Unbekannte Schweizer Landschaften aus dem xvii. Jahrhundert, by S. Stelling-Michaud. 4to., pp. 103, with 40 plates. Zürich: Niehans Verlag, 1937. Sw. Fr. 16.50.

The great Dutch masters, like Rembrandt, seldom traveled south of the Alps—there were enough Italian masterpieces in home museums. But the “little masters” were wanderers, and one of these, Jan Hackaert, went about in Switzerland during 1653–55. The usual route to Italy was up the Rhine to Basle, thence to Chur and Thusis, whence the Via Mala led through the Splügen and St. Bernardino passes to Lakes Como and Maggiore. This book is an attempted reconstruction of Hackaert’s route, based upon his sketches and notebook, the precise drawings revealing a sympathetic perception of Alpine scenery far advanced beyond the inaccurate views of Merian, and forming the most trustworthy depiction of the roads through the eastern cantons of Switzerland as they appeared in the seventeenth century.

J. M. T.