BOOKS ON ART

A Century of French Painting, 1400-1500. by Grote Ring. (Phaidon Press. 35s.).
Ghiherti. (Phaidon Press. 25s.). The Story of Art (with 370 illustrations). by E. H. Gombrich. (Phaidon Press. 21s.).
Reviewed by IRIS CONLAY
THE. Phaidon Press have rarely given us such a triple treat as these three volumes. The first one presents the essence of early French painting. The names of the period, bouquet, the Rohan Master, the Aix Master, Enguerrand Charonton and the Maitre de Moulins are remembered for their elegance, their highly civilised splendour, their spirituality still spilling over from the 13th century. Curiously their work already displays that clear blue which is such a favourite with French artists through the ages; as the introduction points out, it appears in Poussin and again in the pastels of Degas. As compared with painting in the Netherlands and Italy, in this period of waning Middle Ages the French gained in religious feeling and in charm and beauty, and set as it is against the historical and sociological background of the times, this study is fascinating.
IN the Vasari life of the sculptor, Ghiberti, quoted in this volume, there is a story that " one day Michelangelo stopped to look at Lorenzo Ghibertia work. the doors of San Giovanni, and on being asked his opinion he said, ' They are so fine that they would grace the entrance of Paradise'." The plates in this superb collection cover not only the famous gates, complete and in details, but also the whole of Ghibcrti's output, and it is no doubt that Cfhiberti has never been better presented to English readers who can
now appreciate the extent of his life work.
H. GOMBRICH'S study of the 2-." span of man's artistic efforts from primitive times to today is quite the most intelligent of its kind. Directed at teen-agers. the grown-up need not think it will find itself dictated to by the school mastering
type of mind, The author has disciplined himself to keep off the reefs of controversy while preserving a lively style without a hint of the patronage. The reproductions are selected because they appear in the text and the publishers have done their best to keep each picture near its verbal description, so that the reader can look while he reads.