young painters, he probably swung here and there until he found his own mind and path. He was not a life-long assimilator like Raphael, but a man of peculiar individuality, who always remained Emilian in art, though at first swayed by the great men of the times. It was natural that he should admire Leonardo, Francia, Costa, Dosso, and Mantegna; and that he followed the last-named in his frescoes for the Convent of S. Paolo at Parma, there can be little doubt. These frescoes were done in 1518, and Correggio was at that time living in Parma. In 1519 he returned for a year to his native town of Correggio, and then came back to Parma to do the frescoes of S. Giovanni Evangelista, at the request of the Benedictines. The fresco in the dome of this church marks something of a departure not only in Correggio's life but in Italian art. It had been the practice in the composition of large spaces to cut up the area into squares, triangles, and architectural niches, and to fill these with separate pictures; but Correggio invented a composition of colossal proportions, and threw the whole dome into one picture, showing Christ ascending in the centre of the dome with the apostles and angels below him in a vast circle. And here in this fresco the grace of Correggio is as nothing to his strength. The figures of the apostles are almost like Michael Angelo's, so powerful are they in line and form, while that charm and sweetness so characteristic of his later altar-pieces are hardly noticeable.

It was in 1520 that Correggio's marriage took place, and about this time that he painted the "Marriage of St. Catharine," the "Ma

donna della Cesta," and the "Descent from the Cross." In 1523 he began painting the frescoes of the Parma Cathedral, and these occupied him until his death. He completed the great fresco in the cupola, and it seemed to receive almost instant recognition from his townspeople. Vasari was the first outsider to write about it, Correggio's immediate pupils (and after them the Carracci) copied it, Titian praised it, praised it, and still Correggio was only a local celebrity. For all Titian's praise, Venice did not know him; for all Vasari's words, Florence did not know him. Barocci, the later Bolognese, the Venetian Tiepolo, helped themselves to the Parmese frescoes; but it was not until the eighteenth century that Correggio really came to be ranked among the very great masters of Italy.

Between 1524 and 1530, his large altarpieces - the three large ones at Dresden, the "St. Jerome," and the "Madonna della Scodella" at Parma-were painted. His technique at this time was so perfect that he could thoroughly express his meaning, and all his joyousness and delight in physical life were poured out regardless of his religious subjects. Grace, charm, movement, rhythm of line and color, light-and-shade, all blended with splendid handling to make great art. Correggio was at his height. His mythological pieces were done in the last years of his life, with the exception of the "Antiope" and the " Education of Cupid." Those years were destined to be few. His wife died in 1528, and after 1530 there is no trace of him at Parma. He was evidently at his native town of Correggio, a few miles away, where he died March 5, 1534, aged forty years. There is no reason whatever to suppose that he died in poverty and neglect, as was formerly stated. In fact this latest biography makes it clear that he died wealthy and respected. Where his ashes repose, no one knows. They have his alleged body at Correggio, and his alleged skull is in the Academy at Modena ; but both relics are bogus-the skull being that of an old woman instead of a young man.

These outline facts are about all that is known of Correggio the man. Correggio the painter has been well and thoroughly studied in his works, and though Dr. Ricci's estimate of his genius and style is very good, it is not a novel estimate. Correggio was a painter of striking individuality, but his isolation from the leaders of the Renaissance did not necessarily produce his individuality ; he was simple, almost child-like, in his thought, having little

care for the religious, the classic, or the intellectual; but his alleged lack of education did not necessarily produce his simplicity. It was a part of his nature to regard all things for what they looked rather than for what they meant, and to see all things as form and color rather than as symbols of ideas. Nothing could have greatly changed that point of view. In a way, he was material and sensuous, given to form and color for their own sake, and to human beings for their humanity's sake. The problems of good and evil, of sin, death, and the hereafter, never concerned him. To live and be glad in the sunlight, to be simple, frank, natural, and graceful, apparently made up his sum of existence in art. He would have no solemnity, no austerity, no great intellectuality. Nothing tragic or mournful or pathetic interested him. He was in love with physical life, and he told his love with all the sentiment of a lover. That he sometimes nearly precipitated sentiment into sentimentality, is true. He barely escaped it, and his followers were lost in it. It was the imitation of Correggio that produced the insipidities of painters like Carlo Dolci and Sassoferato.

That Correggio, technically, should have been so perfect, living as he did shut off from Florence and Venice, is more remarkable than his peculiar mental attitude, since craftsmanship is seldom well-taught if self-taught. Yet Correggio was somehow extremely well taught. His composition was occasionally involved and bewildering, but his drawing was nearly faultless and his movement excellent. His lightand-shade has never been surpassed by any painter, ancient or modern, his color was rich and harmonious, his atmosphere omnipresent and enveloping, his brush-work sure and spirited. Indeed, it was the technique of his art, rather than the spirit of it, that first drew the attention of painters to his work, and they made it known to the world.

