A biographical and critical dictionary of painters, engravers, sculptors, and architects, from ancient to modern times; with the monograms, ciphers, and marks used by distinguished artists to certify their works

Front matter

r« S r*

^oV^

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL

Preface

/In preparing this Dictionary, the author has aimed less at originaUty than utility. The office of the compiler of a biographical work must be mainly to collect facts from various sources, and to present them to the public in a convenient form. He trusts that an ♦enthusiastic love of the fine arts, the possession of an extensive Hbrary of the best works on art, which has been his favorite study for twenty years, together with the advantage of consulting the various public libraries of the city, will give him some jlaim to public attention. He can in truth say, that though every article has been expressly written for the work, the mental labor of research and condensation has been many times as great.

This work will be found to contain everything of importance embraced in the four English dictionaries, viz. : Cunningham's edition of Pilkington's General Dictionary of Painters ; Gould's Dictionary of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, and Architects ; Strutt's Dictionary of Engravers ; and Stanley's edition of Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, published in 1849. It contains above two thousand names of eminent artists not to be found in any of these works, besides a vast amount of information derived from French, English, and Italian authors. Much valuable information has been derived from the Dictionaire des Monogrammes, par J. F. Christy Berlin ; Le Peintre Graveur^ 21 tom.^ far Adam Bartsch, Vienna ; Dictionaire Biographique Universelle, Ancienne et Moderne, 84 to7n.j Paris ; all of which are works of immense research. It also contains many plates of monograms and ciphers, besides a multitude embodied in the work, which were the private marks of eminent painters and engravers, and which are of the greatest value to every collector of rare works of art.

Less attention has been paid to elegance of language than brevity, which has been studied as far as perspicuity would admit, so as not to swell the volume to an inconvenient and expensive size. Each article has been carefully written and revised, and all useless disquisitions avoided, simply mentioning disputes and citing the best authorities ; and although the author has often preferred to give the ideas of the best writers in their own language, whenever it did not exceed the prescribed limits of the work, he has not hesitated to crop all redundancies and strike out irrelevant matter, taking care to omit nothing of importance.

The author has endeavored to introduce system and classification as much as possible, giving first a sketch of the artist's life, then a list of his principal works, where to be found, and a criticism on the same. He has given only brief sketches to artists of

IV. PREFACE.

little note, but to those of great renown, as lengthened a notice as the plan of the work would allow, taking care in all cases to give a true estimate of each one's merit. It is a little remarkable that most modern French and English dictionaries of the fine arts only treat of painters from the revival of the art in Italy by Cimabue. This work treats very fully of ancient artists, especially the Greek, and it will be seen that they excelled no less in painting than in sculpture and architecture, and that these notices are not less instructive than interesting. Numberless mis-spellings of proper names, found in the foreign dictionaries, have been corrected in this, by the assistance of gentlemen well versed in foreign literature.

The want of such a work has long been felt in the United States, which has now become absolutely necessary to the healthful development of the rapidly increasing taste for the fine arts. The author has spared no pains or expense to render this work worthy of the favor of an enlightened public.