LONDON
ISBISTER AND COMPANY LIMITED
15 & 16 TAVISTOCK STREET COVENT GARDEN
LONDON:
PRINTED BY J.S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED,
CITY ROAD.
I wish to say, in a very few words, that this book is intended to be asimple account of the great Old Masters in painting of every age andcountry, with descriptions of their most famous works, for the use oflearners and outsiders in art. The book is not, and could not well be,exhaustive in its nature. I have avoided definitions of schools,considering that these should form a later and more elaborate portion ofart education, and preferring to group my 'painters' according to what Ihold to be the primitive arrangements of time, country, and rank inart.
The restrictions with regard to space under which the little volumecalled "The Old Masters" was originally written, caused me to omit, tomy regret, many names great, though not first, in art. The circulationwhich the book has attained induces me to do what I can to remedy thedefect, and render the volume more useful by adding two chapters—theone on Italian and the other on German, Dutch, and Flemish masters.These chapters consist almost entirely of condensed notes taken from twotrustworthy sources, to which I have been already much indebted—Sir C,and Lady Eastlake's version of Kugler's "Handbook of Italian Art," andDr. Waagen's "Handbook,"—remodelled from Kugler—of German, Dutch, andFlemish art, revised by J.A. Crowe. I have purposely given numerousrecords of those Dutch painters whose art has been specially popular inEngland and who are in some cases better represented in our country thanin their own.
CHAPTER I. EARLY ITALIAN ART—GIOTTO, 1276-1337—ANDREA PISANO,1280-1345—ORCAGNA, 1315-1376—GHIBERTI, 1381-1455—MASACCIO, 1402-1428OR 1429—FRA ANGELICO, 1387-1455 1
CHAPTER II. EARLY FLEMISH ART—THE VAN EYCKS, 1366-1442—MABUSE, ABOUT1470-1532—MEMLING, ABOUT 1478-1499—QUINTIN MATSYS, 1460-1530 OR 3141
CHAPTER III. IN EARLY SCHOOLS OF ITALIAN ART—THE BELLINI, 1422-1512—MANTEGNA,1431-1506—GHIRLANDAJO, 1449-1498—- IL FRANCIA, 1450-1518—FRABARTOLOMMEO, 1469-1517—ANDREA DEL SARTO, 1488-1530 53
CHAPTER IV. LIONARDO DA VINCI. 1452-1519—MICHAEL ANGELO, 1475-1564—RAPHAEL,1483-1520—TITIAN, 1477-1566 83
CHAPTER V. GERMAN ART—ALBRECHT DÜRER, 1471-1528 169
CHAPTER VI. LATER ITALIAN ART—GIORGIONE, 1477-1511—CORREGGIO, ABOUT1493-1534—TINTORETTO, 1512-1594—VERONESE, 1530-1588 181
CHAPTER VII. CARRACCI, 1555-1609—GUIDO RENI, 1575-1642—DOMENICHINO,1581-1641—SALVATOR ROSA, 1615-1673 212
CHAPTER VIII. LATER FLEMISH ART—RUBENS, 1577-1640—REMBRANDT, 1606 OR1608-1669—TENIERS, FATHER AND SON, 1582-1694—WOUVERMAN,1620-1668—CUYP, 1605; STILL LIVING, 1638—PAUL POTTER,1625-1654—CORNELIUS DE HE