Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/14

Rh necessity felt for some such general guide, applicable in a measure to all occasions. Ordinary guide-books do not in any way meet this necessity, nor do the catalogues of collections themselves, even in their own individual cases, except in two or three rare instances; Dictionaries of Painters are meagre, cumbrous, and inaccurate; and even a good history is as ill adapted for incidental reference, as for the pocket. It was under these impressions that Miss Farquhar took the meritorious resolution of attempting to supply in some degree this admitted desideratum, and the present little work is the result; the object has been to produce a pocket hand-book which should contain much essential information in a very small compass. The task has not been an easy one, though for the present its sphere has been limited to Italy; which is in itself, however, more important in such a matter than all the other countries of Europe combined.

The object of compression being paramount, the constant endeavour, as a general rule, has been to try how little, compatible with utility, could be said about each painter, and in some cases the notices may appear extremely bare; but, of course, even in this respect due deference has been paid to the respective importance of the several painters; and where compression into a small space was so essential, the omission altogether of a vast number of names became a necessity. The artists inserted constitute about one-fourth only of those recorded in Italian art literature, but it is hoped that the work will be found to contain notices of all the principal men of the Schools whose works are likely to be of any interest, either on account of their absolute merits or their period; yet that there are some improper omissions in a work of this extent cannot fail to be the case. The articles consist in general of the essential biographical facts, when known, and a concise character of the painter’s style; with a notice of the most accessible of his principal works: this last has been a very laborious portion of the task, and, as pictures are so constantly changing owners, will always be the most difficult to secure accuracy in. In this portion of the book several thousand works are noticed, and their dates frequently affixed; though even such a number may be comparatively small, few books notice so many, and those are not portable: indeed the list in the precise form here presented is new.

It will probably be remarked that the Berlin Gallery is quoted, in the cases of rare masters, more often, perhaps, than any other. Though this Gallery had considerable advantages in its formation, and certainly contains several examples of uncommon masters, the