Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/581

 12 s. ix. DEO. io, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 479 is an intricate problem, and it requires consider- able patience to unravel the history of the basilica, which was rather more than a century in the building. It is here that lucidity is most valuable. For the building, as is well known, was the work of seven or eight hands ; and to assign to each master the work for which he was responsible is a task which few would lightly undertake. The problem, however, has no terrors for Sir Thomas Jackson ; in fact he seems to revel in its intricacy, and makes his solution clear to the general reader by means of a diagram, designed to show the stages in its development. Throughout the book the plates and diagrams are not only excellent in themselves but are carefully selected to illustrate the point which the author is concerned to bring home to the reader. The close of the fifteenth century found the new architecture still progressing. So far, at Florence and at Rome, which drew its architects from Florence, the new style had been fresh and vigorous and all but untrammelled by tradition. The art was vernacular in the sense that it lacked self -consciousness, was understood by the people and was enriched by popular artists and sculptors. The dangers of formalism had been present with the discovery of the text of Vitruvius, but had been carefully avoided by the genius of Brunelleschi and San Gallo. Bramante and Michael Angelo are the last of the golden age, and even the latter towards the end of his life showed a leaning to con- ventionalism. About 1540 the centre of gravity shifted to Vicenza, and Palladio and Vignola became the principal exponents of the art. Both were con- summate masters, and in their hands architecture, if more formal and austere, showed no noticeable decline from purer standards. But both un- fortunately wrote elaborate text-books based on strict Vitruvian formulae, and from that moment the decline was rapid. Vignola boasted that architecture was now within the powers of mediocrity. He was right ; it was, and is, when resolved into an exact science of modules and elaborate proportions. Orthodoxy and convention now ruled supreme. Originality fled before them ; or, remaining, was denounced as barbaric. Architecture ceased to be a natural, vernacular product ; it ceased to progress, became sterile, and died a lingering death. Unimpeachable orthodoxy fell a ready victim to baroque. In the production of his work Sir Thomas has found a worthy ally, the Cambridge University Press. The reading public has by this time grown accustomed to the slipshod methods of Sost-war book production, to plates which etach themselves at a touch, to bad paper and indifferent printing. But the book before us is entirely worthy of the subject. The plates, which include not a few of the author's drawings, are well produced and securely mounted. The page is well spaced, and the ample margin makes for pleasure in reading ; the binding is solid and elegant. In short, the book makes as great an appeal to the book-lover as to the student. The second part, which is to treat of Renaissance Architecture in England, will be awaited with interest. A Text-book of European Archaeology. Vol. i. The Palaeolithic Period. By R. A. S. Macalister. (Cambridge University Press, 2 10s. net.) THIS book is based on lectures given by Dr. Macalister to students of archaeology at University College, Dublin. Something of the vivacity of the spoken word enlivens its pages, and the selec- tion and arrangement of material, especially in the prolegomena, reveal the experienced teacher. The elementary but necessary geology and palaeontology show a happy mean between re- dundancy and a too dry conciseness, and timely use is made of illustration. On disputed matters such as the existence of Man in the Tertiary period Dr. Macalister takes the scientific line of caution, sticking close to the central evidence. He does not, however, restrict himself to statement of ascertained fact or ex- planations that may be considered accepted, but gives the student a tolerably extensive insight into current controversies, taking a hand in these himself, now and then, as in the lively discussion on the so-called eoliths. As with theories, so with finds. He inculcates, and himself observes, a " healthy scepticism " which should actually prove more stimulating to the beginner than most conjecture, seeing that it is the fruit of an un- usually keen imaginative appreciation of the con- ditions dealt with. He does not himself hazard many guesses ; but we noted one of great interest. He is inclined to explain the curious tectiform devices which occur in Magdalenian paintings as being intended to represent traps that is to say, a pit with an impaling pole in the middle and a covering of branches and earth. He observes that, when these devices are painted on an animal figure, the pole is most often placed on that part of the animal which would be transfixed by falling into the trap. That the traps do not resemble real traps as closely as the admirable Magdalenian paintings of animals resemble real animals is no reason for rejecting this explanation. The crafty artist, whose purpose was to lure the animal he portrayed to its doom, by no means intended that the object to which he sought to attract it should be recognized as a trap. Dr. Macalister thinks that we have here the elucidation of the well- known puzzle in the engraving of reindeer and salmon on a reindeer horn from Lorthet. The lozenges with a vertical bar across them are to be read as the jaws of an elastic-sided opening kept apart by a wooden bar, which, when displaced by the tread of an animal, falls down and lets the jaws of the trap close upon the creature's leg. Although, as we have said, commendably pru- dent ha his criticism of the too -hasty theorist, Dr. Macalister himself sometimes makes somewhat sweeping statements on matters not directly archaeological ; and sometimes also makes a curious, though harmless, mistake. Among the first we would put such a statement as this : " But the speech of man changes from generation to generation. It is progressive, and, in spite of the conservative influence of literature, is highly mutable." As instances oi the latter we may take the reiterated statement that the Somme flows eastward, and a mention of the " bones . . . of fresh- water molluscs." W e think that the book also shows to some extent a fault rather com- mon in text-books, in that the excellent prelimi- nary part is somewhat over-weighted. For in-