Famous Painting Research Articles

Faraday's Diary

THIS, the penultimate volume of Faraday's Diary, covers the period from November 1851 to November 1855. In the main, the topics treated are lines of magnetic force, the construction of a magnetic torsion balance and the measurements made therewith, electrodynamic induction in liquids and magne-crystallic action. The MS. of this section of the Diary is noteworthy as containing a number of ” the actual specimens prepared by Faraday in 1851 to illustrate the delineation of lines of magnetic force by iron filings. The filings were fixed on cartridge paper by means of gum water, sometimes mixed with a solution of ‘the red ferro-prussiate of potassa’ (apparently potassium/), which was found to leave a blue impression of the pattern after the filings had been removed or worn off”. A number of the specimens have survived the changes of more than eighty years, and this volume contains collotype reproductions of some of the more suitable specimens. The frontispiece is a reproduction of the famous painting which represents Faraday giving the Christmas lectures of 1855-56 before the Prince Consort, the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred. Faraday's Diary: being the various Philosophical Notes of Experimental Investigation made by Michael Faraday, D.C.L., F.R.S.., during the Years 1820–1862 and bequeathed by him to the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Now, by order of the Managers, printed and published for the first time, under the editorial supervision of Thomas Martin. Vol. 6: Nov. 11, 1851–Nov. 5, 1855. Pp. xiv + 495 + 8 plates. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1935.) 7 vols., £12 12s. net.

The Pantheon de la Guerre. The Gratest Story Ever Told on Canvas

AMERICAN nurses, especially f-jL those who served during the World War, who were privileged to see the most famous panoramic painting in the world, known as the Pantheon de la Guerre, recognized the splendors of this canvas, but were saddened by the thought that the American nurse-over 10,000 of whom served overseas-had no place in this remarkable picture. Criticism of this omission from ex-service nurses inspired the American Nurses' Association to appoint a committee to secure,

Book Review: Fifty Famous Painters

Book Review: Fifty Famous Painters

XXII.—The Calumny Op Apelles in the Literature of the Quattrocento

In Florence, in the Uffizi Gallery, is the famous painting by Botticelli entitled La Calumnia d'Apelle. The picture shows several allegorical figures dramatically grouped and exquisitely colored against a background of classical arcades looking upon a distant sea. The exact date of this picture is not known, but Horne, the greatest authority on the life and works of Botticelli, places it about 1494. It is the object of this paper to trace the theme of the Calumny of Apelles from its origin in classical antiquity to the time of Botticelli, noting particularly the literary manifestations to which it gave rise in Florence in the Quattrocento.

A Theory of the Origin of Chinese Writing

It is not my purpose in this paper to initiate the reader into the mysteries of Chinese writing, nor to present a feat of sinological erudition. I merely wish to illustrate the application of a principle derived from the investigation of primitive ornamentation to the question of the origin of ancient Chinese writing. Every casual observer will be impressed by the decidedly ornamental and picturesque feature of Chinese characters; and this observation coincides perfectly with the view held by the Chinese themselves, that writing is an art a decorative art which is as eagerly aspired to, and occupies the same high rank, as painting. The art of painting itself received a strong impetus from that of penmanship, and is still markedly graphic in character. All the famous painters have at the same time been noted calligraphists; and their autographs, one or two words dashed off with a bold stroke of the brush, excite as much admiration and are as greatly prized as their sketches or water-colors. Writing, consequently, offered the first field for the practice of art : it was the beginning of drawing and painting; hence in view of this fact we are justified in questioning its claims, from the anthropological viewpoint, of the development of decorative art.