Toledo: an historical and descriptive account of the "City of generations"Calvert, Albert Frederick
History
Toledo: an historical and descriptive account of the "City of generations"
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Art -- Spain -- Toledo; Toledo (Spain) -- Description and travel; Toledo (Spain) -- History
The last of the old masters and the first of the moderns, as he has been
called, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes is not so familiarised to
English readers as his genius deserves. He was born at a time when the
tradition of Velazquez was fading, and the condition of Spanish painting
was debased almost beyond hope of salvation; he broke through the
academic tradition of imitation; “he, next to Velazquez, is to be
accounted as the man whom the Impressionists of our time have to thank
for their most definite stimulus, their most immediate inspiration.”
The genius of Goya was a robust, imperious, and fulminating genius; his
iron temperament was passionate, dramatic, and revolutionary; he painted
a picture as he would have fought a battle. He was an athletic, warlike,
and indefatigable painter; a naturalist like Velazquez; fantastic like
Hogarth; eccentric like Rembrandt; the last flame-coloured flash of
Spanish genius.
It is impossible to reproduce his colouring; but in the reproductions of
his works the author has endeavoured to convey to the reader some idea
of Goya’s boldness of style, his mastery of frightful shadows and
mysterious lights, and his genius for expressing all terrible emotions.
* * * * *
_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_
CORDOVA
A HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT CITY WHICH THE
CARTHAGINIANS STYLED THE “GEM OF THE SOUTH,” WITH 160 ILLUSTRATIONS
Gay-looking, vivacious in its beauty, silent, ill-provided, depopulated,
Cordova was once the pearl of the West, the city of cities, Cordova of
the thirty suburbs and three thousand mosques; to-day she is no more
than an overgrown village, but she still remains the most Oriental town
in Spain.
Cordova, once the centre of European civilisation, under the Moors the
Athens of the West, the successful rival of Baghdad and Damascus, the
seat of learning and the repository of the arts, has shrunk to the
proportions of a third-rate provincial town; but the artist, the
antiquary and the lover of the beautiful, will still find in its streets
and squares and patios a mysterious spell that cannot be resisted.
* * * * *
BY ALBERT F. CALVERT
LIFE OF CERVANTES
A NEW LIFE OF THE GREAT SPANISH AUTHOR TO COMMEMORATE THE TERCENTENARY
OF THE PUBLICATION OF “DON QUIXOTE,” WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS AND
REPRODUCTIONS FROM EARLY EDITIONS OF “DON QUIXOTE”
Size Crown 8 vo. 150 pp. Price 3/6 net
PRESS NOTICES
“A popular and accessible account of the career of Cervantes.”--_Daily
Chronicle._
“A very readable and pleasant account of one of the great writers of all
time.”--_Morning Leader._
“Mr. CALVERT is entitled to the gratitude of book-lovers for
his industrious devotion at one of our greatest literary
shrines.”--_Birmingham Post._
“It is made trebly interesting by the very complete set of Cervantes’
portraits it contains, and by the inclusion of a valuable
bibliography.”--_Black and White._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account