Dr. Ricci has written a book that is the better for coming from a candid mind and a careful student. He has told us all there is to tell about Correggio, and that, too, in a concise and readable style. He might have followed ancient fables and made a more bulky biography, but it is matter for rejoicing that he has not done so. He has adhered to the records, and if he has found few new data about Correggio it is all the more to his credit that he resisted the modern tendency to create hypotheses and postulate them as proven fact.

JOHN C. VAN DYKE.

LESSONS IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.* Mr. Albert Shaw's valuable book on "Municipal Government in Great Britain " prepared us for a thorough piece of work in his handling of Continental European cities; and in this expectation we are not disappointed. His solid volume of five hundred pages is clear and systematic in treatment and is packed with information. Porter's "Human Intellect" was said by a student of philosophy to be a book calculated to give one a headache at thought of the author's vast reading implied in it. Mr. Shaw's work in like manner is obviously the essence of countless reports and other interminable documents. But it is the essence. And it is illumined by a painstaking and loving study of this most modern of subjects in political science.

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The nine chapters form really a discussion. of five related topics. The first two chapters nearly half the book are devoted to Paris and the French municipal system in general. This is taken as the type with which other systems are to be compared. Municipal institutions in France were powerfully affected by the French Revolution, and early reached an advanced development. The results have been very interesting and instructive, and it is largely from them that the impulse has been given to the rest of the continent. The third and fourth chapters relate to Belgium and Holland, Spain, and Italy. The next three cover the subject in Germany, and the last two in Austria and Hungary. Russian and Scandinavian cities are not considered.

The comprehensive nature of the work will be seen by a mere enumeration of the topics treated in discussing France. The author speaks of public order, streets, paving, light, transit, water, drainage, sanitation, bridges, schools, libraries, savings banks, and pawnshops. He also analyzes the structure and working of government by which all these services are administered. Some of the distinctive facts in the study of Paris are worthy of notice. One of them, and one that has an important bearing on the great development of that city, is the fact that Paris is the national capital. Hence the general government has a close relation to its civic life, as is the case, indeed, with the capital cities of most nations. Our own city of Washington is governed directly under the Congress of the United States, with

* MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE. By Albert Shaw. New York: The Century Co.

little or no home-rule. The Paris police is managed by a department of the national administration. But that is also the system in London. And the recollection of the Commune of 1871, to say nothing of previous insurrections, will make France hesitate long before entrusting the preservation of public order in Paris to local control. In the management of natural monopolies, such as gas and street transit, the city follows methods which should make Americans begin thinking. No perpetual, or virtually perpetual, franchises are granted. All are subject to careful conditions, which include adequate compensation to the public treasury, specified services and prices, constant governmental supervision and control, and ultimate reversion of plants to public ownership. In many cases these services are owned and administered directly by the city. Public education, especially in technical lines, is exceedingly elaborate. There is no newspaper war on "fads" in Paris. It is recognized that taste, knowledge, and manual skill return their cost many fold. Accordingly, the most careful instruction is given in all forms of hand-work and in the fine arts. Manual training in the use of tools for boys, in needlework and the domestic arts for girls, in music and drawing for all, is given special attention. At the same time there are distinct trade-schools of many kinds, and high-schools of science, literature, classics, and engineering.

The German system of local government is not radically different from the French. In each the fundamental part is the council. This is chosen by the people, and in turn selects the administrative staff. Of course Paris is an exception, as in that city the civic administration is in the hands of the national government. And on the other hand, in Germany municipal suffrage, unlike the French and American systems, is usually limited to those possessed of some amount of property. The three-class system of Prussia, for instance, is simply this: Those who pay taxes on large amounts of property, amounting to one-third the whole, form the first class; those who pay on the next third form the second class; the remainder of the tax-payers form the third class. Each class elects a third of the city council. Obviously, the number of voters in the third class greatly outnumbers those in both the others combined.

In all the continental cities, Mr. Shaw finds efficiency, economy, and trained intelligence characterizing municipal administration. He finds the ward politics, which is so familiar to

us, entirely wanting. He finds city administration a profession - the German cities calling a mayor from some other city, just as one of our universities would call a president. He finds corporate privileges dealt with primarily for the benefit of the municipality, and so most carefully hedged about with restrictions. He finds better paving, better sanitation, better care for education, better municipal bookkeeping, than in American cities.

The Germania of Tacitus has been thought by some to have been a political tract, intended to show what Rome ought to be by painting some other country as possessing the virtues which Rome lacked. One is almost tempted to consider Mr. Shaw's optimistic picture of European cities as made on a similar plan. Nearly everything he depicts is something which we do in exactly the opposite way, and with just the opposite results. To be sure, we have great difficulties. Our cities grow very rapidly. But those of Germany, since 1871, have grown at the same rate. We have universal suffrage. But so has France. We have, it is true, a more heterogeneous population than European cities; but that is not enough to account for our shortcomings. And Americans cannot do better than to make themselves thoroughly familiar with Mr. Shaw's vivid exposition of how city government ought to be conducted, as seen in Europe. Almost any American city will show more or less plainly how it ought not to be done. HARRY PRATT JUDSON.

