Jheronimus Bosch by R. H. Marijnissen, et al. (review)

Books 73 these aspects of Nigerian art were so neglected. The book has little of value for the readers ofLeonardo. The Fine Art of Portraiture. Frank Covino. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1970. 175 pp., illus.£5.65. Reviewed by: Norman Narotzky* The author's intention in this book, subtitled 'An Academic Approach', is to counteract the decline of craftsmanship in this century with a synopsis of the academic approach to oil painting based on his own knowledge and experience. Coming at a time when there seems to be a revival ofinterest among artists in painting in more realistic modes, it has a great deal of useful information to offer those working in this direction. Covino deals first with proportion and measure, explaining the traditional methods of enlarging an image by means ofa rectangular grid. He continues with values, classifying paintings into different keys, depending on the range of values they use. Then he goes on to explain his method of monochromatic underpainting as a preliminary stage before finishing in full color. Here his method seems to contradict good academic practices of painting fat over lean, i.e. beginning the painting with paints and medium of low oil content, and gradually increasing the amount of oil in succeeding layers. The author is aware of this principle to which he alludes several times. Nevertheless, his underpainting procedure calls for saturating the blank canvas with linseed oil and painting into this with raw umber (a paint with very high oil content) to develop lights and shadows. Though he warns the reader to allow plenty of time for this to dry before overpainting, in the long run, so much oil in the underpainting is bound to have deleterious effects on the finished work. The chapter on color, for which he uses the Munsell system as a basis, is good. Especially useful is his suggestion that colors in the warm range should not be darkened with black, which contains a certain amount of blue and will therefore change the hues of reds, oranges and yellows. He recommends ocher, raw sienna and raw umber for darkening yellow, burnt umber for orange and a mixture of 50 %alizarin and 50 %burnt umber for red if one wants to keep as close as possible to the original hue, changing only the value (and inevitably the intensity). The information in this chapter is fundamental for any painter, no matter what his style. A series of detailed exercises towards the end leads the student from the painting of a sphere to a portrait. Finally, in the last chapter the author describes, step by step, his execution of a family portrait commission. The color reproductions are quite poor, as can be seen by looking at the color charts in which viridian alizarin, cobalt violet and ultramarine blue all end up looking like black. * Corcega, 196, Barcelona 11, Spain. What is Modern Sculpture? Robert Goldwater. !'Auseum of Modern Art, New York, 1969. 146 pp., Illus. $4.95 (paperback). Reviewed by: Nigel Konstam* This introduction to modern sculpture is very agreeably produced. It spans the period from Rodin to the 1960's, with over 100 black and white photographs of works by 76 artists. The works are grouped under headings, including 'Biomorphism', 'Space Drawing' and 'Assemblage', which are useful signposts that have been erected in the complex area of modern sculpture. Most of what the author has to say is to the point but unexceptional. I would, however, question the truth of the statement that Degas, as sculptor, 'is more interested in the arabesque of outline and in effects of light upon form than in the internal structure ofthat form'. This may permit him to be placed neatly into the 'Impressionist' pigeonhole but has nothing to do with his actual works. Also, Goldwater is much less than just to the structural side of Gaudi's genius when he chooses to compare his 'Casa Mila' with the work of Tatlin and Reitveld in the chapter on 'Architecture and Sculpture'. Encyclopaedia of Themes and Subjects in Painting. Howard Daniel. Thames and Hudson, London, 1971. 252 pp., illus. £2.10. Reviewed by: Alfonz Lengyel** This book obviously is intended as a handbook for those who...