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PALAEONTOLOGY
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rovsky, on the other hand, have gone to old Russia for their mo- tives. Stelletsky is the purist of the group, his reconstructions of Russian mediaeval life being based upon minute archaeological study of ikons, service books and similar sources. Nicolas Roerich has departed from strictly documentary methods in seek- ing to reconstruct primeval and prehistoric Russia in his fantas- tic flat decorations based on Russian legends, and thereby joins hands with the group represented by Vasnetzov. Rather apart is Boris Anrep (working in 1921 in England), who studied Byzantine art and the ikon, not in an archaeological spirit, but as exemplifying a means for the expression of human emotion. His work is principally in mosaic, submission to whose lim- itations, he holds, makes for the simplicity and directness which are often lost amid the technical possibilities of oil paint. The close connexion of modern Russian art with the theatre is another important characteristic, which has grown directly out of the decorative reaction against realism. Leon Bakst repre- sents one side of this. Originally associated with the Petrograd historical group, he came into touch with Serge Diaghilev and became one of the chief designers of settings for the Russian Ballet. His use of line and colour relates him to the East; but, like Benois and Somov, his outlook and method are those of the West. Distinct in character is the art of Nathali Gontcharova and M. Larionov. Using the methods of the Petrograd group, they took their material from Russian peasant art, as represented in the decoration of articles in daily use and in the " lubok," the Russian equivalent of the " images d'Epinal," which gives their earlier work notable simplicity and directness. The West was not to be denied, however, and Gontcharova's setting for the 1914 production of the " Coq d'Or " and Larionov's " Les Contes Russes " of 1915 mark the invasion of the theatre by cubist ideas. The colour scheme was still that of Russian peasant art; but the design was based on abstract forms, and aimed at a rhythm in harmony with the music and the dances. To this development the name of rayonnisme has been given.

Much of the criticism levelled at the modern movement, like that once directed against impressionism, is merely a violent statement of personal preference. Weightier arguments point out that the emphasis given in the modern movement to the third dimension merely exalts one element in natural appearance, and urge that ultimately design must be based on the play of contour and shapes on the picture plane. Also, it is said, modern methods of simplification and distortion tend to become formulas which prevent sincere and spontaneous expression no less than older conventions. But contention chiefly centres round the question of representation. It is argued that a purely abstract art, which takes no account of the ideas and emotions conveyed by the ob- jects represented, is a limited and empty affair. Rhythm in the plastic arts, no less than in literature, must emphasize some meaning; and form takes on a significance by association, if not with specific objects, yet with general ideas of mass, space and movement.

See also: Maurice Denis, Theories 1890-1910 (1912); W. H. Wright, Modern Painting (1916) ; R. Fry, Vision and Design (1920) ; A. Salmon, L'Art Viiianl (1920); G. Coquiot, Les Independants (1920); P. Westheim, Die Welt als Vorstellung (1918); Fritz Burger, Cezanne und Hodler (1913) ; Ambroise Vollard, Paul Cezanne (1914) ; Charles Morice, Paul Gauguin (1919); Vincent van Gogh, Lettres a {.mile Bernard, (1912) ; Kandinsky, The Art of Spiritual Harmony; A. Gleizes, Du Cubisme (1920). (W. G. C.)

UNITED STATES. Between 1910 and 1921 many of the paint- ers mentioned in the earlier article (20.518) had passed away, and some of their younger contemporaries had also laid down their brushes: Ryder, Bunce, Blakelock, Duveneck, Alexander, Smedley, Millet, Cox, Beckwith, Alden Weir. Abbey, who died in 1911, left no followers, but La Farge and Chase wielded great influence over a host of pupils. With the development of Ameri- can art-schools and the increasing number of capable instructors, the trend towards European art-centres had by 1921 grown less. There was already promise of a school with distinctly American characteristics. This was to be seen most clearly among the paint- ers of landscape. Twachtman and Robinson, among the older men who were trained abroad, brought back some of the light of

the so-called Impressionist School, and their example in raising the colour-pitch was of great benefit. Crane, a pupil of Wyant, and such men as Tryon, Murphy and Ben Foster, ably carried on the tradition they received from their American masters. Dew- ing, Metcalf and Childe Hassam developed individual ways of looking at their subjects. Carlsen, Dougherty and Waugh found the sea an ever-changing theme for their brushes, and they pro- duced canvases not behind those of the landscape men.