A GREATER BLACKSTONE.*

Admiration and gratitude are the mental states that rise into consciousness when one

inquires of himself what impressions have been made by perusal of the marvellous and monumental work on the sources of English law, "The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I." Seldom are analysis and criticism asked for on the results of investigations whose penetration and accuracy are vouched for by so distinguished and truth-compelling names as those of Sir Frederick Pollock and Professor Maitland: the one, professor of jurisprudence at Oxford; the other, professor of the laws of England at Cambridge. Yet even without the generous avowal by the senior author,

*THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LAW BEFORE THE TIME OF EDWARD I. By Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., and Frederic William Maitland. Two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co.

in a brief prefatory remark, one would soon discover that these stately volumes bear throughout the distinguishing characteristics of the learning and genius of the Downing Professor of Laws at Cambridge. And those who know Professor Maitland's work in other publications will be glad that it is so, for they must all have long since recognized that for a most happy ability to combine the functions of investigation and interpretation, he is without a peer in the field of political science. His painstaking and patient examination of original material, his dextrous insight, his, calm and undogmatic judgment, may be found in other men; his logical marshalling of the vast array of facts, in others; and his lucid and fascinating manner and language, in others again; but it is a rare combination which brings all these together in one man, and which has made Professor Maitland the master in his field. these characteristics of his former work appear again in these his latest volumes, and prompt the reader to the wish, with which he leaves them, that this great scholar may live to give the world the history of later English law.

All

The first two hundred pages of the work are devoted to a general sketch of the law for the period prior to 1272, under the headings AngloSaxon Law, Norman Law, the Age of Glanvill, the Age of Bracton, and Roman and Canon Law. Eleven hundred pages more discuss the Doctrines of English Law in the Early Middle Ages, under the headings, Tenure, Sorts and Conditions of Men, Jurisdiction and the Communities of the Land, Ownership and Possession, Contract, Inheritance, Family Law, Crime and Tort, and Procedure. This mere list of capital headings will show how admirably the whole subject is conceived of for presentation. The chapter on the age of Glanvill is rich in suggestion. Nowhere else is so clearly traced the growth of the jury system, from its sources in the Frankish inquisition, through the assizes of the reign of Henry II. No student who has painfully tried to work out these assizes in the pages of Stubbs but will be thankful for this simple exposition of the whole matter. It is, however, unfortunate that while the text is without flaw in its distinction of the great proprietary assize-the Grand assize-from the four possessory or petty assizes, the index fails one completely. There is no entry whatever under the title Proprietary Actions, although reference should certainly be made to I. 126128, 333, II. 62-79, 136, 140. The same distinction is worked out in the doctrinal portion

of the treatise, under the head of Ownership and Possession, in the discussion of seisin and writs of entry. As an illustration of the felicitous manner in which these archaic subjects are handled it may suffice to cite the following passage in regard to the transition from assize to jury:

"In a little time we have these four and only these four petty assizes. Only in these four instances does the writ, which is the first step in the procedure, the

original writ, direct the empanelling of an inquest. Trial by jury, in the narrowest sense of that term, trial by jury as distinct from trial by an assize, slowly creeps in by another route. The principle from which it starts is simply this, that if in any action the litigants by their

pleadings come to an issue of fact, they may agree to be bound by the verdict of a jury and will be bound accordingly. In course of time the judges will in effect drive litigants into such agreements by saying You must accept your opponent's offer of a jury or you will lose your cause'; but in theory the jury only comes in after both parties have consented to accept its verdict. An assize, other than a grand assize, is summoned by the original writ: it is summoned at the same time that the defendant is summoned and before his story has been heard; a jury is not summoned until the litigants the country' about some matter of fact. In course of in their pleadings have agreed to take the testimony of time the jury, which has its roots in the fertile ground of consent, will grow at the expense of the assize, which has sprung from the stony soil of ordinance; even an assisa when summoned will often be turned into a jury (vertitur in juratam) by the consent of the parties; but still trial by jury, if we use this term in a large sense, and neglect some technical details, is introduced by the ordinances of Henry II. as part of the usual machinery of civil justice."

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In the chapter on Bracton the growth of the system of royal courts is treated in the same suggestive manner, and one sees, as from a bird's-eye view, the branching off from the Curia Regis of Exchequer, Common Pleas, King's Bench, Chancery, Parliament, and Privy Council. Only in the matter of the earliest distinction between Common Pleas and King's Bench is there failure to put it quite as clearly as Mr. Pike did six months earlier in his "Constitutional History of the House of Lords." The chapter on the canon law is very brief, but sheds much light. The influence of Roman law is shown to be partly by way of repulsion, partly by way of attraction. English lawyers were moved, not only to bring their own law abreast of the foreign rival by recourse to its native forces of progress, but also by imitation and incorporation of the stranger. Stress is laid upon the accident of a divergence of English and continental law from one another, as the one shook off the Roman influences which the other accepted.

The book abounds in new view-points for

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