Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/15

viii attribution frequently rests solely on the opinion of Dr. Waagen, the Director of the Gallery; and it is, therefore, only so far conditionally referred to.

With regard to the Table of Schools, its use will be obvious, but some explanation of its plan is necessary. It contains the names of upwards of five hundred painters, who are assumed to be the principal masters of Italian painting. Here, of course, the principle of exclusion has been more stringently applied than in the Biographical Catalogue. A great multiplicity of names would only encumber the lists, and render the Table obscure and comparatively useless. As accurate information is given in the Catalogue, which, indeed, is the explanation of the Table, it has not been repeated here; and it is desired rather that the reader should refer to the Catalogue for the fuller information there given, than be satisfied with the mere dates of birth and death, or such other bare essentials as might have been compressed into the Table. Thus, also, the connection of master and scholar is omitted in the Table. This, indeed, was found to be necessary, to give a practical character to the Table at all: if all the scholars were given it would have required several sheets; the distinction of School would have been lost; and the number of notices of obscure names it would have been necessary to add to the Catalogue, would have certainly added immensely to the labour of its production, considerably to its bulk, but very little indeed to its interest or utility. As it is, a great amount of labour has been spent upon names eventually excluded from the Catalogue.

A work of this kind—a general table, in ten large sheets, by Major Von Innstaedten—has been recently published at Vienna—Graphische Darstellung der Geschichte der Malerei von Giunta Pisano und Guido da Siena bis auf Louis Jacques David, und Jacob Asmund Carstens; it is, however, too comprehensive to be serviceable, except in cases of special reference. The attached Table, on the contrary, is designed to give a synchronous view of the Schools at once, in order to establish a distinct notion of the time, locality, and relative position of the painter, as the best introduction to the understanding of his character and importance in the history of art. The names of capiscuole, or great masters, are printed in large capitals, those of secondary importance in smaller, and ordinary names in the ordinary type, as a mere mechanical aid to direct the attention to the leading masters of the Schools. The pupilage, or scholarship, is a matter of little real importance, and this information is given in the Catalogue; no great painter has ever been bound by the practice of his master; most have widely deviated from it; the