With the passing of the Society of American Artists, the men who made this organization a force were merged with the mem- bers of the older National Academy and became conservatives in their turn. Thayer, Brush, Blashfield,, Tarbell, Mowbray, Melchers and Simmons were still in 1920 painting pictures which showed their sound technical training and their artistic point of view. Some of the later men who developed original ways of doing things were Robert Henri, Jonas Lie, William Glackens, Rockwell Kent, John Sloane, George B. Luks, C. C. Cooper, A. B. Davies, Jerome Myers, George Bellows, Gardner Symons, Everett Shinn, W. E. Schofield and Randall Davey. Abundant manifestations of vorticism and cubism came to be seen in American painting. The followers of Cezanne, Matisse, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Picasso were many, but chiefly the younger men whose work was still in the experimental stage. There was a steady advance in mural painting. Sargent added to the decorations for the Boston Public Library, and the exam- ple set there and elsewhere was followed in many of the larger cities, in state capitols, municipal courts, churches and theatres. Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Baltimore, St. Paul and Minneapolis have important buildings decorated by such mural painters as La Farge, Blashfield, Alexander, and others. There has been remarkable growth at the art museums, especially at the Metro- politan Museum of New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh (whose international exhi- bitions draw many exhibits from overseas), and the Chicago Art Institute. No less remarkable has been the formation of impor- tant collections in cities whose size would often afford no reason for expecting their presence. Worcester, Providence, Cleveland and Minneapolis have excellent museums. Washington now possesses three collections of paintings the Corcoran Gallery, the National Gallery and the Freer Collection. Moreover, private collections of importance have increased in number and quality, and native artists are often given there the high place they deserve. Some of the universities offer courses in the His- tory of Art and in the elements of design. In time this should produce a body of intelligent criticism which should still further stimulate artistic effort in America. (J. C. VAN D.)


PALAEONTOLOGY (see 20.579). During the period 1910-21 the science of extinct forms of life made remarkable progress, especially in North America, where explorations and studies were less interrupted by the World War. The contact of palaeontology with other sciences even those apparently remote like as- tronomy, physics and chemistry, less remote like comparative anatomy, or very intimate like geology was one of the out- standing features of the synthetic work accomplished. Of tran- scendent interest, however, was the contact between mammalian palaeontology and anthropology, especially through the re- searches of William K. Gregory of the American Museum of Natural History, and also of G. Elliot Smith of London Univer- sity to whom is due the article on ANTHROPOLOGY in these New Volumes.

Principal Synthetic Works of 191021. Chief among the synthetic works in pure palaeontology are those of the Austrian palaeon- tologist Othenio Abel, Grundziige der Palaeobiologie der Wirbeltiere (1912), Die Stamme der Wirbeltiere (1919), and Lehrbuch der Pa- Iceozoologie (1920), which give masterly reviews of the whole fossil history of the vertebrates, especially in analogous and convergent adaptation. In invertebrate palaeontology the reader is referred to Amadeus Grabau's Principles of Stratigraphy (1913) and Textbook of Geology (1920-1), in which are summed up the principles derived from the teachings of Waagen and Neumayr in Germany, of Hyatt and Beecher in America, in pure palaeontology and in application to geology. A broad synthetic treatment of climate and time in rela- tion to the evolution of life is that of the late Joseph Barrell (1917) in his Rhythms and the Measurements of Geologic Time. The best