mired disorder," and to guide the attention of the inquiring and intelligent visitor, I have added a local index to the Catalogues of the Royal Galleries, comprising the most remarkable pictures and portraits under five distinct heads; and I trust it will be found useful.

To each gallery is prefixed a short historical and explanatory introduction, giving an account of its formation, its present state, the days and hours when open to the public, &c.

The first intention was to have prefixed to the whole a history of the art of painting, and of the different schools of painting throughout Europe; but the translation of Kugler's excellent 'HandBook,' enriched with notes which double its value, has rendered quite superfluous any such commonplace and brief chronicle as might have been comprised within a very limited space. The introductory matter now consists of two parts:-the first containing popular and concise explanations of terms of art, and many things relative to painting and pictures which I thought might be useful to

* A Hand-Book of the History of Painting; translated from the GerEdited, with Notes, by C. L. Eastlake, Esq., R.A.

man.

those uninitiated; the second part consisting of a selection of passages from various writers on art, which, like an overture to an opera before the curtain draws up, should attune the mind of the reader to the subject treated in the following pages. These selections will be continued in the second series.

In a work containing so many thousand facts, dates, and names, errors and omissions must have occurred; and as the object is to render the work as useful and complete as possible, any suggestions and corrections communicated to the author, through the medium of the publisher, Mr. Murray, will be thankfully received and attended to.

On the whole, this volume must be considered merely as a compilation; for not only have I been much indebted to the assistance of kind friends, but wherever I found an opinion stamped by acknowledged authority, or a passage, critical or historical, which answered my purpose, I adopted it without scruple, and could not always exactly mark the distinction between such contributions and my own cogitations: but my readers may lay it down as a general principle, that, whenever they fall upon a passage which has any particular interest or merit

to recommend it, it is either borrowed or stolen, or-to use Pistol's improved phrase-conveyed, into these pages; and that all mistakes and deficiencies justly lie at the door of her who must, I suppose, in courtesy be styled

THE AUTHOR.

ERRATA.

The reader is requested to make the following corrections with his pencil.

P. 15, line 4 from the bottom, for six, four, read five, three.

P. 79, line 9, instead of the Emperor Theodosius, read the second figure on the right of the spectator.

P. 134, after a landscape by Pether, insert "The artist was a native of Chichester, who died in 1812."

P. 213, line 21, for Huysan, read Huysum.

P. 218, line 4 from the bottom, for was, read be.

P. do., line 2 from the bottom, omit the comma after prosperous.

P. do., note, omit all after the word places, and insert a period.

P. 219, line 2 from the bottom, omit almost.

P. 237, line 14, for Carlo Veyries, read Luca Carlevaris.

P. 241, at the end of the page add this note :-"A portrait of Aretino by Tintoretto, mentioned in all the old catalogues, ought to be somewhere in the Royal collection."

P. 244, in the note, for valours read velours.

P. 270, line 4, insert the name of SIR THOMAS Lawrence.

P. 299, in the note, for Bagliori, read Baglioni.

Pp. 360 and 366, omit the marginal notes, and see p. 427 for an account of the pictures of the Brunswick family.

P. 361, note. The cartoon of Michael Angelo's Venus and Cupid is in the Museo Borbonico at Naples.

P. 365, the line "who died in their infancy," &c., should follow Prince Octavius and Prince Alfred.

INTRODUCTION.

cr

PART I.-DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS.

I.—“ PAINTING is that art of design which imitates PAINTING. objects by colour on a uniform surface: as compared with sculpture, it is more extensive in the range of subjects which it is capable of treating, and more various in the modes in which it affords pleasure by such representation. Those subjects are fitted for sculpture which are sufficiently defined by form alone, without the aid of colour, and which tell their story and possess unity without accessories, or at any rate need only accessories so few and so simple as to be within reach of the chisel. Simple form and character in a state of repose are the most favourable qualities for the sculptor; but passion and transient emotion, together with the external circumstances which excite them, are equally attainable by the painter. The former produces pleasure mainly by beauty of form; the latter works on the eye by the joint effect of form, of light and shade, and colour."*

Painting is divided into several kinds, according to the subjects represented, the manner in which they are represented, and the materials used in the representation,

II. HISTORICAL PAINTING treats of events, actions, and HISTORICAL characters of high and general importance. It may be

sacred or profane. It is termed sacred when the subjects are taken from the Holy Scriptures, or the legendary lives of Saints; profane when the subjects are borrowed from

* See article Painting' in the Penny Cyclopædia.

PAINTING.